Before hunkering down in lectures about chemistry or economics, international students at U.S. colleges and universities are learning about health insurance and visa specifications.

It’s international student orientation week at many colleges and universities, including Rice University, where many graduate students are just days into their new journeys in Houston, Texas.

“Everyone is a little bit confused, a little disoriented. Lots of people are jetlagged,” Arina Zaytseva, a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies from Russia, told VOA at an afternoon pizza party in the engineering building, following a long morning of information sessions in lecture halls.

Zaytseva was not particularly impressed with the pizza.

Health insurance and bike laws

“But there were many important helpful tips, so I’m glad I came here,” she added, noting that she found the orientation sessions on health insurance the most useful.

Health insurance, which international students are required to have while in the U.S., is just one of many things students learn about in orientation, which can last multiple days.

Victoria Graja, a Ph.D. candidate from Ecuador, attended a presentation about coming from a culture that is less direct than American culture.

“Here you have to know that people are very direct,” she said.

And for other students, the most vital, if not shocking information, was about U.S. bike laws.

“I’m still super freaked out by the turn right on red rule,” Konstantin Georgiev of Bulgaria said, speaking about a traffic law that allows cars to turn right even if their light is red. Georgiev, an avid bike commuter, said he bought a bike the first day he moved to Houston but has had a hard time adjusting to traffic laws in a city dominated by cars.

“I’m coming from quite a biking place so it really bugs me when I’m in the right lane waiting for the traffic light to allow me to go forward and suddenly there would be a big SUV making a right turn while the red light is still on, which is totally legal, although I still can’t imagine it is!” he said.

WATCH: International Students Learn About Insurance, Adjust to Weather at Orientation

Embed share

Students Adjust to New Lives at U.S. Schools

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:02:40 0:00

Download

• 270p | 7.7MB
• 360p | 12.4MB
• 720p | 76.8MB

Not new to US

Many of those attending international student orientation have spent time in the United States, particularly graduate students.

Takudzwa Tapfuma, originally from Zimbabwe, had attended Amherst College in Massachusetts for four years of undergraduate studies before moving to Texas for his master’s in architecture.

Standing under an archway over a stone staircase in one of the oldest buildings on campus, Tapfuma talked about how moving from Massachusetts to Texas was a culture shock.

“I’d heard a lot of great things about Houston. ... I had not been to this part of the country, specifically Texas, so it was an exciting new challenge,” he said.

“I didn’t come in thinking I knew it all about being an international student in the U.S., and I think the Office of International Student Services showed that there’s a lot to learn even if you’ve been living in the United States,” Tapfuma said. “I’ve learned a ton from the orientation. There are resources on campus, how you can make use of the resources and just how to adjust to this new intellectual environment.”

​Diverse city

Houston has been recognized as the most diverse metropolitan area in the United States, boasting a population that is more than a quarter foreign-born and 44 percent Hispanic, according to Rice’s Kinder Institute and 2016 census data.

Rice University has an international student population of 1,676 this academic year, about 24 percent of the student population, according to Rice’s Office of International Students and Scholars.

“If Rice hadn’t contacted me in the first place, I would not have considered coming to Texas just because I had some previous ideas,” said Santiago Lopez Alvarez, a Fulbright scholar from Colombia. “I think it’s great that I ended up coming here because life teaches you that stereotypes and prejudice are always overturned when you get there.”

“What I like is the diversity that they have,” Graja said. “In these few days I have met people from different countries and cultures and backgrounds, and they are also studying different subjects so I think that that’s the most interesting part of it.”

But there are many things about their vastly different home countries that they miss. During a day bookended by a pizza party and a classic Texas barbecue at the university president’s house, many students said that second only to their friends and family, food is what they’ll miss the most.

“Five years into living in America, the food still leaves a gaping hole in my stomach,” Tapfuma said with a sad smile.

Plenty of leftover pizza remained after the students filtered outside before afternoon orientation sessions. As for the barbecue, it seemed the beer was more popular.

​You are wanted here

But more than 1 million international students braved American cuisine on college and university campuses during the 2016-2017 school year, making up 5.3 percent of the entire higher education student population in the United States, according to the International Institute of Education’s Open Doors report.

“I encourage everyone who’s considering coming to the States to pursue a graduate education to give it a try,” Lopez Alvarez said.

“The international component of the programs is one of the main strengths,” he said. “They do want to have you here. They do want international students, and American students want to get in touch with you and meet you, and that’s really cool.”

It’s tough to gain admission to Yale University, and it’s getting even tougher for international students as standout students from around the world set their sights on Yale.

The Yale Dale News, the campus newspaper, takes a look at the situation here.

Read the full story here.

Ruth Chane, a computer science major from Ethiopia, writes about her experiences settling into student life at Whitman College in the U.S. state of Washington.

"The community at Whitman College made sure I felt welcomed even before I stepped foot on campus," she says.

Read her essay here.

In The Student Life, the student newspaper for the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of five liberal art colleges and two graduate schools in Claremont, California, student Rochelle Lu writes about readjusting to her Shanghai home after spending a semester in the United States.

Read the full story here.

Cedarville University in the U.S. state of Ohio says it’s got more than 140 international students representing 44 countries.

Here, the school interviews Jonathan Sutton, director of international student services. He talks about his job and the opportunities for international students on campus.

Read the full article here.

Morehouse College, a private, historically Black liberal arts college in the U.S. state of Georgia, offers a guide for international students interested in attending the school.

Among the tips to apply and thrive at Morehouse:

• Take advantage of the school’s orientation program
• Turn to the school’s Center for Academic Success for tutoring, support and more
• Immerse yourself in campus life via clubs and societies

Read the full article here.

The administration of President Donald Trump said on Monday it will review Columbia University's federal contracts and grants over allegations of antisemitism, which it says the educational institution has shown inaction in tackling.

Rights advocates note rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since U.S. ally Israel's devastating military assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Hamas militants' deadly October 2023 attack.

The Justice Department said a month ago it formed a task force to fight antisemitism. The U.S. Departments of Health and Education and the General Services Administration jointly made the review announcement on Monday.

"The Federal Government's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is considering Stop Work Orders for $51.4 million in contracts between Columbia University and the Federal Government," the joint statement said.

The agencies said no contracting actions had been taken yet.

"The task force will also conduct a comprehensive review of the more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments to Columbia University."

The agencies did not respond to requests for comment on whether there were similar reviews over allegations of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias.

Columbia had no immediate comment. It previously said it made efforts to tackle antisemitism.

College protests

Trump has signed an executive order to combat antisemitism and pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.

Columbia was at the center of college protests in which demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel due to the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's assault on Gaza. There were allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia in protests and counter-protests.

During last summer's demonstrations around the country, classes were canceled, some university administrators resigned and student protesters were suspended and arrested.

While the intensity of protests has decreased in recent months, there were some demonstrations last week in New York after the expulsion of two students at Columbia University-affiliated Barnard College and after New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the removal of a Palestinian studies job listing at Hunter College.

A third student at Barnard College has since been expelled, this one related to the occupation of the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia last year.

The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five U.S. universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.

It's part of President Donald Trump's promise to take a tougher stance against campus antisemitism and deal out harsher penalties than the Biden administration, which settled a flurry of cases with universities in its final weeks. It comes the same day the Justice Department announced a new task force to root out antisemitism on college campuses.

In an order signed last week, Trump called for aggressive action to fight anti-Jewish bias on campuses, including the deportation of foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

Along with Columbia and Berkeley, the department is now investigating the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University. The cases were opened using the department's power to launch its own civil rights reviews, unlike the majority of investigations, which stem from complaints.

Messages seeking comment were left with all five universities.
A statement from the Education Department criticized colleges for tolerating antisemitism after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and a wave of pro-Palestinian protests that followed. It also criticized the Biden administration for negotiating "toothless" resolutions that failed to hold schools accountable.

"Today, the Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses," said Craig Trainor, the agency's acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

The department didn't provide details about the inquiries or how it decided which schools are being targeted. Presidents of Columbia and Northwestern were among those called to testify on Capitol Hill last year as Republicans sought accountability for allegations of antisemitism. The hearings contributed to the resignation of multiple university presidents, including Columbia's Minouche Shafik.

An October report from House Republicans accused Columbia of failing to punish pro-Palestinian students who took over a campus building, and it called Northwestern's negotiations with student protesters a "stunning capitulation."

House Republicans applauded the new investigations. Representative Tim Walberg, chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, said he was "glad that we finally have an administration who is taking action to protect Jewish students."

Trump's order also calls for a full review of antisemitism complaints filed with the Education Department since Oct. 7, 2023, including pending and resolved cases from the Biden administration. It encourages the Justice Department to take action to enforce civil rights laws.

Last week's order drew backlash from civil rights groups who said it violated First Amendment rights that protect political speech.

The new task force announced Monday includes the Justice and Education departments along with Health and Human Services.

"The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found," said Leo Terrell, assistant attorney general for civil rights. "The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump's renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools."

The Times of India breaks down the most popular subjects for international students to study in the U.S.

STEM and business lead the pack. Read the full story here. (January 2025)

U.S. News & World report addresses some of the misconceptions about U.S. colleges and universities, including the difficulty of getting a visa.

Read the full story here. (January 2025)

US News & World Report details the three top factors in foreign students' decision to study in the U.S. They include research opportunities and the reputation of U.S. degrees. Read the full story here. (December 2024)

A British student who did a year abroad at Bowling Green State University in Ohio talks about adjusting to life in America in a TikTok video, Newsweek magazine reports.

Among the biggest surprises? Portion sizes, jaywalking laws and dorm room beds.

Read the full story here. (December 2024)

Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health reaches out to international students by detailing the international student experience at the school.

Learn more about housing, life in Boston and more here.

China issued its first national action plan to build a "strong education nation" by 2035, which it said would help coordinate its education development, improve efficiencies in innovation and build a "strong country."

The plan, issued Sunday by the Communist Party's central committee and the State Council, aims to establish a "high quality education system" with accessibility and quality "among the best in the world."

The announcement was made after data on Friday showed China's population fell for a third consecutive year in 2024, with the number of deaths outpacing a slight increase in births, and experts cautioning that the downturn will worsen in the coming years.

High childcare and education costs have been a key factor for many young Chinese opting out of having children, at a time when many face uncertainty over their job prospects amid sluggish economic growth.

"By 2035, an education power will be built," the official Xinhua news agency said, adding that China would explore gradually expanding the scope of free education, increase "high-quality" undergraduate enrolment, expand postgraduate education, and raise the proportion of doctoral students.

The plan aims to promote "healthy growth and all-round development of students," making sure primary and secondary school students have at least two hours of physical activity daily, to effectively control the myopia, or nearsightedness, and obesity rates.

"Popularizing" mental health education and establishing a national student mental health monitoring and early warning system would also be implemented, it said.

It also aims to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas to improve the operating conditions of small-scale rural schools and improve the care system for children with disabilities and those belonging to agricultural migrant populations.

The plan also aims to steadily increase the supply of kindergarten places and the accessibility of preschool education.

The Open Notebook, a site focusing on educating journalists who cover science, has complied a list of U.S. graduate program financial aid information for international students.

Read it here.