Yes, it’s a pandemic, and, yes, it certainly is better to be safe than sorry, but nonetheless, college students are lamenting the loss of major milestones — like starting college, moving on campus, celebrating turning 18 or 21 with friends, and graduation — interrupted by COVID, they say.

“I couldn’t move into American University, haven’t moved to a new country, haven’t met my friends,” said Lexi Adler of Toronto, an incoming freshman at American University in Washington, D.C., who is waiting it out at home with her parents in Canada for now.

As classes continue online during the COVID-19 pandemic, many students say they didn’t expect to start with online classes and miss out on the physical, social and cultural experience.

Aashka Raval, a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati from Gujarat, India, is living in an apartment off-campus this semester, studying what educators are calling a blended learning system of mostly online and some classes in person.

Most years, the first weeks of school at the University of Cincinnati are “so much fun, a lot of welcome week events, you get a lot of free stuff, it is like a fresh start every year” Raval said.

Lexi Adler and her family decided it was best to defer and start school in the spring semester after American announced the fall semester would be all online.

“My parents said, ‘no way,’” about coming to Washington, “... they were against it since June because of COVID,” Adler said.

Her high school prom was canceled, and she had to forego a backpacking trip through Europe this summer.

Last spring, she’d been looking forward to graduation from Branksome Hall in Toronto, where her sister graduated five years ago in a memorable ceremony. But this year for her graduation, ceremonies were 100% virtual.

“I had a whole plan to walk down the aisle with my best friend and wear my white dress,” Adler told Voice of America through a messaging interview. She said she felt “like I was robbed,” she said.

At home in Toronto, she volunteers at Autism Speaks Canada. Hoping the pandemic situation in the U.S will improve so she can move to nation’s capital and start college in January, she said she “missed everything about AU.”

Raval had a very different experience than Lexi last year when her sophomore year at the University of Cincinnati was cut short and her summer plans changed.

She had hoped to get her first internship off-campus in the field of computer science and visit her family in India over the summer.

“Every summer, international students usually are only able to work or intern on campus so summer is when we can seek out our own internships off-campus,” Raval said.

But everything moved online, and some companies couldn’t offer summer internships to students like they had in previous years because of the coronavirus. Raval was unable to have the internship experience she had been expecting.

Meklit Shiferaw is from Ethiopia and a freshman in her second semester at Minnesota State University-Mankato. She moved to the U.S to start her first semester of college in January 2020, but she was unable to enjoy a lot of the experiences associated with the first semester of college.

In an email interview, Shiferaw told Voice of America that she had missed out on “in-person class, different in-person activities, in-person lab sessions, and a birthday party.”

Failing to enjoy all of these important events, Shiferaw said she “feels like I am missing the fun part” that she expected when she came to school in the U.S.

Shiferaw said she learned that she needs “to be strong and shape myself according to the system.”

Adler said she has become “more grateful for my life before COVID.”

And Raval said she learned to adapt and be able to “work on more personal projects, little courses online and things I always wanted to read about.”

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)