Studying in the US? Here's what you need to know

The Trump administration has announced that international students on F1 visa need to leave the US or be prepared to face deportation if their universities were switching to online classes due to the coronavirus pandemic. This decision has come as a shock to all Indian and other international students who are already in the US pursuing their studies or were planning to go to the US this fall semester.

This announcement was made when many well-known universities like Harvard decided to go completely online this fall semester.

Universities now realise that this is too drastic a step that they can ill-afford considering majority of their students are international. Perhaps the Trump government made too hasty a statement and will retract this decision like they have in the past.

Either way, here’s my advice to all Indian students:

If you were planning to go to the US this fall, defer your offer to January 2021 or September 2021. Remember, the whole idea of going abroad is to experience living and studying in a new country with a diverse study body.

If you are already there or are keen on going this fall, ensure you are enrolled full-time and take minimum 12 credits of on campus classes as an undergraduate student or 9 credits as a graduate student.

For students who are in the US, if your university is going completely online, then transfer to another university that offers on campus classes at least for this term. US universities allow easy transfers. Now with this genuine concern, they will be happy to accept students from other universities.

Many universities have decided that even if they do plan to go online for some courses this semester, they will ensure that not all of their campuses will go online. That gives the student the flexibility to study the fall term in a different campus if their original campus is offering only online programmes. It is best for students to be in contact with their advisors at college who will guide them and help register for the right courses that meet the requirements of the I-20 visa regulations.

Please be positive and focused and enjoy all that your university has to offer!

(The author is an educationist and consultant based in Bengaluru)