What advice would you give to Japanese students who have been preparing for months to further their education at U.S. universities, who are worried that their visas will be suspended by the Trump administration?

To bad but no one can tell what will happen to the future, just adapt there are so many other countries that have English speaking based education, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and UK.

The fact that those students already acquired English language proficiency and willing to go abroad they already separate themselves with average Japanese students.

I agree. Go to another country and spend your money somewhere else. America doesn’t want you there anyway.

Three best choices are indeed Canada, Australia and NZ.

Plenty of other countries. The U.K. is a good choice.

Save your money, train in something useful, get a decent job. University education is over-rated anyway.

My advice would be "the customer is king".

If the US will not value you as a foreign student, go somewhere that will. US universities will deteriorate rapidly without foreign talent. The good ones are good due to their global reach.

Don't do it and go somewhere else where you'll be welcomed.

As an American it pains me to say this, but I'd wouldn't recommend going to America for educational purposes at all. I'd hope for my kids to spend at least a year in high school in the States, living with relatives, and maybe even going to uni there. There is no way I can do that in good conscious now. The MAGA movement is hell bent on destroying public education. My home state of Georgia now has one of the sorriest excuses for public education around folks like Marjorie Trailer Queen want to make it even worse. I'm almost ashamed to admit I have a Georgia teaching license. Stay home, Japanese students, or go to a country that respects education. The US does not any more.

"What advice would you give to Japanese students who have been preparing for months to further their education at U.S. universities, who are worried that their visas will be suspended by the Trump administration?"

Just hang in tight, almost done cleaning Joe's mess, and everything will be back to normal on immigration.

That as bad as it is it could be much worse, they could have their studies interrupted by cancelled funding meaning lost years of effort, or they could be accused of imaginary crimes and be disappeared into a prison in El Salvador or another country without ever having a chance to defend themselves, or they could be victims of hate crime now that it became acceptable to hate foreigners.

Go to another country to study.

Maybe best to avoid the US for the time being.

The war on education and intelligence won’t last forever though.

"That as bad as it is it could be much worse, they could have their studies interrupted by cancelled funding meaning lost years of effort, or they could be accused of imaginary crimes and be disappeared into a prison in El Salvador or another country without ever having a chance to defend themselves, or they could be victims of hate crime now that it became acceptable to hate foreigners."

You need to place the blame where it belongs, those foreign students used for political gains and those illegals burning others on the streets of US. A better vetting process is required regardless of the inconveniences caused.

"The war on education and intelligence won’t last forever though."

I'm confused, you can't have war both on education and intelligence because you can't have education without intelligence. Thus intelligence is inherent not something learned. Attained education only adds learned skills not intelligence. Simply put that war on education and intelligence in America is fake news.

You need to place the blame where it belongs, those foreign students used for political gains and those illegals burning others on the streets of US.

No, that is not where the blame for anybody that is rational, there is a reason why punishing innocent people is not accepted as a valid option. The students are just being held hostage by Trump to force their university to accept invalid interference.

A better vetting process is required regardless of the inconveniences caused.

That makes absolutely no sense, the vetting process is done the same as for every other kind of visa, your argument do not place any fault on the universities but on Rubio which is the one responsible for vetting everybody. Also, the biggest inconvenience is for the US, that is going to drop its level of professional competence, scientific studies and development of technology, which appears the whole point of the destruction of the current government.

"That makes absolutely no sense, the vetting process is done the same as for every other kind of visa, your argument do not place any fault on the universities but on Rubio which is the one responsible for vetting everybody. Also, the biggest inconvenience is for the US, that is going to drop its level of professional competence, scientific studies and development of technology, which appears the whole point of the destruction of the current government."

It's not rocket science to understand that this is as a result of the last regime open border policies and now Rubio is forced to clean that mess.

I'm confused, you can't have war both on education and intelligence because you can't have education without intelligence

That is not a rational argument, a war on education and intelligence is perfectly possible, attacking both things independently. For example by defunding higher education and making elementary education deficient. At the same time punishing anybody that shows intelligence and capacity to oppose invalid interventions with valid legal arguments. Is like the war in nutrition and health the government is having nutrition is related to health but that does not mean both things are being attacked by antiscientific people put in charge of public health.

It's not rocket science to understand that this is as a result of the last regime open border policies and now Rubio is forced to clean that mess.

The US has never had any open border policy, the vast majority of students have had absolutely no illegal conduct, even those that protest do so protected by the constitution. Yet you are trying to misrepresent the responsibility for visa vetting on universities, that have absolutely no role in that. Rubio is the one that have every single source of information to vet visas, but apparently is too incompetent (according to you) to do it and so the easy (but invalid) exit is to rescind visas, but only from universities because the obvious purpose of the measure is to attack higher education since educated people are much more likely to oppose Trump.

CephusToday 02:55 pm JST

You need to place the blame where it belongs, those foreign students used for political gains and those illegals burning others on the streets of US.

Are you under the impression that people need to be told to object to Israeli genocide? And with 1.1 million foreign students in the US, there will be a few that do some bad things. Perspective is needed although I realize that is asking a lot of the MAGA.

“That is not a rational argument, a war on education and intelligence is perfectly possible, attacking both things independently. For example by defunding higher education and making elementary education deficient. At the same time punishing anybody that shows intelligence and capacity to oppose invalid interventions with valid legal arguments. Is like the war in nutrition and health the government is having nutrition is related to health but that does not mean both things are being attacked by antiscientific people put in charge of public health.”

it makes nonsense when we attribute those with different views anti scientific whether in public health or anywhere else after all no one owns the science discipline.

Are you under the impression that people need to be told to object to Israeli genocide? And with 1.1 million foreign students in the US, there will be a few that do some bad things. Perspective is needed although I realize that is asking a lot of the MAGA.

I don’t understand what you really mean by “Israel genocide” are you referring to those innocent people attending concert that was attacked by Hamas or what? And yes I fully understand, there will always be bad apples among those 1.1m student. However they could have thought about the rest of the students before engaging with unlawful behaviors but I also believe nothing modifies behavioral issues faster than collective punishment.

If you don't mind the cold, go to Canada. Several good schools there.

I'd tell them to look for alternatives in a different country.

While the orange occupying the presidential chair thinks he has absolute power over the country but in reality, he does not, the US is in a period of unpredictability. One day you're on a student visa, next day out of nowhere, puff! You're illegally staying in the US. And next day maybe you're both or whatever. It'll be like that for a while at least for the next two or three years.

My best advice is that the students should take the visa suspensions as a sign of the current US government war on education that would make many other things much more difficult, and that they should consider the unescapable drop of the reputation of american universities now that they are being defunded and attacked continuously.

It is not like if they could get their deserved visa the problems would stop, but instead it is much more likely that they would only begin. So they should consider very carefully what kind of academic life they would be aiming for in a country that is now pushing to make the population as uneducated as possible.

Go elsewhere. Studying in the US is overhyped and overrated, not to mention notoriously expensive. Plenty of more affordable options in other parts of the world with equally good education systems. Though I will say that unless you plan on specialising in a certain field or are planning to go into a field that requires a degree, going to university nowadays isn't all it's cracked up to be. Better to invest in going to trade school or getting an internship to learn on the job.

Study at Home.

The UK has nearly as many top research universities as the USA, so is the obvious choice for those who want name recognition.

Unless you have a specific personal reason to go the US, just stop. The country has apparently voluntarily given up its leadership role in academia and research, for reasons that I will never fully understand. Change your plans and go somewhere that takes this seriously and understands that it's in the best long-term interests of the country to have a strong academic ecosystem.

Those foreign universities need you. More properly, they need your money.

Many study-abroad experiences are mainly vanity play time. If that’s all you want, you can have your fun and gain stories to brag about in almost any country.

If there are specific skills that you hope to gain while studying abroad, think carefully about what those skills are. Is an expensive American university the best place to gain these skills? Where else can you get them? Perhaps the reward is still worth the risk, but you may find alternatives to gain the same payoff.

Very likely, America will treat Japanese students with a soft hand. Japanese students tend to go back to Japan. They do not tend to behave like terrorists or dissidents when overseas. Still, there is a risk of getting swept up in blanket policies. Consider what you actually want and weigh alternatives.