SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
International students from around the world are arriving on U.S. college campuses.
PRIYOTA: My name is Priyota (ph) and I'm from Bangladesh.
KARSHATI GUGAWAD: I'm Karshati (ph) and I'm from India.
REBECCA: My name is Rebecca (ph), and I'm from Jamaica.
MINJAE: I'm Minjae (ph) from Seoul, South Korea.
SIMON: Those are students at the University at Buffalo, on campus after a very rocky summer and long delays at consulates. NPR's Elissa Nadworny's been reporting in Buffalo this week at orientation, joins us in our studios. Elissa, thanks for being with us.
ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: Happy to be here, Scott.
SIMON: You've especially been looking at first-year international students. What have they told you?
NADWORNY: Well, at orientation, I tagged along as students got their new campus IDs and went on tours. They are from more than a hundred countries. And many of them told me how grateful they were to have finally made it to campus and how stressful it was this summer to get visas.
DARIA TOFAN: At least we're here.
GUGAWAD: Yeah.
TOFAN: For me, the main thing is that I got here.
NADWORNY: That's Daria Tofan (ph) from Romania. I met her and Karshati Gugawad from Pune, India, at an icebreaker event.
Was the visa process hard?
TOFAN: Oh (laughter), don't...
GUGAWAD: You should not.
TOFAN: ...Ask me about it.
GUGAWAD: Yeah.
TOFAN: (Laughter) It was awful (laughter). No, it was...
GUGAWAD: The uncertainty is...
TOFAN: Yeah.
GUGAWAD: ...Crazy.
TOFAN: They shut down the embassies worldwide.
GUGAWAD: The thing is, I was the last slot before they shut down, so I felt so...
TOFAN: Me too.
GUGAWAD: Yeah.
TOFAN: Me too.
GUGAWAD: I just prayed so hard to God. I was like, this is the time...
TOFAN: Yeah.
GUGAWAD: ...Where I remember you.
NADWORNY: Many of their peers didn't get their visas on time. So this fall, the university is expecting a decline of about 750 international students, many in their graduate programs, mostly in STEM fields. But there are still 4,000 international students on campus, and they make up a big part of the culture at the university.
SIMON: Elissa, remind us of the political backdrop here.
NADWORNY: Well, the Trump administration is really focused on international students. They temporarily paused visa interviews around the globe early summer. Then they revamped the student visa application and interview process. And so it meant delays for some students who haven't, you know, been able to get visas in time for the fall. President Trump has said he wants to keep campuses safe. Earlier this spring, the State Department revoked about 6,000 student visas, citing threats of academic espionage, support for terrorist groups in Gaza and criminal behavior. And he said he wants to make sure that foreign students aren't taking spots that could go to American citizens.
SIMON: Just to be explicit here, Elissa, the administration hasn't shown evidence that there is widespread support for terror or any criminality among these students.
NADWORNY: That's right.
SIMON: Tell us about schools in addition to the one you saw at the University at Buffalo.
NADWORNY: So there are about a million students every year that study in the United States. Of course, they're at places like Harvard and Columbia, which we hear a lot about, but they're also at public universities in places like Arkansas, Indiana and Arizona. We don't have a full picture yet of what international enrollment is going to look like nationwide, but some estimates say it could be down as much as 15% overall. And a lot of schools have reported these enrollment drops, including Buffalo.
You know, one thing a lot of university leaders have told me, Scott, is that they're watching to see if this is going to be short- or long-term. Will this impact students applying for next year? Like, how long is this going to last? I've also talked to a lot of students who are thinking about maybe they'll go to universities in the U.K. or South Korea, or even Canada.
SIMON: What could that potentially mean for the U.S.?
NADWORNY: International students contribute big-time to the economy. One study estimated in a year nationally, they pump about $43 billion into it. And, you know, Scott, they make campus communities more enriched. They also help balance university budgets. A lot of international students pay full tuition. And so that money often helps increase things like financial aid that ultimately benefit American students, too.
SIMON: Elissa Nadworny, thanks so much.
NADWORNY: You bet.
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