While eating lunch on the MMC Terrace during the first day of Welcome Week, 19-year-old Akshita Shah took in her city surroundings. Shah, an international student from Nepal, is majoring in International Studies. She had only been to the U.S. once before on a traveler’s visa, about six months prior to the Aug. 26 start to the first-year experience.
“That was the first day that I was on campus, first day in New York, first day overall,” Shah said.
She traveled the 24-hour trip solo, from Kathmandu – Nepal’s capital city, to New York, where she met her brother who she hadn’t seen in eight years. Shah is a commuter student, majoring in international studies and management. She lives with her brother in White Plains, and is only on campus Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“My brother is 10 years older than me, but we’ve known each other for as long as I’ve existed, so it was easy for me to be here, you know,” Shah said. “The only difficult part is travel. Since I cannot be on campus every day, I feel like I am missing out on certain things. But at the same time, I’m okay with it. I have been super excited about being in New York. I mean, how many people get to come to New York to study, right?”
Though down and fluctuating greatly since the COVID-19 pandemic, New York has the second highest number of international students behind California.
The rates of international students plummeted as COVID-19 policies restricted travel in 2020, and though they have since been reversed, their effects are lasting. At a student town hall held by MMC and Northeastern University academic leaders, Emmalyn Yamrick, Associate Vice President for Student Success and Engagement & Dean of Students, spoke that this decrease in students globally was a contributing factor to MMC pursuing the merger with NU.
“Why has enrollment declined? One reason is international students,” Yamrick said. “There are policies that have changed around immigration and we are seeing fewer international students come to college in this country.”
The process of becoming an international student in the U.S. is long and sometimes confusing. F-1 student visas have required applications, interviews, fees, documentation and wait times through the federal government. There are also tests and forms required for MMC admissions in addition to the regular admissions paperwork that every student completes. All students on an F-1 visa must maintain a full course of study each semester and maintain their status as outlined in the Griffin Guide Student Handbook.
“I was nervous about my visa interview, but I don’t think anything else has made me nervous,” Shah said.
Many potential international students apply through an agent or have someone guiding them through the process. Shah went through the entire process by herself, and used MMC’s resources few times.
“I think the International Students Center was pretty helpful. I had three or four meetings with them before I came here, just general preparation, check-ins and they wanted to know where I was status-wise,” Shah said. “They were willing to help me prepare for my visa interviews and sent me potential questions that might have come up. I didn’t apply through an agent or anything, so everything I just did myself and took some help from the school, that’s it.”
As the merger with NU proceeds, MMC’s international students may have an increase in resources. Unlike MMC, NU has a global university system and a large pool of international students. Shah thinks the merger will be advantageous to her and her peers.
“It’s not so much about the programs themselves, but about having more connections. Once you are associated with a certain name, there’s gonna be more global reach,” Shah said. “People that graduated from Northeastern pursue a different kind of career that I look up to.”
Despite this, Shah is content with the current resources at MMC.
“I mean, there definitely could be more resources on campus right now, but there is a group of international students in international studies and related majors. We have this class for politics that we are all together in, so we talk, we figure out things and it’s nice,” Shah said.
When deciding where to go for her studies, MMC was a top choice due to its location and the benefit of living with her brother in White Plains.
“The first thing was that it was in New York and I got into the program that I wanted to. My major, minor, everything was exactly what I wanted to do. I also saw a lot of students from Marymount that were involved in or at the United Nations, so that was a plus. Being close in proximity to what I want to do in the future made sense for me,” Shah said. “If I’m spending $25,000 less a year living with someone else too, I might as well.”
