Would you let your junior college student study abroad in Shanghai or Hong Kong next year?

[Anonymous]

This thread is bizarre, he’s an adult now and gets to decide himself (or should, anyway)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We are Brazilian currently living in São Paulo and my son was accepted to Brown and NYU and also a couple of European schools. Given the recent US Gov view on foreign students, we have the same issues that you Americans do when worrying about your kids going abroad.

We adivsed him to forgo those offers and accept one of the UK/EU offers. He is now deciding between LSE, St Andrews and Bocconi.

Same here. We are from Turkey. My son had offers from UCLA, Chicago and Dartmouth. He always dreamt of studying in the US. Both his father and I studied in the US. But given the latest environment, he is turning down those schools for UCL in London.

I’m an American, and I think we’ll somehow get the Trump problem under control, but I think you’re right to be nervous about sending your children to the United States, and I think Americans have to be extra thoughtful about sending our kids abroad.

We might all be lovely people. We might all live in same places where most people are kind to students and serious problems are rare.

But Trump is doing so many crazy, infuriating things that it’s hard to know what the limits of insanity are or how people will react. Sending students across borders for college today is not the same move as in 2023.

Chances are that most students will be physically safe, but we’re seeing Trump screwing Fulbright grant recipients over mid-semester. He’s just not someone who cares whether your kid is one term paper away from passing a class. He’ll cheerfully deport students and start shooting wars while our kids are in the middle of final exams in the countries under attack. He’ll cheerfully have goons smash the your kid’s lab rats. So, your kid might be fine, but who wants to put up with all of that chaos while you’re studying?

What's it like living in constant fear of Trump? It must be terrible for you - so delicate and fragile

It is terrible for me. We are turkish, studied in the US. My husband was at UCB for Undergrad and Ohio State for his PhD. We met at Dartmouth teaching and came back to Turkey 18 years ago. My son now is dying to accept one of his great offers, but we are both so scared of what is going on the US right now. I have been crying for a few weeks now. It was his dream to go to the US, but we just dont think it is safe for him. My husband and I love the US. We owe America everything. We met in America and had a wonderful decade and half studying and then teaching there. Sometimes I fell like we should not have returned to Turkey as it changed my son’s future. Unfortunately both my husband and my parents got really sick a what started as a sabbatical to take care of them, became permanent after a while….then we both started teaching in Turkey, then Italy then the UK.

He just firmed UCL, but his heart was in America…

Don't listen to the keyboard leftists who rage about "creeping fascism" here and elsewhere online. It's complete nonsense. These people are alarmists in the worst sense of the word. Most of them live in complete exile from reality, surrounding themselves only with other like minded alarmists. Your son will be completely fine studying here - unless he plans on becoming an activist promoting hatred and violence against America while in America. Take it from the son of immigrants who barely spoke English yet managed to create a wonderful life for themselves and their kids here in the US for over 60 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say it depends on a variety of factors. It is an incredible opportunity and experience for the kid, but do they have the tenacity or stomach for it? Do the parents?. Are many other students from their school also going to this location, or is your kid one of a few/going alone? Having someone that far away with little to no support system close by is a tough call for both parents and the kid. God forbid something happens - it's not like you can just hop on a plane and be there in a couple of hours, and if there is no local support, it will be even harder. Does your kid adapt easily, or do they get stressed? Asia is not like Western cultures, so in addition to the standard adjustments (time zone, language) they will need to adapt to a completely different way of life in a short amount of time. For us, we decided against it because we preferred to travel to these areas first for shorter, more controlled visits as opposed to a 5 month commitment for our kid alone. We decided on Europe for a few reasons - it was closer in case something happened, many other kids were also going so our kid would have some measure of local support, travel between countries in Europe is cheaper and relatively easy to manage (which allows the kid to explore many different countries over the course of the semester) and support in most European countries is pretty good (health care, police, etc).

This such a basic mindset but you do you

It's called reality - something in short supply among the deluded elitist dullards on this forum - like yourself!

You clearly are a suburban basic lady. Fine. You do you

"Suburban basic lady"???? It's just so awesome to watch you sniveling leftists self-destruct and expose your true elitist selves using your own words!

[Anonymous]

China has a long history of arbitrarily detaining Americans, Canadians, and others anytime they wanted a hostage for negotiations with another country.

They do not have an independent legal system - judges and courts exist to serve the Communist Party and do what the Party tells them to do.