Harvard tell Trump to pound sand

[Anonymous]

Reagan policy advisor —>

[Anonymous]

Spectacular piece by Stephen Pinker (a Harvard prof and longtime critic) on both the problems at Harvard and why Trump’s measures are unwise. Gift link below.

“Harvard, as I am among the first to point out, has serious ailments. The sense that something is not well with the university is widespread, and it’s led to sympathy, even schadenfreude, with Mr. Trump’s all-out assault. But Harvard is an intricate system that developed over centuries and constantly has to grapple with competing and unexpected challenges. The appropriate treatment (as with other imperfect institutions) is to diagnose which parts need which remedies, not to cut its carotid and watch it bleed out.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/opinion/harvard-university-trump-administration.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JU8.4-Kl.FZoUTr6KXxe9&smid=url-share

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reagan policy advisor —>

There just might be some sliiiiight differences between this and German universities in 1945.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reagan policy advisor —>

There just might be some sliiiiight differences between this and German universities in 1945.

There might be some similarities.

[Anonymous]

But so many American students struggling to get into college. It's great at the minimum that a light has been shown on Harvard that they have 30% some say 27%, but it's probably more of foreign students. Imagine your children being able to go to Harvard with these folks were not part of the admission process. I guarantee you Americans are not happy about that. I need to take care of our own country first until acceptance rates get higher. There should be no international students or at least a cap of like 5% which are normal for most schools

[Anonymous]

Thinking that curtailing foreign students will enable your kid to get into Harvard is just moronic. But go on believing that.

[Anonymous]

Trump is such a dumba**. Now he’s claiming that foreign students need remedial math. On the contrary, when I was a student in Boston, I had a lot of international friends at Harvard and MIT; some were grad TAs and they said that they had to teach Americans remedial math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But so many American students struggling to get into college. It's great at the minimum that a light has been shown on Harvard that they have 30% some say 27%, but it's probably more of foreign students. Imagine your children being able to go to Harvard with these folks were not part of the admission process. I guarantee you Americans are not happy about that. I need to take care of our own country first until acceptance rates get higher. There should be no international students or at least a cap of like 5% which are normal for most schools

It’s a little sad that you seem to think that the motivation behind the Trump administration’s attack on Harvard and higher ed in general is an attempt to level the admissions playing field for US citizen students. It’s about power and control and is right out of the authoritarian playbook and every dictator has done it before.

Also, if you knew the first thing about other countries and their universities, you would know that most in the world accept foreign students and many accept a whole bunch of them. And where did you get that 5% number for a cap for foreign students. Did you pull it out of the air when you claimed it was “normal” for “most schools”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reagan policy advisor —>

There just might be some sliiiiight differences between this and German universities in 1945.

There might be some similarities.

How about you tell us what they are for our amusement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Political rifts aside, honestly, I can’t see why any institution should be “open to the world” like the above letter said, at the expense of Americans (since every accepted international student is a rejected American student) and getting any benefits from the American government whatsoever, whether that’s tax benefits for their endowment or research funding or anything else. It’s fine to have a completely independent organization that has an international focus but then they should play by different rules than colleges for American students play by.

It is a private school and can admit whoever it wants.

And you know what, all of those public flagships also want the best and brightest from around the world. And all of those foreign students pay full freight and offset the tuitions for the instate and scholarship kids from the USA. A win-win that if it goes away, will put hundreds of schools out of business.

I keep hearing this argument tossed around, that the full-price tuition of international students is off-setting the tuitions of American students and funding financial aid etc. But is it really? I mean, do international tuitions directly off-set the price of tuition for American students? Can someone cite the evidence for this? Somehow I thought most financial aid was funded by endowment which is not the same as incoming tuition.

I think there is a grain of truth to this. Outside of a handful of elite schools, most college endowments are not large enough to provide many scholarships in perpetuity. Non-elite colleges depend heavily on international students or rich applicants with below average to pay full price.

A modern college president's primary job is fundraising. More and more of them are politicians who don't have a background in academics, but they do have a background in convincing people to donate money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But so many American students struggling to get into college. It's great at the minimum that a light has been shown on Harvard that they have 30% some say 27%, but it's probably more of foreign students. Imagine your children being able to go to Harvard with these folks were not part of the admission process. I guarantee you Americans are not happy about that. I need to take care of our own country first until acceptance rates get higher. There should be no international students or at least a cap of like 5% which are normal for most schools

Who is struggling to get into college? Outside of the Top 100 or so colleges, most of them are desperate for students. Do they not count? And most community colleges have no requirements beyond a high school diploma or a GED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But so many American students struggling to get into college. It's great at the minimum that a light has been shown on Harvard that they have 30% some say 27%, but it's probably more of foreign students. Imagine your children being able to go to Harvard with these folks were not part of the admission process. I guarantee you Americans are not happy about that. I need to take care of our own country first until acceptance rates get higher. There should be no international students or at least a cap of like 5% which are normal for most schools

The international students at Harvard are about 0.04% of the university and college students in the US. You think tossing them out changes the admissions of a meaningful amount of other students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But so many American students struggling to get into college. It's great at the minimum that a light has been shown on Harvard that they have 30% some say 27%, but it's probably more of foreign students. Imagine your children being able to go to Harvard with these folks were not part of the admission process. I guarantee you Americans are not happy about that. I need to take care of our own country first until acceptance rates get higher. There should be no international students or at least a cap of like 5% which are normal for most schools

Lmao pathetic, your ilk keep talking about how DEI is bad, yet on the flip side don't want (or want to minimize) international students at US universities.

I am sorry but if yous re not qualified to get into the university, you should not get in. Capping international enrolment limit bringing in the best talent, and instead allows mediocre talent to have a higher chance of getting in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trump is such a dumba**. Now he’s claiming that foreign students need remedial math. On the contrary, when I was a student in Boston, I had a lot of international friends at Harvard and MIT; some were grad TAs and they said that they had to teach Americans remedial math.

Harvard has started offering remedial math courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But so many American students struggling to get into college. It's great at the minimum that a light has been shown on Harvard that they have 30% some say 27%, but it's probably more of foreign students. Imagine your children being able to go to Harvard with these folks were not part of the admission process. I guarantee you Americans are not happy about that. I need to take care of our own country first until acceptance rates get higher. There should be no international students or at least a cap of like 5% which are normal for most schools

It’s a little sad that you seem to think that the motivation behind the Trump administration’s attack on Harvard and higher ed in general is an attempt to level the admissions playing field for US citizen students. It’s about power and control and is right out of the authoritarian playbook and every dictator has done it before.

Also, if you knew the first thing about other countries and their universities, you would know that most in the world accept foreign students and many accept a whole bunch of them. And where did you get that 5% number for a cap for foreign students. Did you pull it out of the air when you claimed it was “normal” for “most schools”?

He totally pulled the 5% number out of thin air.

Fortunately, NYT has some data:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/upshot/harvard-trump-international-students.html