Washington, USA: India sends more students to the United States than any other country, and many young Indians aiming to begin their higher education in America this fall are now feeling uncertain following the Trump administration’s decision to halt interviews for foreign nationals applying for student visas.
Some students have started cleaning up their social media profiles, removing posts, deleting comments, and unfollowing certain accounts after the State Department announced plans to monitor applicants’ social media activity. Others have created encrypted group chats to share updates and advice. Meanwhile, some have turned to "visa temples," where Hindu worshippers pray for better chances of obtaining tourist, study, or work visas.
Career advisers are now playing the role of counselors, while extended family networks in the US have organized online “war rooms” to support applicants. Many students are also reconsidering their backup options or rethinking their educational goals.
“I have meticulously built my credentials to get into one of the top policy programs in the US,” said 28-year-old Kaushik Sharma. He described studying in America as his “dream,” but admitted the current situation has made him hesitant about applying. “I don’t want to live there in a constant state of anxiety,” he explained. He is now exploring comparable public policy programs at universities in the UK and Singapore.
Karan Gupta, a career counselor, mentioned he has received an overwhelming number of calls recently. “There are students with admission offers unsure about whether they will secure visa appointments, and those already in the US concerned about their visa status.” He tried to comfort his clients by saying that statistically, it’s unlikely most students’ plans will be severely disrupted.
Approximately one-third of international students in American institutions—around 330,000—are from India, a number that has surpassed China in the 2023-24 academic year.
The challenges began on May 22, when the Trump administration announced it would prohibit Harvard University from admitting international students. Five days later, the State Department declared a suspension of interviews for foreign nationals applying for student visas while increasing scrutiny of applicants’ social media profiles.
Although a judge has temporarily blocked the ban on Harvard, and interviews scheduled prior to the State Department’s announcement are still proceeding, the uncertainty remains.
Many prominent leaders who studied in the US started their education in India, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Other notable figures educated initially in India include the IMF’s second-in-command, Gita Gopinath, and Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee, a professor at MIT.
