International Student concerned about Coronavirus outbreak

[shakespear]

I am an international student who got an admission offer from some US graduate schools. I am worried about this Coronavirus outbreak. I applied for Fall 2020. I am worried that this outbreak might interfere with me starting the Fall term. The US government might not give me a Visa or the schools I got admitted to might cancel classes if the situation keeps getting worse. Does anyone here have similar concerns? 

[zagorthespirit]

same here. I am an undergrad. my university postponed the classes for 3 weeks. I might not even graduate this year. This thing has literally spoiled everything. So if I accept the offer i got, and I can't start my PhD, who is to blame, me?, my university, US university, China?

I can't help but think about the next year. Do I have to apply again? What about the money I already spent on ten university applications, GRE Toefl Scores and etc.

I also don't get how people here don't talk about this. THIS IS REAL AND HERE. They still post about how they should decide which school to go and etc. Guys come on. We should be talking about this, asking questions to admission offices and etc. many of us might end up with nothing in hand for next year. 

[PokePsych]

3 hours ago, zagorthespirit said:

same here. I am an undergrad. my university postponed the classes for 3 weeks. I might not even graduate this year. This thing has literally spoiled everything. So if I accept the offer i got, and I can't start my PhD, who is to blame, me?, my university, US university, China?

I can't help but think about the next year. Do I have to apply again? What about the money I already spent on ten university applications, GRE Toefl Scores and etc.

I also don't get how people here don't talk about this. THIS IS REAL AND HERE. They still post about how they should decide which school to go and etc. Guys come on. We should be talking about this, asking questions to admission offices and etc. many of us might end up with nothing in hand for next year. 

Why on earth would you 'blame China'. Cut the xenophobia plz. At this point so many governments & places are too blame. Its not like the trump administration has been moving on this fast enough - may as well blame them?!

RE graduating: Contact your university. Most places I know are making amends. Both in my country of origin and here in the States people are having classes (although online), doing exams, etc. So we will be getting grades etc. The university you are working with may also be a bit more lenient in terms of grades (e.g., my grades were due by mid October) - talk with administration.

RE: reapplying - depends. Wouldn't worry about it now. Potentially ask the uni you plan on accepting if you can defer your offer till the next semester/year after. Wouldn't be unlikely they're more lenient now.

RE: Uhm. I think they still should decide which school they want to go too? There's still a choice to be made. And hat should be an informed choice. But note that for American/not international students this trade off may be different for many other reasons. 

[zagorthespirit]

2 hours ago, PokePsych said:

Why on earth would you 'blame China'. Cut the xenophobia plz. At this point so many governments & places are too blame. Its not like the trump administration has been moving on this fast enough - may as well blame them?!

First of all, blaming a country and blaming people of that country are two different things. Although the whole sentence, 

who is to blame, me?, my university, US university, China?,

was just to show that nobody expected the situation regarding to the admissions, and hence i wrote them all together and only commas to separate them. I was trying to say, nobody is guilty, so what will happen?

But still, I have to be clear about one thing: China is responsible for not banning wet markets. As you may know this is seen as SARS-2, and China, having experienced SARS in 2002-3, should have banned wet market trade and shouldn't have endangered the humanity, both their citizens, most of whom had nothing to do with this, as well as others. Most of the world will sanction China for that after they will deal with the pandemic, this has nothing to do with xenophobia. I read the very same things on financial times last week regarding the economic impact of this and how the world will respond to China about wet market trade after Coronavirus.

Edited March 14, 2020 by zagorthespirit

[zagorthespirit]

2 hours ago, PokePsych said:

RE: Uhm. I think they still should decide which school they want to go too? There's still a choice to be made. And hat should be an informed choice. But note that for American/not international students this trade off may be different for many other reasons

Yes that is why I said it. We should be making our choices in the coming weeks as deadlines approach and I think we should make our decisions knowing that they are guaranteed not to be dropped by them. I have a MSc offer from top european Uni and a PhD offer US Uni. At that point, european one is a safer choice for me. If i reject it in favor of US Uni, and end up in a situation where I won't be admitted, everything will be spoiled. So, we have to decide and this is an important aspect that should be considered during our decisions.

[zomhud]

On 3/13/2020 at 11:18 PM, shakespear said:

I am an international student who got an admission offer from some US graduate schools. I am worried about this Coronavirus outbreak. I applied for Fall 2020. I am worried that this outbreak might interfere with me starting the Fall term. The US government might not give me a Visa or the schools I got admitted to might cancel classes if the situation keeps getting worse. Does anyone here have similar concerns? 

I am also worried about this! I got admission in one of my top choice schools, got awarded with a fellowship but I don't what happens in the next. My country has banned flights to many countries and there is no direct flights to US from here. Also not sure how US govt. will react about international students. I am really worried about the whole situation! 

[raduan]

I will very surprise if any accepted international student is totally incapable of joining at some moment his or her chosen university due to this crisis. There are a lot of undergrads and graduate international students in pretty much every university in America that neither the uni nor the American govt can be radical to entirely suspend the entrance of international students  I might be exaggerating, but I think that without international students, there is a significant chance of a collapse in the American university system.

Nevertheless, it will generate some impact. I think it is more likely than not that classes will begin online, or the Fall semester will be delayed a few weeks. For example, I was supposed to be in the US to do a math course during the summer. However, the American embassy released a statement yesterday that they will not make new visas in the foreseeable future. I am increasingly skeptical that I will be able to be in the US in July already.

 

[PokePsych]

On 3/13/2020 at 8:49 PM, zagorthespirit said:

First of all, blaming a country and blaming people of that country are two different things. Although the whole sentence, 

who is to blame, me?, my university, US university, China?,

was just to show that nobody expected the situation regarding to the admissions, and hence i wrote them all together and only commas to separate them. I was trying to say, nobody is guilty, so what will happen?

But still, I have to be clear about one thing: China is responsible for not banning wet markets. As you may know this is seen as SARS-2, and China, having experienced SARS in 2002-3, should have banned wet market trade and shouldn't have endangered the humanity, both their citizens, most of whom had nothing to do with this, as well as others. Most of the world will sanction China for that after they will deal with the pandemic, this has nothing to do with xenophobia. I read the very same things on financial times last week regarding the economic impact of this and how the world will respond to China about wet market trade after Coronavirus.

Yeah.. that's why nobody has issues with Trump calling it the Chinese virus + Asian people increasingly being attacked here in the States and Europe. Regardless - it was not necessary to mention China. 

Glad you dont blame china - confused on why you then hold them responsible (doesn't that imply blame?). Am generally unaware of any plans on 'how the world will hold china responsible', nor have these seen mentioned anywhere in most of European or East-Asian media (or this even being the discourse at this point other than among a couple of right-wing people), but time will tell. Also I think you're referring to a financial times opinion piece? 

Although I doubt if it would necessarily help in not having another pandemic - swine flue did not originate there; nor did MERS, zika, ebola (and if take it further back 1918 influenza and a bunch of other 'bullets we dodged as humanity')

On 3/13/2020 at 9:06 PM, zagorthespirit said:

Yes that is why I said it. We should be making our choices in the coming weeks as deadlines approach and I think we should make our decisions knowing that they are guaranteed not to be dropped by them. I have a MSc offer from top european Uni and a PhD offer US Uni. At that point, european one is a safer choice for me. If i reject it in favor of US Uni, and end up in a situation where I won't be admitted, everything will be spoiled. So, we have to decide and this is an important aspect that should be considered during our decisions.

Why would Europe be a safer choice? 

I think admissions is one thing, deferral of a semester another, potential loss of funding yet another. I would advice to just contact every grad administrator in each school to ask about the potential likelihood that they'll be deferring students a year or semester (unlikely to not admit I think, I do think there are some legal regulations about admissions). Most likely classes will be online if anything happens - which is just as likely now in most of Europe. 

Funding may be a bit tricky if you are have to work from home as you probably wont have an American SSN. However - DHS have been good here with regard to visa status and other things. Plus most international offices that I know of are working around the clock to help and inform people.

On 3/15/2020 at 12:08 AM, zomhud said:

I am also worried about this! I got admission in one of my top choice schools, got awarded with a fellowship but I don't what happens in the next. My country has banned flights to many countries and there is no direct flights to US from here. Also not sure how US govt. will react about international students. I am really worried about the whole situation! 

Ask the school? DHS has been good about things so far. I dont think the US government has been doing anything they should not do to international students so far. Rather, they have made the rules easier for people to take classes abroad, maintain full-time enrollment even through online classes, and so on. The general expectancy here is that students may arrive late, with still some uncertainties about how sutdents will be paid (not IF)

[Artistinquarantine]

You might want to follow my post I just started to see how current students like myself dealing with their MFA programs.