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Two international students at Georgia Tech discuss the challenges that international students face in college. They talk about the financial difficulties, limited access to jobs and internships, lack of scholarships, and the pressure to excel academically. They also mention the additional challenges of cultural shocks, homesickness, and language barriers. They highlight the need for support and resources for international students and suggest solutions like providing more financial aid and fostering a sense of community. They aim to create a podcast to share experiences and give a voice to international students facing these challenges. This is Emilio Revello and I'm joined with Fanny Singler. We are two international students here at Georgia Tech just starting our journey through college and we wanted to take this opportunity in our podcast to share some of our own experiences and some of the experiences we've heard from other international students on what it's like to get through college as international students. Our first few months here at Georgia Tech have been an overall positive, welcoming, although at times challenging experience, but they have also been very eye-opening in regards to some of the additional barriers and obstacles that international students face that other demographics maybe don't. As international students, we've encountered numerous hurdles from restricted access to on-campus jobs to the daunting world of landing those first internships and the financial challenges are also stark due to the very scarce quantities of scholarships available to international students and the immense amount of paperwork that internationals facing real financial hardship must go through in order to opt out of out-of-state tuition for even a single semester. Through our podcast, we don't want to just share our own stories, we want to provide a voice to countless other international students, even outside of Georgia Tech, who are facing these hidden challenges every single day. Well, each story is different, however, they are rooted in the same set of causes. The numerous financial stresses that international students face are often accompanied by a side of cultural shocks, bouts of homesickness, maybe stereotyping, and even language barriers at times. A significant amount of pressure falls on international students to perform exceptionally well academically due to the high expenditures of boarding and tuition. They might not be encouraged to consider the whole spectrum of potential jobs and instead feel obligated to their family to restrict their majors to those deemed profitable or maybe just useful. The pressure that international students face may be a blessing in disguise, for it could act as a motivator, but it can also weigh down on a student's mental health. Discussing all these issues and many more, we bring to you our podcast. According to a research project conducted by the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors, the top three reasons for dissatisfaction reported by international undergraduate students here in the U.S. relate exclusively to financial aspects. The first one being access to jobs or internships. The second one being affordability, closely followed by the availability of scholarships. Diving into the aspect of affordability at Georgia Tech, costs for international students include mainly the out-of-state tuition, other supporting fees, mandatory health insurance, and living expenses, which roughly rounds to $49,600, irrespective of the student merit in most cases. It is concerning that they're not eligible for financial aid, scholarships, internships, and sometimes even lack financial literacy. Financial stress is partly a result of their unfamiliarity with the U.S. banking system and university billing processes. As a general coping mechanism, international students typically exhibit high levels of self-efficacy and prioritize their academics in order to meet their learning objectives. Self-efficacy related to social integration has a tendency to be uncorrelated with student choices to stay on campus. However, due to their high levels of worry, anxiety, and dissatisfaction, their perspective of themselves as international students may have a detrimental impact on their ability to perform to the best of their capabilities. As I have personally heard from many other international students and even experiences I've had myself, most of us have only really focused on being diligent on our academics and our extracurriculars during school. And now that we're entering this next chapter in a significantly different environment, and in many cases far away from home, having had to adapt quickly not just to the increased academic workload, which we are somewhat prepared for, but also having to adapt to being responsible with tasks related to personal finance, like you mentioned, or dealing with immigration paperwork, and eventually having to sort out things like paying our rent, filing our taxes, and the many other new things that are solely our responsibility from this point forward, it is a significant amount of stress that can pile on quickly on international students. And even if we go beyond and discuss some of the challenges that are not just specific to tech or to college life in general, but to other internationals and immigration in general, if we look at some of the obstacles about, in regards to entering the workforce as internationals studying in the U.S. or even internationals who studied elsewhere and are exploring potential job options here in this country, it illustrates some of the systematic challenges that many who are simply looking for better opportunities have to face. For international students here in the U.S. on a student visa who want to stay and work in the U.S. or international students who studied somewhere else and are looking for ways to come work here in the U.S., we will first thing not only have to find a company that is willing and able to sponsor our temporary work visa and help us get and file the necessary paperwork to get the H-1B visa status. In terms of monetary requirements for the companies, the cost to process and issue H-1B visas is significant at a $5,000 price point per visa. Additionally, the minimum salary someone must earn to be eligible for H-1B visa status is an astonishing $60,000 a year, which even though to an average U.S. listener, a $60,000 yearly salary may not sound as much. If we do put that number into the right context, the true magnitude of that salary can be better grasped. Although the average salary of a working-age U.S. citizen is approximately $59,400, if we take a look at the metrics for workers between the ages of 20 to 25 years of age, which is within the age range many international students will begin working after concluding their undergraduate or their graduate school studies, the average salary severely drops from nearly half of that amount to $36,712 as a yearly salary. Moreover, it is not just the difficult requirements to get the H-1B status that make it challenging to get a job, but even before entering the workforce for a full-time position, it is very difficult to gain a variety of professional experiences through internships or co-ops due to our status as international students. And it is those experiences that are vital to land a full-time position here in the U.S. As a result, we have fewer options for employment following graduation, which can increase the anxiety about whether or not the money we spent on a U.S. college degree was worthwhile. Again, bringing this back to our topic of discussion, it is clear that the obstacles international students or just immigrants in general that want to come here to the U.S., the obstacles we face are not only within the realm of opportunities during college or at Georgia Tech specifically, but also beyond college, they are very significant barriers. And I wanted to turn this back on you and ask you, what do you think are maybe some potential solutions or changes that would help mitigate some of those barriers to give internationals or immigrants in general a more equitable chance? So, I believe that in an effort to ease the financial strain that undoubtedly foreign students face and even their families face, educational institutions should aim to provide additional financial help in the form of scholarships or institution rates for overseas students who excel academically. Furthermore, the need for socialization is emphasized as a coping mechanism for most college students. International students frequently turn to their friends and even relatives back home and the fellow nationals on campus for assistance. Their sometimes poor engagement with the staff, teachers, academic advisors and local friends can compromise the persistence and feeling of the community of foreign students. Thus, through this podcast, we hope to create a community of people facing similar challenges here at Tech. This is Tanvi Singler and this was Emilio Rejello signing off. Thank you.