To those of you who feel the same as Dana and are “sick and tired of reading articles about how the tuition hike is hitting international students,” I understand how you feel.

I come from a rich country, too, more specifically from Geneva, Switzerland. Forty percent of the population there is foreign.

In addition, a huge number of French workers cross the border every day to work in Geneva.

I have been in a situation where I looked for a job for six months unsuccessfully while everywhere I went I saw foreigners holding jobs I could have had.

I used to think that Switzerland should have laws to give the advantage to Swiss citizens over foreigners on the job market.

Now I have grown up (that is one benefit of traveling abroad: it broadens your mind), and I realize that I was probably already favored over foreigners and was just not aware of it.

I was also ignoring the fact that they had a much harder life than I was having.

The following should help you see the world in a new perspective.

Imagine that you leave your home to go studying in a far away country.

You survive culture shock. Yet after two years, you still have problems with the language spoken in that country. Reading takes a long time.

Writing is even more of a problem. You overcome those difficulties by studying long hours. You are pressured by your family — which you have not seen in two years — to do very well because your parents sacrificed a lot to put you through a good education.

To save money, you live in a tiny room with a toilet, a faucet and a shower booth for $120 a month.

You sleep on the floor on a very bad mattress. You bought everything you own used. You purchased a black-and-white TV for 10 dollars. No cable, no air conditioning, no going to the bars.

Then comes an economic crisis which suddenly multiplies the cost of your education by three for your parents who earn in a devaluated currency.

You are one year away from graduation but may never get your degree.

The universities in your country are already too full and will not accept people coming back from abroad because standards for admission are much more strict than in the country you are currently studying in.

Your chances of getting a job back in your home country are very slim as well because the economy has collapsed.

In other words, there is no future for you back home.

This scenario may sound extreme. However, every single fact I listed is based on personal experience.

I know an international student who lives in a $120-dollar room, another who purchased a small black and white TV for 10 dollars.

Almost all international students I know do not go out very often and work very hard.

The economic situation I described in “your” home country is what is really happening in the countries hit hardest by the economic crisis.

So what do the international students hit by the economic crisis do? Many of them DO get a job, sometimes two jobs, sometimes three jobs.

You would know that many international students work if you had only talked to one.

I am also working, and I am paying taxes.

As for whining and international students’ expectations from the university, what would you do in the situation I described?

Would you not be desperate enough to hope for some extra help? Would you not be crying out your hopes?

What most international students need, especially in a difficult financial situation, is some attention and sympathy.

That was the purpose of the help rooms set up by ISU for students hit by the economical crisis. And it worked.

If you had read more closely the article you are complaining about, you would have noticed that some of the students interviewed were quite satisfied with what had been done for them. They were not whining.

One last thing. You may think that international students are just taking a bite out of the U.S. educational system and will then disappear back to their home country.

From the scenario I described, it should be clear to you that if they can help it, many of them will want to stay in the U.S.

International students go home because they get kicked out from the U.S. once they are done studying and because they have obligations back in their home country.

Their purpose is not to steal a good education from the U.S.

But then, you would not want to have all those international students stay and take away your jobs, would you?

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Agnes Bischoff

Senior

Physics