Darla Veitch, a 19-year-old student attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is not the stereotypical college student, gathering in crowds at the beach or in bars.

The farthest she strays from home, she said, is her backyard.

“The last time I went out was probably three months ago, to Home Depot to get some plants to put in our garden,” said Veitch. “Very crazy.”

Images of parties and bars frequently paint a picture of young people who are ignoring social distancing guidelines, like wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic. As students have returned to college campuses, cases have risen.

But not all young people are mingling at parties without wearing masks.

Veitch said she is taking online classes because she expected the pandemic would not let up anytime soon.

“It’s been very boring,” said Veitch. “I spend a lot of time...well…all my time indoors with my family. Occasionally my boyfriend visits me.”

He sits two meters away with a mask, and has precautionary testing. He results have been negative.

“For nine months, I haven’t been able to hug my boyfriend or my friends or go on campus. And I know I’m taking this extremely seriously. I definitely think with the climate of politics and what’s going on in our country, I feel very useless because I can’t go out and do something about the events I’m seeing because I don’t want to put other people’s lives at risk,” she added.

Being cautious on campus

Coleman McJessy, a junior at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, says that he and most young people around him are social distancing, not partying, and always wear masks.

“Masks have become a way of life. I don’t know the last time I’ve seen someone have to get reprimanded by a professor or by campus security for not wearing a mask,” the 20-year-old said.

McJessy lives in a dorm with roommates and gets tested twice a week. The university offers the testing for free. Anyone on campus for any reason is required to participate.

People are also required to wear face coverings outdoors and indoors in shared, but not private, spaces.

On October 5, Trinity had no active cases on campus. But one week later, 47 active cases were confirmed among students, out of around 2,100 members of the student body.

While McJessy says he and his friends stay on campus mostly, they take extra precautions off campus and are more strategic when making plans.

“If I go to Target to get food, I make a list, go in, and go out. You don’t really do anything just because it’s a spur of the moment thing because you want to make a plan to do the activity whether it’s going off campus or on campus,” McJessy said.

“And [you ask], ‘How safe is it going to be? What’s the chance of getting the virus?’ I think those are questions that are in the back of everybody’s mind,” he added.

Theo Carter, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, also tries to stay indoors as much as possible despite living alone in a dorm on campus.

“I spend a lot of time in my dorm,” Carter said. “I typically go out once a week to get groceries...I probably stay indoors around 80% of the time.”

Frustration with peers

Young people following pandemic regulations express frustration at peers who do not.

“It’s very frustrating and very hard. Because I also want to be going out and partying, but feel a responsibility to not do that so that I don’t endanger myself and others,” Carter said.

“Everything on the news is telling you to stay inside, but you go around and see everyone else ignoring mandates and they’re not social distancing,” Carter said.

Like many adults, some students on campus are not wearing masks and social distancing, he said.

“They’ll wear them under their chin or just hold them. Just walking around campus, they don’t really wear them at all,” Carter said.

As of October 13, the University of North Carolina-Charlotte had 287 confirmed positive cases, 243 among students. There were 17 on-campus active cases.

“Of course, it’s hard to be young now and you want to party and hang out with friends, but they are also educated enough to follow the guidelines of this pandemic,” said Veitch, who said she’s unfollowed some friends on social media after seeing them ignore social distancing.

College administration plays a big role, said McJessy.

Trinity has done “a really good job of creating rules that can be followed and that aren’t unreasonable, such as a testing protocol so that we know when somebody is sick and how to adjust our schedules for that. And a strict no-tolerance policy,” he said.

“My campus is almost entirely a residential campus, so it’s very easy, if there is loud music and lights blasting from a dorm, for campus security to knock on their door and see what’s going on,” he added.

‘We’re not fully to blame’

Veitch said she understands why people are pointing fingers but that young people shouldn’t be fully to blame.

“While we’re pointing the finger at young people, we have adults going to indoor rallies and super spreader events that have now resulted in the White House being completely covered with this horrible virus. It’s a little hypocritical,” Veitch said.

On September 26, President Donald Trump hosted more than 200 people in the White House Rose Garden to announce his nominee for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett. Images of the event showed most attendees did not wear a face mask. After the event, more than two dozen people were reported to have contracted the coronavirus, including the president, first lady Melania Trump and several aides.

President Trump received treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and is now back on the campaign trail. His doctor says the president tested negative “on consecutive days.”

Being responsible

Veitch said she bears a responsibility to others.

“I have elderly friends and adult friends who are 50-plus years old that I can’t imagine if something happened to them because of my negligence,” she said.

“I think it’s extremely important for young people to set the standard for behavior, especially because we are the future for this country and this planet. I definitely think we should take more responsibility,” she said.

“I think there is a lot of cynicism about college kids and I don’t think that’s necessarily granted by the numbers, at least by my personal experience here. I do wish that there would be a more complete understanding of college students,” McJessy added.

It’s tough to gain admission to Yale University, and it’s getting even tougher for international students as standout students from around the world set their sights on Yale.

The Yale Dale News, the campus newspaper, takes a look at the situation here.

Read the full story here.

Ruth Chane, a computer science major from Ethiopia, writes about her experiences settling into student life at Whitman College in the U.S. state of Washington.

"The community at Whitman College made sure I felt welcomed even before I stepped foot on campus," she says.

Read her essay here.

In The Student Life, the student newspaper for the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of five liberal art colleges and two graduate schools in Claremont, California, student Rochelle Lu writes about readjusting to her Shanghai home after spending a semester in the United States.

Read the full story here.

Cedarville University in the U.S. state of Ohio says it’s got more than 140 international students representing 44 countries.

Here, the school interviews Jonathan Sutton, director of international student services. He talks about his job and the opportunities for international students on campus.

Read the full article here.

Morehouse College, a private, historically Black liberal arts college in the U.S. state of Georgia, offers a guide for international students interested in attending the school.

Among the tips to apply and thrive at Morehouse:

• Take advantage of the school’s orientation program
• Turn to the school’s Center for Academic Success for tutoring, support and more
• Immerse yourself in campus life via clubs and societies

Read the full article here.

The administration of President Donald Trump said on Monday it will review Columbia University's federal contracts and grants over allegations of antisemitism, which it says the educational institution has shown inaction in tackling.

Rights advocates note rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since U.S. ally Israel's devastating military assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Hamas militants' deadly October 2023 attack.

The Justice Department said a month ago it formed a task force to fight antisemitism. The U.S. Departments of Health and Education and the General Services Administration jointly made the review announcement on Monday.

"The Federal Government's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is considering Stop Work Orders for $51.4 million in contracts between Columbia University and the Federal Government," the joint statement said.

The agencies said no contracting actions had been taken yet.

"The task force will also conduct a comprehensive review of the more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments to Columbia University."

The agencies did not respond to requests for comment on whether there were similar reviews over allegations of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias.

Columbia had no immediate comment. It previously said it made efforts to tackle antisemitism.

College protests

Trump has signed an executive order to combat antisemitism and pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.

Columbia was at the center of college protests in which demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel due to the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's assault on Gaza. There were allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia in protests and counter-protests.

During last summer's demonstrations around the country, classes were canceled, some university administrators resigned and student protesters were suspended and arrested.

While the intensity of protests has decreased in recent months, there were some demonstrations last week in New York after the expulsion of two students at Columbia University-affiliated Barnard College and after New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the removal of a Palestinian studies job listing at Hunter College.

A third student at Barnard College has since been expelled, this one related to the occupation of the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia last year.

The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five U.S. universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.

It's part of President Donald Trump's promise to take a tougher stance against campus antisemitism and deal out harsher penalties than the Biden administration, which settled a flurry of cases with universities in its final weeks. It comes the same day the Justice Department announced a new task force to root out antisemitism on college campuses.

In an order signed last week, Trump called for aggressive action to fight anti-Jewish bias on campuses, including the deportation of foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

Along with Columbia and Berkeley, the department is now investigating the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University. The cases were opened using the department's power to launch its own civil rights reviews, unlike the majority of investigations, which stem from complaints.

Messages seeking comment were left with all five universities.
A statement from the Education Department criticized colleges for tolerating antisemitism after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and a wave of pro-Palestinian protests that followed. It also criticized the Biden administration for negotiating "toothless" resolutions that failed to hold schools accountable.

"Today, the Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses," said Craig Trainor, the agency's acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

The department didn't provide details about the inquiries or how it decided which schools are being targeted. Presidents of Columbia and Northwestern were among those called to testify on Capitol Hill last year as Republicans sought accountability for allegations of antisemitism. The hearings contributed to the resignation of multiple university presidents, including Columbia's Minouche Shafik.

An October report from House Republicans accused Columbia of failing to punish pro-Palestinian students who took over a campus building, and it called Northwestern's negotiations with student protesters a "stunning capitulation."

House Republicans applauded the new investigations. Representative Tim Walberg, chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, said he was "glad that we finally have an administration who is taking action to protect Jewish students."

Trump's order also calls for a full review of antisemitism complaints filed with the Education Department since Oct. 7, 2023, including pending and resolved cases from the Biden administration. It encourages the Justice Department to take action to enforce civil rights laws.

Last week's order drew backlash from civil rights groups who said it violated First Amendment rights that protect political speech.

The new task force announced Monday includes the Justice and Education departments along with Health and Human Services.

"The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found," said Leo Terrell, assistant attorney general for civil rights. "The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump's renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools."

The Times of India breaks down the most popular subjects for international students to study in the U.S.

STEM and business lead the pack. Read the full story here. (January 2025)

U.S. News & World report addresses some of the misconceptions about U.S. colleges and universities, including the difficulty of getting a visa.

Read the full story here. (January 2025)

A British student who did a year abroad at Bowling Green State University in Ohio talks about adjusting to life in America in a TikTok video, Newsweek magazine reports.

Among the biggest surprises? Portion sizes, jaywalking laws and dorm room beds.

Read the full story here. (December 2024)

Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health reaches out to international students by detailing the international student experience at the school.

Learn more about housing, life in Boston and more here.

China issued its first national action plan to build a "strong education nation" by 2035, which it said would help coordinate its education development, improve efficiencies in innovation and build a "strong country."

The plan, issued Sunday by the Communist Party's central committee and the State Council, aims to establish a "high quality education system" with accessibility and quality "among the best in the world."

The announcement was made after data on Friday showed China's population fell for a third consecutive year in 2024, with the number of deaths outpacing a slight increase in births, and experts cautioning that the downturn will worsen in the coming years.

High childcare and education costs have been a key factor for many young Chinese opting out of having children, at a time when many face uncertainty over their job prospects amid sluggish economic growth.

"By 2035, an education power will be built," the official Xinhua news agency said, adding that China would explore gradually expanding the scope of free education, increase "high-quality" undergraduate enrolment, expand postgraduate education, and raise the proportion of doctoral students.

The plan aims to promote "healthy growth and all-round development of students," making sure primary and secondary school students have at least two hours of physical activity daily, to effectively control the myopia, or nearsightedness, and obesity rates.

"Popularizing" mental health education and establishing a national student mental health monitoring and early warning system would also be implemented, it said.

It also aims to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas to improve the operating conditions of small-scale rural schools and improve the care system for children with disabilities and those belonging to agricultural migrant populations.

The plan also aims to steadily increase the supply of kindergarten places and the accessibility of preschool education.

The Open Notebook, a site focusing on educating journalists who cover science, has complied a list of U.S. graduate program financial aid information for international students.

Read it here.