By Laramie Wong
Harvard Law School. The top school in the country—everyone wants to be in the top 1%. Studying profusely, incorporating extracurriculars, personal essays, outstanding grades, and leadership roles are most common in how people get into top colleges. As for Harvard, every single year they get millions of students who dream to be a part of such a “prestigious” college. These factors are just some of the few to even get noticed by this Harvard. According to Harvard’s enrollment charts from 2024-2025, of the students who enroll and get accepted into Harvard, 27.2% are international students. News of Donald Trump temporarily blocking foreign Harvard students from being accepted for now as well as putting a stop to renewing/extending visas spread shock around the country. Regarding how our economy is with the ongoing trade wars, Trump’s plan coincides with an increased chance of removing illegal immigrants out of our country. A huge part of the removal of Chinese international students in particular—why? Rumors of posing international students living amongst the students on campus have been adequate. Charles Lieber, a former Harvard professor and researcher studying in Harvard’s chemistry department, gets arrested after claims of him spying for the Chinese Communist Party and even filing for false tax spread quickly. After he was ruled guilty, he fled to China, where he currently works at a university again as a professor. Harvard states he wasn’t able to continue his research in the U.S., so he flew back to China. Another huge factor that we can bring in is wealthy international students. Think of a prince, princess, chairman, etc. Wealthy and doing strong in their own country, they send their kids off to study abroad, but their kids don’t get accepted, just judging by the acceptance rate, by the way. Receiving this news of a rejection, they immediately bribe an admissions officer with millions of dollars, and boom, their child gets in, and the U.S. citizen whose spot was taken by bribery gets rejected. Up to $500,000 was reported to be donated and $250,000 to manipulate their child’s college entrance exam. Overall, quite expensive. The latest news about this ongoing case Trump filed for has been put to a halt, where the judge temporarily blocks Trump’s ban on foreign Harvard students. In fact, Judge Allison Burroughs even states, “The oldest university in the US would face immediate and irreparable injury if the proclamation went into effect.” Trump argued the ban is quite necessary on national security grounds and even accused Harvard of not doing enough to stop the prejudice and discrimination on campus. Another rendering factor Trump wanted to proclaim is to suspend new international student visas. Judge Allison Burroughs puts a halt to Trump’s proclamation for now. The next hearing is scheduled for July 21, 2025; by then, Trump will deal with the ongoing financial support Harvard receives. Approximately 6.5 billion dollars has been endorsed to Harvard by the government for financial aid. Since the trial has begun, Trump has frozen the 2.2 billion in grants and 60 million in contracts. Harvard’s president argues the freezing of the account infringes upon the university and shouldn’t be supported. They will start to accept less money from the government, an official states. What do you think of this war between Donald Trump and Harvard? Make sure to read all news about this topic before choosing a side!