Herman Response Letter

By Pearl Wong, '12 Economics major

Unfortunately, in her article last week, Herman has missed a vital point in her article that knowledge and education are fundamentally mobile skills, unrestrained by a country's boundaries.

Not to mention that international students flowing into the U.S. would actually boost our economy by spending their money here instead of abroad.

This concept is the same as the example brought up by Herman when she states "If a firm in the U.S. employs a U.S. citizen rather than, say, an Indian citizen (or a U.S. citizen buys a U.S.-manufactured product), it ensures that a marginally greater amount of money circulates within the country rather than outside of it."

The result of having more international students within our borders is the same as having "outside" money flow into the U.S.

Though Herman's fears of universities favoring international students are understandable, I doubt they will become a significant problem.

Firstly, for many students it is often more affordable to enter higher education within their home countries.

Secondly, international students must prove they are capable of overcoming the language barrier when studying abroad.

Thirdly, the already high competition amongst university-educated students would likely result in an ever more educated workforce than one has seen past generations and not "a less educated workforce," as Herman fears.

As I said before, knowledge is a mobile skill unconnected to national borders.

Should the U.S. fight against the ever globalizing world and attempt to return to protectionism, the limiting of international students would merely cut off another source of outside revenue.

In this approach, the U.S. will find it continually more difficult to fully recover from the recession.

The problems with our economy and our country as a whole do not lie in the universities' acceptance rate for international students.

"Prudent" universities will certainly recruit more international students, and it must be up to each institution to weigh the balance.

However, I personally believe universities are more likely to prosper from a more diverse and intellectually compelling student body, as the returning juniors surely learned from their programs abroad.

Pearl Wong

‘12 economics major

currently abroad at the LSE