Far from home

Many decades ago, dinner at Procter Hall involved graduate students lining up in robes before the great doors were opened and the students filed into the hall while an organist played overhead. While it is easy to imagine the ghosts of yesterday filing into the hall in robes, the modern-day graduate students who dine there have drastically different demographics from the almost exclusively white males of the old days. One sees many foreign grad students who add a distinctly cosmopolitan feel to the neo-Gothic surroundings, and indeed chopsticks are available in the utensil tray even when the dishes served are not obviously Asian. This is not surprising, as international students constitute nearly 40 percent of the graduate students at Princeton, compared to about 10 percent of undergrads.

Of course, yours truly is part of this demographic that the Department of Homeland Security so delightfully terms as “non-resident aliens.” In fact, I have been a foreign student twice over: I left the humid climes of my native Malaysia almost eight years ago to embark on my undergrad studies at University College London in the United Kingdom, before moving across the pond for grad school here. Over all these years, I have almost become inured to being “foreign.” I learned to get used to life wherever I was, and homesickness has become a distant memory for me. I have even stopped pining for the delicious and varied cuisine that Malaysians are proud of.

However, meeting the newly arrived international grad students each year reminds me of the difficulties and sacrifices involved. The orientation week offered by the University is helpful but still woefully insufficient to mitigate the culture shock and disorientation before the hurricane of the graduate workload hits with full force. International undergrad students face many of the same issues, but whereas the undergrad admission process explicitly selects candidates who would fit well into the undergrad community, graduate admission is based solely on academic criteria. It is probably impossible to try to do otherwise, but it does mean the average international grad students are less well-equipped than their undergrad counterparts to deal with the issues involved.

While some grad students are from countries that are sufficiently well represented to form their own social groups, isolation is a major problem. While it is easier than before to stay in touch with family, it can be tricky when they are 10 time zones away — and the physical separation imposes a real psychological strain. As the academic year trudges into the winter, the cold and short days exacerbate the feeling of disconnectedness, especially among those from warmer climates.

Even for those who make the effort, the cultural differences mean it can be difficult for foreign students to feel at ease in the social milieu of Princeton. For some, the minimum English language requirements to get into grad school turn out to be insufficient to communicate effectively outside of the classroom.

In addition to social problems, international grad students also face the academic culture shock that comes from being in an academic system that is unique even within the United States. Since many grad students tie their identity very strongly to their work, their sense of self-worth can get eroded when things aren’t going well — a common occurrence due to the uncertain nature of graduate work. For those without a social support group, there is not much to stop the descent into the dark well of depression, or worse.

Though I have to some extent assimilated into the campus community, it troubles me to have encountered undercurrents of ostracism toward the international grad students. Yes, many of them don’t party on weekend evenings, and they may not speak English entirely fluently, but I think there needs to be more understanding of the magnitude of the challenges that they have to face day in and day out.

It is a remarkable testament to the willpower and determination of international graduate students that the vast majority overcome adversity to do very well in their graduate careers, and beyond. The University recognizes some of their challenges and provides resources to help them cope, but the rest of the community should work harder to understand and respect the difficulties they experience.