In the 2025–2026 academic year, around 13% of Middlebury students were non-residents, hailing from more than 70 countries. For those students — and for all students in the United States without American citizenship — this means something very different from what it did before the second Trump administration took office.
Visa terminations and deportations of international students nationwide sparked panic early in 2025. Earlier this year, the Trump administration suspended the approval of immigrant visas for people from 75 countries and banned students from 35 countries from applying for an F, M, or J student visa, including Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti, Sudan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority, among others. The list includes the countries of origin of several Middlebury students.
For those with single-entry visas, which permit entry into the U.S. only once, leaving the U.S. to return home could mean being barred from re-entry, as they cannot apply for a new visa. In addition, new State Department guidelines encourage students to apply for visas from their country of citizenship or an affiliated embassy, further restricting visa availability. Some students left home to attend Middlebury without knowing they would not be able to go home for four or more years.
In addition to their typical responsibilities as students, international students face additional concerns. In messages with The Campus, two international students — who chose to remain anonymous due to concerns about immigration status — mentioned constant considerations, such as carrying a folder of identity and immigration documents even when traveling within the U.S., monitoring their engagement on social media, and self-censoring in private communications. This reality drives decisions about picking majors, securing on-campus jobs, and studying abroad.
“There are so many loops we need to jump through. There is always so much paperwork, so many things all the time, and it’s so overwhelming. On top of all that, we’re just scared and anxious non-stop,” one student said. “It's not easy to be on alert but also organized… if I’m doing anything at all, I have to think about so many things and so many consequences.”
On April 16, 2025, an international student enrolled at the college had their Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records temporarily revoked by the U.S. government, placing their legal status to attend class and be in the United States under question.
Both students who spoke with The Campus — who either hold multi-entry visas or passports from countries not directly affected — shared the anxiety that comes with re-entry into the country, despite not having personally experienced issues.
“There definitely is a mental aspect to it where you are standing there in the immigration line scanning the officers to see who seems nicer, or worried that you might have posted something a long time ago that might get you in trouble,” another student said. “I have never experienced this anywhere else or at any point in my life: the idea that some stranger can dictate whether I stay here and learn, or get sent home, or worse.”
Members of the Admissions Office and the two students commended the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) program as a helpful and proactive resource for prospective and current international students. According to Jess Schlotfeldt, interim executive director of ISSS, the office provides support through individual appointments and timely updates regarding policy changes that may directly impact international students.
Still, ISSS’s capabilities only extend so far. The two students shared that the college’s remote location has given them a relative sense of safety when moving around campus regularly, but physical security remains a background anxiety.
Middlebury sits within 100 air miles of the U.S. border, where immigration agents have broader authority to conduct warrantless vehicle searches and set up checkpoints.
“It is always in the back of your head that you are different, and at any moment someone can threaten your position here,” one student said.
In the potential event of seeing or interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on campus, one student recalled that the general advice has been to call Public Safety. Although the student recognized the difficult position of campus security or administration, they also did not see this as a realistic solution.
“We never know what could be done to us,” she said. “We never know if we will be in a situation where we can call PubSafe or make a phone call at all.”
Recruiting and retaining future students
The college’s global character is a central part of its messaging: the front page of the Middlebury website highlights the opportunity to study in “one of the most immersive and globally engaged experiences in higher education.” Professor of International Economics and Director of International and Global Studies Sunder Ramaswamy expressed his belief that international students are a key component of that global reputation. As chair of the Define Global Mission and Strategy working group — part of college President Ian Baucom’s 10-year plan — Ramaswamy said that he has received no “signals from higher-ups” or administration to “retreat” on this front.
“I think everybody came in [to the working group] with an understanding that international students play a very important role [at Middlebury],” Ramaswamy said. “Nobody at any moment said, ‘Let’s think about whether we should reduce the number of international students.’”
According to Associate Director of Admissions Santana Audet, the number of international applicants to the college under the 2025–2026 application cycle remained “steady” as compared to last year.
“It has been a challenging time for international students as U.S. immigration policies change rapidly,” Dean of Admissions Nicole Curvin wrote in an email to The Campus. “We were pleased that the majority of our incoming international students were able to join us on campus in Fall 2025 despite the disruptions and uncertainty.”
This year, however, the Admissions Office has treated an applicant’s immigration status based on their country of residence as an inevitable factor in its decision-making. As reported by Audet, admission readers review applications from “banned” countries in a manner similar to the past, but final decisions about the admitted class must consider immigration policies.
“To admit them would be lovely, to show how strong of a student they were, but if we can't actually get them onto our campus, then it's not going to benefit that student or us to have that admit out there, right?” Audet said. “It’d be disappointing for everyone. We can only work within the policies. So it’s disheartening — there are huge swaths of the world that are not going to be able to be represented on our campus in next year’s class.”
Campus conversation: a lack of
Looking to the future, both students communicated in messages to The Campus that they hoped for greater support from departments other than ISSS, expressing that they have felt minimal reassurance or acknowledgment from the administration thus far.
“There are also domestic American students who try to be supportive, but I don’t think anybody really knows how to support an international student who is in a difficult situation when it comes to these new policies,” one student said.
In the absence of structured on-campus dialogue, according to students it can sometimes feel like these problems are siloed within the directly affected community.
“It would be nice to hold spaces where we can talk about how difficult it is to be an international student right now in the U.S., because this is something you don’t hear about around campus,” the other student said.
With no end in sight, these policies will shape the remainder of the education of all international students at the college, and likely the years following their graduation.
“I just wish people were more curious about others’ stories,” she said. “We are all so desensitized and look to the media for stories that are literally living among us.”
Editor's Note: Managing Editor Yuvraj Shah ’26 contributed reporting to this article.
Noor Khan '28 (she/her) is a Layout Editor.
Noor is a History major and studies French. She was an editorial intern at the Los Altos Town Crier for the summer of 2025.
