Research Proposal
Working Title: International Student Stress and Anxiety
I will explore stress and challenges among international students studying at American universities. The main difficulties that international students experience at American universities are the language barrier, cultural differences, depression and anxiety, and financial issues. Since I am a part-time international student, I believe that this is a great opportunity to dig into this topic and share my experiences of studying in another language and feelings of being away from home.
Research Question
How are unique stressors of the international student college experience increasing anxiety and mental health challenges in this population? Why don't international students seek help as much as U.S. students? What could be done to support them more? What are the issues of stress and anxiety that international students and their parents may face? Do international parents share that stress with their kids more than American families do?
Theoretical Frame
In the book chapter on, “In Loco Parentis: Human Capital, Student Debt, and the Logic of Family Investment,” Melinda Cooper highlights the general trend of American universities' financing system that is based on a private family-based system. As education is considered as a private benefit and private purchase, universities focus on making money and taking advantage of financial aid programs which also driven causes of the growing recruitment of international students. I think this book will be useful for my research since it provides the general guideline of privatization in higher education that not only related to economic challenges like “budget deficits”, but also dealt with social anxiety that may put pressure on parents and students-especially international households- to deal with their monetary issues and following inequality further as they enter this new reality. Since the international student fees are massively increasing, many foreign applicants are no longer happy to pay high prices for a US degree unless they come with the guarantee of quality or premium reputation. However, International households tend to have less access to a financial aid system which is the main concern that American higher education is trying to keep itself afloat on the back of international students.
College life from an International student perspective may be different than the domestic student. Studying in other countries requires individuals to adjust and adapt to a different way of life, which involves culture, academics, and language. The main goal of international students is to overcome any challenges that may hinder their ability to thrive in a new environment. In the book, Ambitious and Anxious, Yingyi Ma raises a question about the segregated group of Chinese international students on campus. They know that engaging in oral communication is an important way of learning, but they often find great barriers, both internal and external, to put into action because they do not want to raise silly questions and want to ask thoughtful questions where they take a longer time than domestic students. The biggest stereotype people have against Chinese international students is that they lack passion and do not engage in class. However, the truth is that no matter how strong their motivation and awareness are, they are likely to miss their chances to show up which is quite stressful for them. I think this topic is interesting and important to talk about because there will be more students coming to study abroad and it has been a complicated issue that many international students are still facing.
College life from an International student perspective may be different than the domestic student. Studying in other countries requires individuals to adjust and adapt to a different way of life, which involves culture, academics, and language. The main goal of international students is to overcome any challenges that may hinder their ability to thrive in a new environment. In the book, Ambitious and Anxious, Yingyi Ma raises a question about the segregated group of Chinese international students on campus. They know that engaging in oral communication is an important way of learning, but they often find great barriers, both internal and external, to put into action because they do not want to raise silly questions and want to ask thoughtful questions where they take a longer time than domestic students. The biggest stereotype people have against Chinese international students is that they lack passion and do not engage in class. However, the truth is that no matter how strong their motivation and awareness are, they are likely to miss their chances to show up which is quite stressful for them. I think this topic is interesting and important to talk about because there will be more students coming to study abroad and it has been a complicated issue that many international students are still facing.
Cases or Examples
In the article, “The Chinese Mother’s American Dream,” Karin Fischer explores Abby’s journey where she put so many efforts for her daughter to send across the globe for better education and life. For example, paying for an American bachelor’s degree within her salaries 200,000 yuan was a tough decision. Since she could not afford the tuition, she decided to sell her apartment in Ningbo’s city center and bought a less expensive one in the suburbs just to make sure that she has enough money to support her daughter. By looking at her long journey, I realized that many parents are willing to make a sacrifice for their children to have a better future even if they have to give up on themselves. Parents want their children to experience a broader world that they have never experience before.
I am also looking at the book Indebted by Caitlin Zaloom where she focuses on the rise of tuition that puts less affluent families on the pressure with their financial issues and individual autonomy. As Zaloom points out, Americans try to hide financial issues from their kids- which is known as “nested silence”- when it come to financing their children’s educations because they do not want their children to limit their dreams but want them to live a better life than their parents. The economic issue is one of the most stressful cases to deal with for international households- especially who are not yet a citizen of the country. Adjusting to living and learning in their new environment may lead them to suffer from a serious mental issue and hard to focus on studying but instead worry about other factors around them.
Work Cited
Cooper, Melinda. “In Loco Parentis: Human Capital, Student Debt, and the Logic of Family Investment.” Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism. Zone Books, 2017. 215-257.
Ecochard, Sidonie, and Julia Fotheringham. “International Students’ Unique Challenges – Why Understanding International Transitions to Higher Education Matters.” Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, vol. 5, no. 2, 2017, doi:10.14297/jpaap.v5i2.261.
Fischer , Karin. “The Chinese Mother's American Dream.” Chronicle.com, 2015, www.chronicle.com/article/The-Chinese-Mothers-American/231239.
Ma, Yingyi. Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education. Columbia University Press,2020.
Ma, Yingyi. Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education. Columbia University Press,2020.
Zaloom, Caitlin. “Enmeshed Autonomy.” Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost. Princeton UP, 2019. 95-121.
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