“Was it worth it? I guess so,” Musa Hasan sighed after recalling his journey as an international graduate student from Pakistan during Covid-19.
When Hasan applied to The Media School’s master’s program in 2019, he never thought it would take a year and a half for him to actually start his degree in Bloomington.
Issues with funding prevented him from starting in the 2019 Fall semester. Covid-19 made it nearly impossible for him to pursue higher education in America.
“When the pandemic happened and borders were close and visas were not being issued, I decided that I should defer my admission another semester,” Hasan said.
Being denied his study visa was the last thing he expected so late into the admissions process.
“At that point, there was very little risk of my visa not going through based on the fact that once you’re admitted to a grad school and once you know where your funding is coming from,’ he said, ‘it’s pretty much guaranteed that the visa is going to go through.”
Extended interview with Hasan about his journey to IU
There are about 5,000 international students from around 141 countries at Indiana University, according to Rendy Schrader, Senior Director of International Student and Scholar Programs and Initiatives.
Like Hasan, they each have a unique story of how the pandemic effected them. Schrader recalled a couple specific ones.
“A lot of students were impacted in their home countries, so parents’ businesses failed because of Covid, and they didn’t have enough money to continue their studies,” she said.
She added stories of students who lost large amounts of money trying to fly back home. Those flights were canceled without refund.
Hasan, also, knew others who were impacted in their graduate school journey. Friends of his were forced to start their programs from Pakistan, with classes at 3 a.m. because of the time difference.
“It hit and it hit hard, but I’m pretty proud of our response and the response of our students,” Schrader said.
Courtesy of Open Doors Data, this graph shows how the number of international students coming to America dropped in 2020, mostly due to the pandemic.
Hasan has been in Bloomington for over a year now, but he still struggles to balance his studies and social life since his degree plan has changed.
“Because I started in the spring of last year… I’m sort of behind in terms of catching up with the trajectory my degree is supposed to take,’ Hasan said, ‘I don’t have the luxury of taking my time with that sort of thing.”
“It also feels less like I came here to do anything other than finish my degree,” he added.
Additionally, common graduate-school tasks like choosing advisors are tough since there was no orientation for the spring semester.
The burden of academics tend to make Hasan forget he is no longer in his home country.
“I’ve spent the better part of a year inside of an apartment, inside my bedroom specifically. Sometimes I forget I’m in a different country because of that,” he said.
Hasan says his journey hasn’t been easy, but proving his self-sufficiency makes the journey worth it.
“Proving to myself and my family that I am capable of being on my own and surviving for two years is a big deal to me,” he chuckled.
Schrader praised Hasan and other international students for their determination.
“We found out that international students are persistent…We’re all a little more resilient than we thought,” she said.
