Poly Prep positions itself as a school at the fore-front of diversity and acceptance, labeling themselves as “a community that reflects our country’s great pluralism, encouraging everyone to thrive in an environment that values multiple perspectives and experiences,” as stated on their website. But that idea of “pluralism” is increasingly being tested outside of Poly’s gates. Recent federal proposals under the Trump administration aiming to tighten student visa policies raise a more pressing question for schools like Poly: if international students are an integral part of Poly’s student body, what is at stake if that presence declines?
International exchange has been deeply entrenched in Poly’s curriculum and history for decades.
As Director of Enrollment, Admissions, and Financial Aid LaTasha Richards says,, “we have had international students in some form or fashion for a number of years:” families who she described to “come and tell others about their experiences,” which created a “nice, steady flow.” This is an aspect central to Poly’s identity as a school and as a perpetrator of excellence in our current climate, which is full of diversity in culture.
In the United States, there are a few separate ways that an individual can pursue an American education without obtaining citizenship: the F-1 visa, the J-1 visa, or by securing a green card. The F-1 visa is also known as a student visa, and allows for “foreign nationals” to attend university/college, high school, private elementary school, seminary school, conservatory school, or another academic institution (including a language training program) in the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s website.
The F-1 visa is for standard academic students who are funded through personal finances, family, or loans, while the J-1 visa (which functions the same) is for students in specific educational exchange programs where students receive a majority of their financial support from sources other than personal funds (government, etc.), according to UC Berkeley’s International Office.
During his second term, President Donald Trump has disclosed plans to put a four-year limit on student visas as well as to hold frequent assessments for visa holders by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to an article written by the department. Under this proposal, international students on an F-1 student visa — who are currently typically allowed to remain in the United States for the “duration of status” as long as they are enrolled and in good standing — would instead face a fixed maximum stay of four years, regardless of their program length, potentially requiring extensions or reapplications for longer degrees such as Master’s or PhD programs.
In addition, the plan’s call for frequent assessments would involve more regular monitoring and compliance checks by DHS, including verifying students’ enrollment status, academic progress and adherence to visa rules (such as work restrictions), through systems like the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) and increased reporting requirements from schools according to the article, thereby creating a more time-restricted and actively monitored student visa system.
According to a research paper published on ScienceDirect and written by Mingyu Chen, Jessica Howell and Jonathan Smith, stricter student visa regulations have been shown to discourage international students from applying to and enrolling in U.S. schools, as higher visa refusal rates and increased uncertainty significantly reduce international enrollment. Furthermore, according to an article by the Council on Foreign Relations, recent data from 2025 shows that tighter visa rules and increased scrutiny have already led to measurable declines in international student enrollment.
Poly currently hosts five exchange students from China across the different high school grades: Michael Cai ’26, Suri Sun ’26, Alan Zhang ’27, Edward Gao ’28 and Koen Chen ’28.
Zhang, who came to Poly this year was immediately confronted with a “warm environment,” with “students greeting me actively,” as he put it. This welcoming atmosphere is something Poly prides itself on (stating that they “embrace inclusion” on their website), but it is also reinforced by intentional support from faculty.
As Upper School Dean Perri Meeks explains, “I work to try and meet early and often with my international students, just so that they’re feeling comfortable and that they have someone to turn to…,” highlighting how consistent guidance helps to ease the transition.
Together, this culture of openness and structured support creates an environment that enables international students to adjust more smoothly and sets them up for success. As Zhang noted, “I think we’re just being well supported by all the faculty members,” reinforcing how that intentional support is clearly felt by the students themselves.
For many international students, arrival at Poly is defined more so by an accumulation of moments, as opposed to a single dramatic one: small adjustments that signal they are entering a new cultural system.
For Gao, the early weeks at Poly felt disorienting, largely due to the fact that the people around him were using words that he had never heard before: cultural colloquialism that wasn’t readily accessible in an ESL classroom. Over time, he was able to learn and adapt to the colloquialisms that were tossed around in the hallways.
For Sun, Poly felt very different from what she had expected based on media portrayals of American high schools. As she explained, “It’s not the American high school that I expected… people are very serious in their work, because it’s a prep school, so it actually felt very similar to my school in China.”
For some students, there is an undercurrent of the sensation of “liv- ing a double life,” as Sun put it. She described feeling like a “foreigner” for the first cou- ple of days in her home country after returning during the summer, and said that her “life is so divided, and my social circles are in two different countries.”
Cai expressed a similar sentiment, saying that, while he still feels very connected to China, the United States has given him another home and that he is “equally connected to both American culture and Chinese culture . . . [being an international student] gives me a second identity.”
However, it is precisely this sense of dual identity that makes international students such an integral part of Poly’s community. As Cai described, feeling equally connected to both American and Chinese cultures allows him to navigate and contribute to each in a meaningful way.
That perspective often carries into the classroom: for example, Sun shared that she has drawn connections between the Chinese writing system and the Japanese one in her Intro to Japanese class, while Zhang explained that he frequently discusses the Chinese education system with his peers, comparing it to that of the United States.
In this way, international students are able to become more than mere learners in a classroom but informal educators that add a different perspective in and outside of the classroom. As Meeks notes, “sharing ideas on both sides… is really helpful,” highlighting how these exchanges allow students to learn not just from teachers, but from each other’s cultural perspectives.
As Ruoran Huang, World Languages Faculty who helps coordinate and translate for international students said, having international students here allows Poly students to look beyond their “interior community” and “develop their awareness of what it means to be a ‘global-minded citizen,” an opportunity that could be significantly diminished under tighter visa regulations.
