Earlier this year, President Carol Folt and I switched places: She visited my home city of Mumbai, basking in its sunshine, while I hid from the rain in Los Angeles to memorize the reasons behind the United States-China trade war. During her trip to India, Folt was interviewed by The Education Times, a weekly supplement to The Times of India, where she addressed the availability of financial resources for Indian students to attend USC. 

“My goal is to develop additional sources of funding to make our university more accessible to talented students globally,” Folt said. “We are also encouraging our alumni and the Indian business community to consider contributing to a new fund we have created to help provide additional financial support for Indian students.”

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As a student paying full tuition, I appreciate Folt recognizing that we, too, would like additional financial support. But at the same time, she emphasized the current resources that USC provides for international students, such as merit scholarships and on-campus jobs. However, she doesn’t mention that these programs have a very limited impact.

In a statement to the Daily Trojan, the Office of Admission said that merit scholarships are open to all international students, barring those with specific endowment or stewardship requirements. 

“There are specific awards for international students including their eligibility for the broader university-level merit scholarships (such as Trustee, Presidential and Deans),” wrote the Office of Admission.

USC failed to provide me with the exact number of the 760 merit scholars in the class of 2026 who were international students, and more specifically Indian international students. Instead, USC Public Relations referred me to public records which did not in fact have this data. However, Nishka Manghnani, a sophomore majoring in design and a merit scholar herself, remembers only interacting with four other merit scholars who weren’t U.S. citizens.

Even accounting for her possible misremembering, it’s highly likely that, while international students made up 18% of the class of 2026, less than 18% of the merit scholars in said class are international students. It seems as though Folt may be overstating the significance of merit scholarships for Indian international students.

Moreover, while it’s not impossible for international students to find on-campus jobs, it’s certainly difficult: Most jobs available on ConnectSC are for work-study students, and due to federal regulations and University policy, international students aren’t eligible for financial aid or work-study. 

“International students should be able to get the same opportunities in terms of work because people like to sustain themselves or have an extra source of income,” Manghnani said. “It shouldn’t be harder just because we are international students.” 

While I would like to say the sentiment of lack of financial support is a recent problem, multiple USC Reddit threads focusing on this say otherwise. When asked how international students afford USC, a Reddit user replied by saying that their parents sold their house. 

“You have to accept that colleges in general make money from international students,” wrote Reddit user stevenshum on the r/USC subreddit.

Perhaps, this is the reason behind Folt visiting specific “celebrity parents” and their friends — who don’t even have children at USC —  rather than all USC parents in Mumbai on her recent trip: USC wants to attract the rich celebrity children who can afford to pay full tuition. 

Overall, I don’t think USC is purposely trying to hurt its international students. They may believe that their actions are helping international students financially, but the outcomes are limited and they aren’t having the desired impact. USC needs to reevaluate and modify the resources they are providing to international students. After all, the resources that look glamorous on paper or in interviews should be as glamorous in real life, too.

Edhita Singhal is a sophomore from India writing about her experiences as an international student in her column, “Foreign Footprints,” which runs every other Tuesday.