This year, students from over 50 different countries flocked to the Rhode Island School of Design seeking a unique art school education. While international students compose roughly 6% of the U.S. higher education community, they make up around 33% of the RISD undergraduate population — over double the share of Brown undergraduates who are international students.
The Herald spoke to three international undergraduates at RISD about why so many students from abroad choose to come to the school and the United States for their studies.
Many RISD international students highlighted the American college education system’s flexibility as motivation to study art in the United States. For Brown-RISD Dual Degree student Maximos Spatharakis ’29, U.S. art schools are “more experimental and more innovative” than those in his home country of Greece.
Kevin Chang, a first-year RISD student from Taiwan, echoed this sentiment, saying he chose to come to the United States for the “idea of freedom” and an “open mindset.”
Some students also highlighted RISD’s global reputation as another reason many international students choose to attend the school. Spatharakis specifically felt that art schools in other countries do not have the same recognition as art schools in the United States.
“Probably nobody knows what the best art school in Greece is,” he said. “And I don't know what the best art school in Russia, in Spain or in Korea is. But if you ask me what the best art schools in the United States are, I would probably be able to name two or three without any trouble.”
With so many international students at RISD, Spatharakis said it often feels like being international is the “norm.”
But despite this large community, Spatharakis said it can be challenging when there aren’t many students from your home country. Since “there are so many internationals, sometimes it feels like if you're not from one of those big countries that funnel into RISD, it’s a bit more isolated,” he said.
Almost half of RISD’s international community are from mainland China, which sends the most undergraduate students to RISD compared to other countries. Second is South Korea, followed by Canada.
For Chang, — a native Mandarin Chinese speaker — even sharing the language with other students helps him feel less homesick, for instance.
Some students also pointed to safety as a reason they chose to come to school in the United States. An international student from Shanghai, who is transgender and was granted anonymity due to their personal safety concerns, cited increased acceptance of the queer community as a benefit of studying in the United States.
But since President Trump took office, the student has felt that the national environment has changed.
The Trump administration has been vocal about their anti-trans initiatives and Trump’s executive orders have declared that the U.S. only recognizes “two sexes, male and female.”
In early April, an international student at RISD had their student visa terminated. This has left many students feeling “really anxious,” according to the student from Shanghai. They feel that the visa terminations across U.S. schools are a way to “scare” the international community.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
“It was very scary” when the news of the visa revocation broke, Spatharakis shared, adding that the uncertainty of what happens next if a student loses their visa has also become a concern. Now “there’s suddenly a world of bad possibilities that opens up” which international students didn’t have to think about before, he said.
Some international students said they wish that RISD would provide more information about what they are doing for the student who lost their visa.
Spatharakis would like RISD to be “a bit more transparent with what they are doing behind the scenes.” While he appreciates the communication RISD has provided to students, he claims the administration is projecting “blind optimism.”
The student from Shanghai also feels RISD hasn’t done enough. “I think instead of giving into the fear, RISD could help us to fight back,” they said, adding that RISD could do “more than just send us a few emails.”
RISD did not respond to requests for comment.
