This is how a Luxembourg Eastern Coast student experiences the mood of US universities

« It all says that we have to conduct this interview anonymously, » Thomas* (name changed by the editorial) in conversation with the « Luxembourg word » on a question of the policy of the US President, which has been in office since January. The Luxembourg is a student at a renowned university on the US East Coast and is dependent on his student visa. In order not to risk this, we do without his actual name and more precise details about his university in the article.

Thomas has been studying in the country of apparently unlimited possibilities for two years. « I’ve always wanted to study abroad, even when I was 14 years old, I annoyed my parents, » he laughs. « I worked hard in Luxembourg to make the goal reality. » When the wish came true three years ago, Thomas initially lived the American student dream: « Everything was great, I didn’t think about politics in the first year, but there was no reason for that, everything went great. »

A real community

In the United States, the campus is much more focus than, for example, in Luxembourg, where many students commute home. « You live there in a campus dormitory with your roommates and accordingly everything runs on the campus. It is a real community, I think it’s great, there are so many activities and you live and learn with each other, » says Thomas. « There is really much emphasis on life outside of class. »

The courses themselves are created differently. « I would say European students are better in their field than American students, » said Thomas. But that is a lot related to the different orientation. In the United States, it is less important to train all of them into extreme experts in their field and instead tie a good overall package, with additional skills outside the selected area. « It’s just a different approach, I would not say that one is the right one and the other is the wrong way, » says Thomas.

When Trump was elected for a second term in November 2024, Thomas and his fellow students were primarily shocked in view of the clear result. « After that everyone was disillusioned and ran around like shock. » Of course, this also has a lot related to the fact that in the university context you are often in a « democratic bubble » and it feel as if the other half of the country who voted for Trump does not exist at all.

In the university environment, many of his acquaintances first put their heads into the sand and closed their eyes in front of what was going on in Washington. « I think many were just afraid and therefore didn’t want to talk about politics, » said the Luxembourg.

When Thomas flew back from a vacation to the USA a few weeks ago, he was also nervous. « I had deleted everything from my cell phone that was Trump-critically in some form. In the end, they didn’t want to see anything, the entry-aged person was very nice and welcomed us in the country. But the stories of arrest and deportation are real, so you have it in your head, of course.

Resistance using the example of Harvard

Thomas sees the example of Harvard University, which recently controlled the demands of the Trump government, for example, to restrict political activism on campus: « It gives the impression that someone is finally getting up and trump. »

His trust in the American system is definitely shaken. « I don’t see exactly who will win this whole thing, apart from Trump and China. I definitely believe that he will try to run again. »

Nevertheless, Thomas – if possible – want to continue studying in the USA and can even imagine living there afterwards. “The thing is that: The USA is available in two versions, so to speak. There are the democratic states and the Republican states. In the former, cities like New York and Boston are and these are great cities that are guided by normal people that are actually also responsible for their actions. Not everyone has chosen Trump in any northeastern state from New York to New Hampshir and then on the entire west coast and everyone will be all. Tell you that Trump is crazy.

* The name was changed by the editorial team.