May 30, 2025
I loved seeing my former students at a school reunion last weekend, most now married, many with infants in their arms, or toddlers in tow. I was reminded how, in my 10th grade English classroom, they loved lambasting MacBeth for his reckless “vaulting ambition” to become ruler at any cost after consorting with the three witches who made up his sort of Cabinet.
I left the reunion confident that, regardless of their political persuasion, they had honed their critical thinking skills to realize, as Shakespeare’s Scottish monarch could only do after his careless thirst for power led to his impending downfall, that hollow rhetoric “ full of sound and fury” is actually “signifying nothing.” In other words, the hot air of bombast leads to … nothing productive or helpful.
I left the school knowing, in this unprecedented era of loud political threats and sudden retractions, that these alums — including a creative writing star who had become a banker, and a lover of Victorian novels who had morphed into a social worker — could see beneath the surface of the current administration’s bullying tactics.That each new outrageous act out of the White House promises a furiously sounding menace …. which is then ruled illegal, tempered, or withdrawn.
In the case of educational threats, this “sound and fury” comes at the detriment of children, campuses, and our nation. McMillan Education understands that the clamorous educational bluffs ring similar to the bombastic bluster surrounding outlandish tariffs and impossible imperialism.
So let’s break down the recent sound and fury into a modern-day Shakespeare tragedy. (With the understanding there are, sadly, more acts to come.)
Act I – Headlines scream: Greenland to Become Part of US! In fact, the government and its citizens couldn’t be more clear: “The US won’t get that.” The bluster backfired, as Greenland distanced itself from its previously close US friend and aligned itself more closely with Europe.
Act II – Click-Baiting Snippets Blare: US to Add Canada as 51st State! In fact, Canada’s Prime Minister stated, “It will never happen.” The ruse boomeranged, hurt the US economy, and led Canada to reject their own extreme right wing threat and seek international allegiances elsewhere.
Act III – International Students Banned from Harvard! In fact, the courts promptly overturned this unenforceable threat, with the university calling the act an “unprecedented and retaliatory attack on academic freedom at Harvard.” The administration subsequently backed off its immediate foreign student ban.
Act IV – 50% Tariffs to Cripple Our European Allies! In fact, the global tariffs were quickly pulled back once the stock market tanked and they were deemed illegal by the courts.
Act V – Foreign Visas Suspended! In fact, this pause to determine a social media vetting policy for international students may well be lifted once its destructive economic impact on America sinks in. Though we are not convinced the administration will grasp the American educational suicide this hypothetical reform would create — suddenly removing America from the top of the world’s educational pyramid — our belief is that the White House will change its mind and reinstitute visas (except to its villain, China, as we predicted months ago) due to the reckless move’s financial implications. In fact, the nation would lose out on the spending and tuition provided by 1.1 million international students, who contributed 43.8 billion dollars to the US economy and supported more than 378,000 jobs last year — certainly not a clear win for America First.
At the same time we separate the words from the actions, however, we are also hypersensitive to the fact that the administration’s words themselves pose an unnecessary but very real challenge to students from abroad. Their Act V student visa maneuver does indeed cause wincing pain, since it reinforces the message: the country’s president is inhospitable to international students.
So we, as a team of college and school counselors, join the voices across American campuses ensuring international students that they will continue to be welcomed with open arms to our incredible academic communities. Though the US president doesn’t understand the gifts you bring to this country, the university presidents certainly value your contributions — as do the professors, your future classmates, the business owners in college towns — and the American public, from coast to coast.
We stand with our peers in the National Association for College Admission Counseling, led by CEO Angel Perez, who proudly proclaim, “International students are vital to the intellectual, cultural and economic strength of our campuses and our nations. Denying them the opportunity to study here undermines the United States’ role as a global leader, and sends a chilling message to the world: that politics, not principles, guide our policies on education.”
As we have been based in Boston since 1955, we are especially proud of our Massachusetts’ Governor’s position supporting her own alma mater, one the 35 colleges within 15 miles of our office. Maura Healey declared, “The attack on Harvard and other colleges and universities is just in line with a playbook of attacking law firms, attacking companies, weaponizing the [Department of Justice] and continuing to find ways to shut down anyone who disagrees with them or stands in their way.”
We are confident that the checks and balances of our judicial system will allow our nation to withstand these authoritarian attacks on intellectual freedom and make our democracy healthier than ever. In fact, America’s esteemed universities transcend petty politics and represent our country’s unrivaled ability to gather students from around the world to contribute their rich and varying perspectives, thus fostering unparalleled scientific discovery and humanitarian goodwill.
In our work as college and school counselors, we at McMillan Education remain fully committed to our 70-year tradition of guiding students from over 65 countries to American boarding schools and universities where they have historically enriched the academic and social communities on campuses across our country. Just as we have researched recent disruptive changes to the admissions landscape — COVID, test optional politics, Supreme Court Rulings regarding Affirmative Action, and a woman’s right to choose — and subsequently determined how to best provide guidance to our students, we have committed ourselves to providing the clearest possible advice to our international students during this volatile period.
For those already accepted to institutions for this fall, that means giving advice about visas, including having students connect directly with the universities that have accepted them. These institutions are excited to have them attend and want to help them cut through visa red tape. For our current and future students, we will give them a clear roadmap to navigate the necessary steps for a successful transition to US campuses, and leverage the best strategies to fulfill our mission: finding the right campus where students can thrive to their highest potential.
As we previously described, we have taken two distinct steps this year to address the political turmoil: 1) include campus safety and cultural climate to the list of key elements we consider when creating a tailored college list, along with curriculum, acceptance rate, size, location, price, internships, alum network, etc; 2) add a wider range of choices at English-speaking universities in Canada, the UK and Europe to hedge against further political unrest in the US (though many of our current high school students may well outlast the current administration).
In fact, we’re rooting for a final act of this tragedy similar to Shakespeare’s MacBeth, where the heedless ruler is vanquished, and the new ruler, Malcolm, immediately decides he will be:
calling home our exiled friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny
