Utah Tech only has three methods of giving financial aid to International students.

1. Win a contest. Get $1000.
2. Become an ISL. Get $1000.
3. International Merit Scholarship. 

The International Merit Scholarship has two phases.

If you're a freshman, you get around $5000 your first year.

If you're a continuing or transfer student (like I was) you get $7000 per year.

To be elegible you need a minimum of a 3.2 GPA and to be a full time student.

However, this scholarship got lowered $1000 this fall semester. And now we're getting news that for Spring 2023 they will lower it to a total of $2500 per year. In fact, it is already stated in the Utah Tech University website.

Tuition at Utah Tech for full students that are non-residents is $8,418 per semester, an average of $17,643.52 per year. That is without taking housing, food, and personal expenses into consideration (according to the institution's website). That would leave international students paying a total amount of $15,143.52 a year (again, without taking into consideration housing, food, fees, personal expenses, books, etc.)

That is an insane amount of money considering many things like:

• International students are not elegible for FAFSA, therefore we can't get need-based aid.
• We also cannot work off-campus unless the position is related to our major (even then, we need to ask for permission), which would be slightly reasonable if it weren't for the fact that companies and employers are not encouraged to hire international students due to sponsoring and all the paperwork it requires. Therefore we are stuck working on-campus with jobs that pay as low as $9 an hour. And the jobs that pay well on campus are workstudy jobs, which we cannot apply to unless it's, again, related to our major. So our job oppotunities are very limited.
• We are living on our own. Most of us don't have family here to drive us places, help us move in, buy us meals and groceries. We are on our own. Most of us don't even have a car and constantly rely on others to drive us to the doctor, the grocery store, etc. This makes our life harder. Not to mention the fact that we are in a whole different country, with different cultures, people, laws, language, etc. Which is definitely hard to adjust to. We don't need more on our plate. 
• Salaries in the U.S. are nothing like salaries outside of the U.S. In my case, I am from Spain. The average monthly salary in Spain as of 2022 is €1.714,94 ($1,720.63). And the average U.S. monthly salary is $6,228. Not to mention that the cost of living is also very different country to country.

Let's look at financial aid for non-resident american citizens. 

Looking at the website alone, the difference is unmatched. Starting with the fact that non-Utah residents transfer students have 8 options for a scholarship. Let's look at the one offered to students with the same GPA international students are required to have.

Baam. $11,568.96.

But since they are american citizens, add FAFSA to it as well.

Meanwhile, international students are getting their scholarship ripped away from them. And american citizens with a GPA as low as 2.5 are getting more aid than any international student with a 3.2+ GPA. 

And I'm not saying to take away american students' aid. I'm really not. But please do not take ours. 

Me and my previous year's peers won't be affected by this change, and I am fully aware of that.

But if I had only been born one or two years later, I wouldn't be able to get the quality education I am getting now.

So many hopeful, bright, and intelligent international students won't be able to get the wonderful opportunity that I got to study abroad.

The International Office is one, if not, the only place on campus where International Students feel represented and genuinely cared for. How is that possible? What is this University doing? 

What happened to embracing diversity, Utah Tech?

Do you just want us for your flyers? The website pictures? Or do you just enjoy the wonderful sight of seeing us walk around campus, advertising the diversity you claim to embrace, especially in your college tours?

Perhaps we are just like animals on a zoo. You love to show us off, you love to say you are proud to have us, that we are welcome here, that we BELONG here. 

Well, it doesn't feel like we do. See, I feel mistreated. I feel used. And I know it is not just me. I know so many of us feel this way. 

So please, Utah Tech University. Please. I am directly addressing you right now.

If you even care about our wellbeing, even if it's just a little bit. Reconsider. 

Being an international student is hard enough. Don't let us down.

Signed,

an International Student.