In this week's episode of Ask NBN, we explore how undocumented students attend Northwestern. For many students, financial aid was a major obstacle to enrolling at the university. Northwestern considered undocumented applicants as international students, so students who had spent almost their entire life in the United States and graduated from a high school in the country would look the same as an international applicant who had never set foot on American soil.
"I walked away from school with $110,000 in student loan debt," said Leezia Dhalla, who graduated from Northwestern as an undocumented student. "Supporting myself was hard, because I got no aid from NU because of my undocumented status. I wasn't able to study abroad, apply for scholarships, do work-study, get a job. It was really challenging."
But this past March, Northwestern announced sweeping changes in its policies toward undocumented students who apply for admission. In this episode, you'll hear from key administrators, including University President Morton Schapiro, on what that decision means.