Pingnan Lu for NPR

Classes began this week for students at the University at Buffalo, a public research university in western New York, but there were about 750 fewer international students on campus than expected.

The new students who did make it gathered for a welcome from the school's dean of students. "We know you have had to overcome hurdles to be here – especially this summer, with visas," Tomás Aguirre told the assembled students, representing more than 100 countries. "And I just wanted you to know that we are so glad you were able to make it."

The sentiment was common among the students, too. "For me, the main thing is that I got here," says Daria Tofan, a freshman from Romania, who didn't get her student visa until about a week before orientation. "It was awful."

Over the last

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