International Student Experience Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Tan grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, moved to the Philippines at 14, and came to the US alone at 18 to study at UC San Diego before transferring to UCLA, her dream school. After 12 years abroad, she shares what actually helped her survive her first year as an international student, and what she'd tell anyone about to make the move. She talks honestly about crying and calling her mo...

Send us Fan Mail Please take a few seconds to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Amazon Music, wherever you listen. . It's the best way to help other international students find these stories when they need them most. Thank you for being here.  A cashier once told Alejandra to go to another line because she couldn't understand her accent. That one comment stayed with her...

Send us Fan Mail Every year, thousands dream of coming to the US for film school and a shot at Hollywood. But is it actually worth it? In this episode, three filmmakers talk it through honestly. Your host came to the US from India for filmmaking over a decade ago. Kanishka came from India more recently as a film student and director. And Savvas, who grew up in Maryland and studied film in North Ca...

Send us Fan Mail "You're not going to become a doctor. You'll become a nurse." That's what someone told Shreya when she was young. It made her angry, and it lit a fire. Shreya grew up in a conservative middle-class Nepali family, in a culture where girls are often told to shrink, to follow a set path, and where women don't talk about money or control it. She refused a...

Send us Fan Mail Shreya came to the US from Nepal and got a fully-funded master's in biology, with an assistantship covering her tuition, all from one cold email to a professor. No consultancy, no agency fees, no education loan. She did the entire process herself, the kind of process others pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for. In this episode she breaks down exactly how she did it: how t...

Send us Fan Mail When Sakunit moved to America at 15, the scariest part wasn't the flight or the language. It was making a single friend. She had a whole life and close friends back in Thailand, and when she got here she didn't even know how to reply when people talked to her, the context was just different. This is her story of going from painfully shy and completely alone to finding he...

Send us Fan Mail When Jennie decided to leave Taiwan to study in the US, her family was against it. She had a whole future already planned out at home, and walking away from it to go abroad alone wasn't what they wanted for her. She went anyway. This is her story of choosing her own path, adjusting to life in a new country, learning to push through fear instead of letting it decide, and slowl...

Send us Fan Mail She was a national champion swimmer in Slovakia with a full-ride scholarship to America. Her first-generation parents, who don't speak English, were terrified to let her go. Her dad almost didn't sign the papers. She came anyway, at 18, with two suitcases, and figured it all out on her own. Then the sport that brought her here started to break her body down. After a shou...

Send us Fan Mail Being an international student can be one of the loneliest experiences no one warns you about, arriving alone, barely speaking the language, thousands of miles from everyone you love. But this is the story of how that loneliness slowly turned into something he never expected: freedom. In this episode, a Thai international student opens up about arriving in the US on his own, the f...

Send us Fan Mail How does an international student actually get into a US medical school? Alexandra was told at her very first advising meeting that it was basically impossible. She got in anyway — and in this episode she walks through the exact roadmap she had to build for herself. We cover how to find the schools that genuinely accept international applicants (and the research method she used so...

Send us Fan Mail Feeling alone as an international student is far more common than anyone admits — and there's real help, often free, that most students never use. In this episode, licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Isra Yaghoubi shares what actually helps when you're far from home and quietly struggling. We get honest about the loneliness no one warns you about, why admitting you'r...

Send us Fan Mail A short, guided meditation for international students — for the moments you feel alone, far from home, or too hard on yourself. Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Isra Yaghoubi guides this gentle loving-kindness and self-compassion practice you can return to anytime you need to feel a little less alone. Loving-kindness meditation comes from Eastern practice and has been widely stu...

Send us Fan Mail Most international students focus so much on surviving the pressure that they forget they're living in one of the most exciting cities on earth. This episode isn't about overcoming hardship; it's a reminder that you can maintain your F1 status while still creating the best, most chaotic memories of your life. In this episode, you’re not getting another checklist on...

Send us Fan Mail What is the true cost of pursuing a dream? For Zahra M. Aghajan, moving from Iran to the US for her love of science meant navigating a path of profound challenges, heart-breaking choices, and deep self-discovery. In this deeply moving and powerful conversation, Zahra shares her story with incredible courage and honesty. She details the complex motivations for leaving her home, inc...

Send us Fan Mail Chance Lim grew up in Seoul being told to put her head down, stop asking questions, and become someone she wasn't. She didn't. Instead, she left Korea alone — no family abroad, no roadmap — took a blind leap, and built a life and a following in America. But when she went back to show her success? Nobody even reacted. That's when she realized: who was she proving wro...

Send us Fan Mail Chance Lim, an international student in the U.S., shares her full journey — from getting a campus job (which many students struggle with), to earning scholarships, and landing multiple internships and job offers in a competitive market. More importantly, she talks about something most people ignore: how to avoid burnout how to not obsess over outcomes how to grow as a person while...

Send us Fan Mail Edward Haryono shares his Indonesian immigrant journey — from moving to America for education to navigating the H-1B visa and green card process while building a life as an entrepreneur. What is it like to grow up in a middle-class family in Indonesia and pursue opportunity in the United States? In this episode, Edward Haryono shares his journey from a small-town upbringing in Ind...

Send us Fan Mail A quiet, honest conversation about two international students who find love, identity, and independence while studying film in LA — without trying to label or justify their choices. 时间轴 (Time Axis / Timestamps) 00:00 开场简介 (Intro) 02:10 中国的生活经历 (Life in China) 04:45 为什么中国学生选择留美 (Why Chinese students come to USA) 07:44 两位中国留学生如何在美相遇并结婚 (How t...

Send us Fan Mail Is it worth moving to Hollywood in 2025? For Italian filmmaker Simone Tringali, the answer is yes—but the path wasn't easy. In this episode, Simone shares his calm and insightful journey from a small town in Italy to film school in Ireland, and finally to Los Angeles on an O-1B Artist Visa. He breaks down the reality of the O-1B visa process , sharing crucial advice on why yo...

Send us Fan Mail "I was waiting 5 months... then suddenly they denied my OPT." This is just one part of Yu's incredible journey from Tokyo to Los Angeles. He had to leave the US twice due to immigration errors, all while chasing his dream of becoming an actor. His story is one of amazing positivity, even in the face of unbelievable challenges. In this episode, Yu gets real about gro...

Send us Fan Mail การค้นพบตัวตนที่แท้จริงของคุณในต่างแดน? ใน EP นี้ของ Outsiders Insiders Experience เราจะมาฟังเรื่องราวจาก นิธิ แสงแก้ว (Nithi Sangkaew) นักเรียนไทยที่เชื่อว่าชีวิตของเขาได้เริ่มต้นอย่างแท้จริงเมื่อมาถึงอเมริกา ปัจจุบันนิธิเป็นนักเรียน Community College ที่ต้องการเรียนต่อปริญญาโท (Master's) และตั้งเป้าถึงปริญญาเอก (PhD) ในลอสแอนเจลิส เขาจะมาแบ่งปันเส้นทางการเปลี่ยนแปลงและเติบโ...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever felt invisible or been taken for granted in a new place? In this powerful episode of Outsiders Insiders Experience, we hear the incredible story of Sakunit Srilom who moved from Thailand to an American high school and completely transformed her life. She shares her raw, honest journey of dealing with a difficult language barrier and navigating friendships. She reveal...

Send us Fan Mail His American dream was born in a cinematic moment: a 14-year-old on the Golden Gate Bridge, listening to Maroon 5, deciding "I'm gonna live here". But what happens when the dream meets the unfiltered reality of Los Angeles? In this deeply honest conversation, our guest from Japan shares the real story of his international student journey. He expected total English i...

Send us Fan Mail Discovering your true self in a new country? In this insightful episode of Outsiders Insiders Experience, we hear from Nithi Sangkaew, an international student from Thailand who believes his life truly began when he arrived in the USA. Now community college student wants pursue Master's and aiming for a PhD in Los Angeles, Nithi shares his remarkable journey of transformation...

Send us Fan Mail Is an expensive LA film degree worth it when the jobs are leaving? We investigate the Hollywood Lie in this special episode, exploring the gap between film school and the real-world industry. We get two unique perspectives: Kanishka Aggarwal, a filmmaker from India navigating the O-1B artist visa, and Savvas Yiannoulou, a US Film Production Manager who chose not to study in LA to...