Sorry. I was going to type something rude. The thing is, by "educating the world", the world educates us. We need to do a better job at helping students like you pay for college, but this does not mean that we close our doors to everyone else.

Student visas are essentially free money for the countries that provide them: unversities charge them more; the students tend to be rich and spend a lot; a lot of students immediately return home and don't actually take any local jobs. There's no downsides.

There are limited seats. At the extreme end you have medical school, where foreign students likely are taking away a position from a capable citizen.

Buddy, you gotta help yourself get into and pay for university.

Why should a university give a "rat's ass" about you when a foreign student will pay more?

Or when they can use foreign students as a ridiculously cheaper labor pool.

Exactly the rub then, isn't it? I got the token half off 200% markup while I watched my graduating HS class get nearly free rides. I had similar grades, but was mostly straight A (but in harder honors classes) and was white and male.

The issue probably wasn't that you were white and male.

The issue probably was your parents made enough to not qualify for extra financial aid.

That sucks, and I empathize. I'm living it trying to get finaid for my kids private school.

But, let's not blame immigrants for a broken system. If anything they aren't to blame because they didn't vote for it.

The issue is many things, but what I listed is appropriate. All of the women in my class with my GPA got more money than I did, and all of the minorities (as few as they were) did as well.

Two instances stand out to me: Someone 1/64th or less Native American getting scholarships for that, and a girl who just by accident ran into (literally) the rowing coach and was offered a scholarship on the spot.