What is the difference between an exchange “student” and an exchange “scholar”?
In the mainstream, we tend to think of students and scholars as being the same thing: people who are engaged in academic pursuits. However, in the Immigration world, a student is very different from a scholar. They have completely different objectives and pursue different activities while in the U.S. An international student is someone who is admitted and enrolled full-time at an American university and is either pursuing a degree or is attending one or semesters as an exchange student. An international scholar is not a student. He or or she is engaged full-time in a specially- designed research or teaching program at an institution in the U.S. and is not enrolled or taking classes.
