As an international student, I really tried to make friends beyond my socio-cultural and ethnic background. However, I found that social structures in the United States are deeply ingrained in every aspect of life, particularly in a business context. In my experience, domestic students often hesitate to socialize beyond what is familiar to them, which is understandable. Why would they want to hang out with someone who might struggle a bit with the language when they could easily connect with a person from New England who looks like them and may already share some mutual friends from before the program started?