Maybe. My recollection, though, is that 30 years ago colleges weren't all that keen on foreign and international students. They were very anxious to get African-American (or Black as they said back then) students after all the riots and turmoil of the 60s and 70s.
If my understanding is correct, in those days somebody who could boost the Black student percentage would have been more welcome than an Indonesian. Someone who could (by whatever strange stretch of the imagination) give them cred for taking in Black American students would be valued more than a Kenyan.
I may be completely wrong about all this, but most of the funds for foreign students were for those who'd gotten their degrees abroad and came here for graduate education. A college might sell a place to a prince's or sheik's or millionaire's son (in practice if not literally), but they were less inclined to pick up the tab for indigent foreigners who wanted an American BA or BS.
We know that somehow Obama had gotten enough money together to get through a very expensive private school. Would it really have been impossible for the Dunhams to have somehow gotten together the funds (with loans and grants) for an Occidental -- or even a Columbia -- education?
Of course, it's entirely possible that Obama did give his birthplace as Kenya (or Indonesia), but when the only thing a candidate has is a reputation for braininess, bad grades in college are reason enough to want to keep the records sealed.
X: “Maybe. My recollection, though, is that 30 years ago colleges weren’t all that keen on foreign and international students.”
I was born 4 days days after Obama (at least based on his forged birth certificate) and went to college the same years as Obama. So I can attest that there were large numbers of foreign and international students accepted into American colleges. I even went to school in Iowa which you would not expect to be a big haven for internationals yet they made up a very significant population at that time. So I disagree with your assertion on this point.
Secondly, as GeorgeW mentions, I think it was the nationality that he claimed on these applications that are the key and not so much the grades. As I understand it, these schools he “attended” had already seen evidence of rampant grade inflation and liberalization so he could very likely produce stellar grades just for towing the liberal line of theology. Many times the grades at schools like Harvard and Columbia are more honorary than evidence of intellect or hard work. It’s getting into these schools that’s the real trick. And evidently Obama found the proper benefactor or classification (foreign student?) to make it in.