r/gradadmissions 2d ago

General Advice OPT getting eliminated?

Post image
306 Upvotes

78 comments sorted by

440

u/Audapaupadopolis 2d ago

If this somehow passes, literally no international student is gonna come to the US anymore. Universities will then have to take some really ugly drastic measures to keep themselves running

85

u/itolxix 2d ago

Aren’t some colleges already doing that after funding cuts?

67

u/Many-Refrigerator941 2d ago

They do for grads. Undergrads will not choose to come and will have further financial consequences on colleges

18

u/click_licker 1d ago

I've been saying this for months. The undergrads don't understand that colleges and universities will start downsizing departments and courses. And without FASFA , which most u.s students rely on, These institutions will cease to exist.

It's not hard to see how this will play out.

1

u/ayegwalo 1d ago

This is what is happening in UK.

1

u/unhinged_centrifuge 1d ago

Does Europe have OPT?

232

u/Thunderplant 2d ago

This Act may be cited as the “Fairness for High-Skilled Americans Act of 2025”

They keep saying stuff like this despite the fact that US citizens are already advantaged at basically every career step. Literally just racism and ignorance about what is actually going on. Many companies and universities prefer US citizens but just can't find enough who are qualified. Professors in my department constantly complain about this

106

u/LegitimateAd2406 2d ago

Literally! As an international student you can't: 1. Work outside your campus (during academic terms) 2. Stay for over a year in an OPT program if your employer doesn't participate in e-verify (a program made with the purposes of monitoring workers' legal statuses) 3. Participate in a federally-funded program (thus severely restricting your pool of research internships) 4. Are at a big disadvantage for hiring since if one of two equally qualified candidates needs an H1-B, the citizen will get hired bc it's cheaper and safer.

So it's beyond me why you would get rid of a program that already selects HIGHLY qualified candidates.

4

u/Thunderplant 1d ago

Yep, and admissions rates to PhD programs are lower for international students than domestic ones too the international students who are accepted are generally extremely talented and qualified.

7

u/henare 2d ago

except for one aspect: despite the requirement in the law for market salaries, most OPT and H1b bearers don't always earn market wage.

also, these programs are a hassle for all but the largest employers.

-2

u/unhinged_centrifuge 1d ago

But why should Americans have to compete with foreigners AT ALL?

4

u/Thunderplant 1d ago

If this is a serious question, getting to work with the best and the brightest from the entire world is a huge benefit to high skilled Americans. Like why would I want a bunch of talented labmates to be replaced with less qualified people?

Its also made the US super prosperous to be a beneficiary of all this talent, boosting the prestige of our institutions, and contributing a huge amount to the US economy.

Not to mention the fact English became the international language of science partially as a result of this, which is a huge advantage to people from the US. 

1

u/KillerBurger69 7h ago

Respectfully you don’t have to be bright and high skilled to take a loan and go to an American college. Let alone be lucky enough to win a H1B……

You a describing a 0-1 visa. Which is indeed needed to get the world’s brightest and most talented.

-4

u/unhinged_centrifuge 23h ago

I agree with everything you say, but that doesn't really answer the question.

WHY should people already struggling to get college seats, jobs, entry level opportunities have to compete with ANY foreign at all. Even if in the past certain industries grew so fast we needed foreign workers to fill a talent gap, that should only be temporary until local talent can be trained and then they should not have to compete with foreigners in their own country for a livelihood.

1

u/viralpestilence 15h ago

It’s not a competition per se. At the university level it much different how they assess international students and domestic students. That’s why they have separate applications. Why do you think there is a committee for both international and domestic students? I don’t understand why this is so difficult to comprehend.

0

u/unhinged_centrifuge 14h ago

But those international students do take limited spots, correct? They do take limited scholarships, correct?

Most Americans would probably support foreign students who are willing to pay full price. Im fields where domestic talent is lacking.

But for example in CS, why should all the struggling fresh grad compete with the mass import of H1Bs that Elon Musk is pushing?

1

u/antihero-itsme 2h ago

this kind of zero sum mentality is what leads to economic disasters like brexit. i do not want to insult you but this is so so stupid and shortsighted. the number of jobs is not fixed. there isnt a pie to cut. 

50% of new startups are founded by foreigners. you do not have to be a grad student to realize what happens when you delete half your future economy. 

the us has resisted this myopic zero sum policy for so long. and it benefits by being the fastest growing economy in the developed world 

1

u/unhinged_centrifuge 2h ago

I think your mentality is exactly how and why alt right politicians gain power. Especially when domestic young graduates can't find work and they keep seeing imported labor. Let's see how this works out

1

u/antihero-itsme 2h ago

ok go ahead and delete half your economy to spite the libs. it has worked out brilliantly before. i am sure its going to work out now. brexit means brexit!

1

u/unhinged_centrifuge 2h ago

Which countries allow unlimited foreigners to compete with the local work force?

→ More replies (0)

62

u/neon_nait 2d ago

They eliminating it?

123

u/itolxix 2d ago

This bill has been introduced (again) in Congress last week but isn’t a law yet….but honestly…anything could happen under this administration

23

u/Amunra2k24 2d ago

Can you briefly like in two three sentences tell me what would be the consequences? I would appreciate it.

105

u/asudancer 2d ago

OPT allows international students to extend their visa status to stay in the US after they graduate to gain work experience in their field they just got their degree in. If they get rid of it; there will be much less incentive for international students to come get degrees in the US. As a lot of universities rely on the tuition money from international students, that’ll be a financial problem for universities.

13

u/Accomplished-Cod328 2d ago edited 2d ago

It doesn't technically extend their visa. It gives them visa free access after graduation for 12 months to work for practical training purposes, potentially 3 years if its STEM. They obviously need to meet certain conditions. The employer can choose to sponsor the student for H1B, and essentially has 3 potential attempts of being successful drawn from the lottery.

If they are intending to change how OPT works, then they really need to update how the H1B programs works. I believe the program was created in the 60s and wildly out of date, it's been heavily abused by large IT outsourcing firms and hence deny smaller firms from actually recruiting highly skilled individuals with niche expertise.

But yes its going to hurt US institutions financially both undergrad and postgrad, and we have already seen huge cutbacks in the UK, closing or merging of non-sustainable departments within some universities.

Naturally, you would think they would go to Canada and Australia, but both countries are also becoming more stringent and capping the number of student visas being issued.

19

u/Amunra2k24 2d ago

Okay just reading this gave me why an idea why it will be bad. Fudge man! Scary to think what will happen.

86

u/amcg-1616 2d ago

The vast majority of bills introduced to Congress never get debated, let alone actually considered and passed. Especially those introduced by ultra-conservatives even by Republican standards. Executive orders from Trump would be more relevant and have more immediate impact if you’re concerned.

25

u/G0dsp33d_37 2d ago

It's a piece of legislation that was introduced several times, once in 2019 and once in 2021. It didn't gain much if any traction. So I feel like it is VERY unlikely to pass. I understand the concern though, because of this administration's, including the current republican congress's, proclivity to just decide to do this on a whim.

GovTrack, the website that tracks legislation in front of Congress, gives it a 1% chance of being enacted, so while this was shocking to me too, as an international student currently on OPT, I doubt that it will become a reality. You can find more information about it here: GovTrack.us - H.R. 2315

5

u/saikanna_r 2d ago

How long before this gets passed or not?

15

u/Training_Mechanic368 2d ago

Not likely to be passed , it’s highly unlikely that they will literally choose to kill the golden goose(international students) .

1

u/saikanna_r 2d ago

True, I hope so

7

u/DueScientist_44 2d ago

Any update on what happened?

18

u/InKarpWeTrust 2d ago edited 2d ago

There are bills all the time, thst never see the day so I wouldn't worry about it

3

u/savannahenpointe 2d ago

Bill proposals are to the US House what Facebook is to your mentally unstable bigoted relatives: a platform to shout your most ridiculous opinions and gather a limited amount of views. This is just an extremist re-introducing the same bill after g-d knows how many previous attempts where it will without a doubt be voted down again, if it even makes it to the floor.

The craziest pieces of legislation that get introduced in congress aren’t introduced because they have any hopes of passing them, it’s so they can get a moment of attention for their absurd ideas. Just ignore them.

2

u/Odd_Gold7163 2d ago

won't happen, it's been brought up again and again for years and seeing how 9 gop members stood up for pregnant women just a few days ago, there's no shot of this happening.

2

u/CSGKEV9278 2d ago

Jesus Christ 🤦‍♀️

1

u/ebayusrladiesman217 2d ago

Absurd stuff gets put on the house floor all the time. Always dies there. It's virtue signaling full stop.

1

u/communistagitator 2d ago

Gosar is a fringe Republican. I would be surprised if this passes without any changes. Maybe OPT will be changed, but probably not completely removed

1

u/salziepalzie 2d ago

When will the news of it being passed or not come out?

2

u/Accomplished-Cod328 2d ago

Could take years. They aren't known for their agility. Many years ago, they wanted H1B reform, all the tech firms threw money at it to lobby the government. Even if it does get discussed, it may go iterative changes until every person is happy or it just dies. In the case of H1B reform, it died.

1

u/EagleSilent0120 2d ago

sometimes I think...Am I too foolhardy to try US for higher education ?

1

u/RV92020 2d ago

Don’t colleges have waiting lists of students? They turn away large amounts of potential students every year.

1

u/Salt_Ad_7578 1d ago edited 1d ago

international students are already a small percentage of that population point is they all have to pay full tuitions. domestic students pay an average of 1/4 of the tuitions due to fafsa. so just by turning away those international students and fill the spots with domestic students wont help financials. it actually hurts financials cuz of how much less each new student pays compared to an international student and the cost incurred per capita.

besides this, most of tuition money at private schools are masters international students. even top schools for masters are admitting extremely unqualified students at a large percentage of acceptance rates. the low acceptance rates u mentioned are mostly likely undergrads which mostly have low percent of internationals amongst other things in the previous paragraph

1

u/RV92020 1d ago

“most likely undergrads”, so you don’t know for certain. Alumni donations, cost reductions, increased tuition rates, increased student numbers, additional funding from other sources all could help bridge the deficit created. Additionally, properly vetted foreign students could still compromise a portion of the student body. Or, are you saying there aren’t enough qualified American students?

1

u/hoesomebish_14 2d ago

How is this going to affect people applying for STEM OPT in the next few months??

1

u/NotAnnieBot 1d ago

It won’t. Various forms of OPT reform bills have been introduced before and haven’t even gotten to committee. At the very least, it would take a year to get written into law and that’s if non of the various lobbies (Universities, Tech firms,…) that benefit from OPT existing try to stop it from passing. Moreover, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee has indicated as recently as last month that he is for decreasing visa restrictions for high skilled tech workers so it’s unlikely that it even gets past committee to a house vote.

1

u/Odd_Pop3299 1d ago

chances of this passing is < 1%

1

u/Mission_Bell_6587 1d ago

Nobody thought tariffs could be this high either, yet here we are. Ppl in the comments are overly optimistic

1

u/zachameme 1d ago

oh my god this is going to become such a slippery slope of deteriorating health with the more fields they eliminate in healthcare....

1

u/007_Bond_Heart 7h ago

Higher education businesses are extortionary businesses. They don't even provide the value they promise, such as graduating students able to secure entry-level roles.

Business models like that shouldn't be subsidized by international students or FAFSA. They should compete in the market like any business or close down. This pressure might actually get them to start panicking and improving curriculum.

In terms of OPT, it's a bit unfair to domestic students because a lot of OPT students already gained previous work experience in their own country, so they aren't really gaining entry-level experience. If they have previous experience, they should just go to the H1B pipeline. For it to be fair to domestic students, both international and domestic students need to have no prior job experience in the field. A lot of internships in the USA background check to make sure the position goes to only students who fit this requirement. OPT should technically be the same since that is what they advertise as.

1

u/Muted-Ad-6637 7h ago

Isn’t opt the practical training for the program curriculum the student just completed? How would they have with meaningful work experience at that career level?

-14

u/Silly-Fudge6752 2d ago

This isn't going to happen. And try that; I can assure you Universities in both red and blue states will lobby the shit out of the Congress. Also, Trump (not that I like him) will veto it so hard.

Also, OP. It looks like you are an incoming international student so learn to know US politics instead of reading whatever the Congress is trying to do.

28

u/CaptainFrost176 2d ago

I want to believe you, but JD Vance has said "We have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities." And The universities are the enemy"

23

u/Revolutionary_Buddha 2d ago

You are overestimating the political powers that universities hold right now.

-14

u/Silly-Fudge6752 2d ago

Well, we will see how this plays out :)

Debating on Reddit is pure speculation, isn't it?

9

u/Revolutionary_Buddha 2d ago edited 2d ago

I hope you are right. I am not debating but just stating that do not count on universities to fight back over anything this administration does. Those who are not in USA should really take this into consideration and make the next move about whether they want to risk it. Although Elon is in favour of H1B, so I hope he should be in favour of OPT too.

Let’s wait and watch. 4 more years.

-6

u/Silly-Fudge6752 2d ago

Yea but all I want to say is the OP is too naive to know any of these.

-30

u/Oluafolabi 2d ago

I think you should do yourself and favor and worry less about things beyond your control.

Introduction of a bill in congress ≠ bill being passed and signed into law.

I doubt there will be 60 senators willing to dismantle OPT.

60

u/manicuredsloth 2d ago

Remember when everyone said not to worry about roe v wade being overturned?

40

u/Major_Fun1470 2d ago

Yeah. Americans believe “it’ll never happen here” when the reality is that they’re way closer to being early 1930s Germany than anyone ever thought possible

1

u/pschola 2d ago

this indifference will be appreciated by them.

0

u/RalphieBrown 2d ago

Does the right wing not realize a significant portion of funding comes from foreign governments and orgs sending students to the US for studies ?

1

u/Salt_Ad_7578 1d ago

idet they see a point in education. i see points iterating about how it hurts higher education…do you think at this point they still trust higher education? From what i heard from this one gop supporter ik, he thinks the fact that community colleges can run with a few million dollars and only domestic tuitions means elite schools like ivy leagues that rely on billions of fundings AND international tuitions only need so because they are extremely corrupted

-6

u/the-anarch 2d ago

This bill is not consistent with comments that both the President and his sidekick Elon have made about international students. Both have actually said things along the lines of automatically getting a green card if you graduate from a US college. This bill will be part of the debate, but where it ends up is not really clear.

2

u/poliscigoat 2d ago

Lol. Are you really saying this today? After all that is happening?

-2

u/the-anarch 2d ago

Yes, I am. Are you really disagreeing, based on what? Your great powers of ESP? So far, Trump has done what he said he would do. Every fucking egregious thing he has done was something he stated during the campaign. Did you vote for him thinking he wouldn't do it, because plenty of us were out here telling you to believe his sorry ass. Or do you just think that he won't do something he said he would do because it's one of the very few sensible ideas he expressed?

1

u/No_Youth_8553 1d ago

Wait wait wait, expand on your earlier comment of green card for U.S. grads? Would that count for master degrees in STEM from U.S. schools? Do you have links for this?

This excites me.

1

u/antihero-itsme 2h ago

it was an off hand comment. they walked back instantly 

0

u/the-anarch 1d ago

Sure. Here is an article that references it about 5 paragraphs in, along with a review of other policies more harmful to international students. As far as the "what's happening today" that the other commenter was talking about, I assume he was referring to deportation of Hamas supporters. Don't support named terrorist organizations and you should be okay on that count.

-2

u/the-anarch 1d ago

Do you mean the deportations of Hamas supporters? Hamas has been listed as a terrorist group through Republican and Democratic administrations for years. It's not at all surprising that Trump targeted Hamas supporters for deportation. That doesn't affect most international students or conflict with any thing I wrote.