Should I go for an MS degree in the US now knowing that I can be 'trumped' anytime?

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Here is a short answer - Yes you should go for a Master’s degree in the US, probably this might be the best time to pursue your Masters.

While there has been lot of rumors running around H1-B visa, OPT, and other visa restrictions that the new administration might bring in, one thing to note is - most of them are still “RUMORS spread by clickbait media houses to increase their viewer subscription”. After carefully going through the stats, I have a counter argument stating that, the new proposed reforms will help talented international students in particular.

Lets jump into the numbers !

Here is my theory of why the supposed new laws “if framed” will not affect international students pursuing their Masters.Alternatively it will aid folks who do Masters in the US.

Proposed increase in minimum pay for H1-B workers

• In this bill Rep. Zoe Lofgren, asks to revise the current annual wage of $60,000 to $130,000.

• This applied to H1B dependent visa companies (Will explain it below)

• This proposal is limited to jobs that classify as “Computer and Mathematical Occupations”.

Yes only the jobs mentioned in the next slide fall under this category. By the way most of the jobs mentioned in the next slide already have an annual average wage around $120,000 - $140,000.

The jobs that fall under this category are :

• Computer and Information Research Scientists.

• Computer Systems Analysts, Information Security Analysts

• Computer Programmers, Software Developers, Applications, Software Developers, Systems Software, Web Developers

• Database Administrators, Network and Computer Systems Administrators, Computer Network Architects

• Computer User Support Specialists, Computer Network Support Specialists

• Math – Actuaries, Mathematicians, Operations Research Analysts, Statisticians, Mathematical Technicians, Mathematical Science Occupations,

So why the sudden revision in the pay scale?

The H1-B program when designed was designed for two types of organizations, one was for H1B visa dependent organizations and the others were for Normal organizations which did not depend on H1B visa.• An organization is categorized as H1B dependent if 15% of its

workforce is made up of H1B visa workers.

• The main reason for the categorization was based upon the lack of local talent in the US. (Remember, this was way back in the days)

• Some companies as usual started to manipulate this rule. And started to import workers from countries like India, China etc. just because of the low cost that they need to pay them.

Let me show you some numbers

LCA - The number of H1B applications filed by the organization.

• The Total sum of H1B visa applied by the top 100 H1B recruiting companies for their employees = 190,406

• Total sum of H1B visa applied by the top 7 H1B dependent companies for their employees (highlighted in the above image in yellow) = 81,922

• i.e. Out of the top 100 companies, these 7 H1B dependent companies alone contribute to 43.02% of the applications.

What are the implications of this?

• There is only 85,000 H1B visas provided each year, and when the number of LCA’s of H1B applications applied exceeds 85,000 - the H1B visas are picked in a lottery basis. You read it right, you getting a H1B depends on god and luck :P

• Obviously one of the reasons for the high applications is the H1B dependent companies.

But whom are they recruiting?

• Here is a list of positions that these companies recruit for and the average salary that they pay.

• Data shows that most of the applicants who apply to the below mentioned roles, apply using a Bachelors degree.

• They are folks who are brought in by the above mentioned companies. One of the reasons is the low average salary that they need to pay the folks who come in from other parts of the world for these jobs.

Conversely, here is the other end of the spectrum. The companies listed below hire for Senior Software Engineer, Software Engineer, Senior Programmer Analyst, Consultant etc and all of them are non H1B dependent companies. Just check their average salary.Most of the applicants for the below jobs, have a Masters or a Ph.D Degree associated with them.

All of the below companies are non H1B dependent visa category.

Therefore most of the jobs mentioned in the computer science and math category already pays approximately $120,000 - $140,000. It is the H1B dependent visa companies that pay low, and the reason is “they source their labour from low labour cost countries”.This offsets the job opportunities that might have gone to qualified Americans.And this is exactly what Trump had in his campaign manifestoHere are some excerpts from it “More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program's lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percentage for its bottom two. Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas.”Reference - https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/...

So how does it help folks who are going to pursue their Masters?If the minimum wage is doubled or significantly increased, the companies mentioned above will stick to recruiting American employees, this significantly cuts down the number of applications that these companies apply during every H1B season.Along with it a merit based H1B system in place of a lottery based H1B system will provide higher merit to folks graduating from US institutions. i.e. You will have much higher chance to get a H1B visa.

US Universities, H1B Visa, STEM Courses and LOGICA major source of funding for US universities is non residential fee paid by graduate and undergraduate students in the STEM courses. The last I saw there are around half a million international students getting into US every year (need to verify this stat alone).

• OPT, CPT, H1B Visa are all work related programs especially benefitting STEM graduates.

• If we assume what rumour mongers say, and think that H1B visas will not be issued for International students, then think about the repercussions.

• Number of applications to the Universities will go down, which will cut the funding of these universities and thus affecting the operations.

These are not desirable results for any economy that intends to grow. And most importantly The United States would know that for sure.Thus they have always maintained that they need high skilled students to study in the US, work and contribute to the US economy.So, if you believe in your skill, this is the best time to deep dive for a Masters of Science or an Engineering degree.Hope you found this helpful.P.S. - Happy to hear your feedbacks and comments.

A bit about me :

Post finishing my MS at UW Madison, I worked at Cummins and now I am one of the co-founders at EdXengine, where we build tools that help students ace their application process - Check out MyUniversity - MS in US to know more about the universities you can apply for.

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References :H1BvisaJobsBureau of Labor Statistics“H.R. 670 “HIGH-SKILLED INTEGRITY AND FAIRNESS ACT OF 2017” INTRODUCED BY REP. ZOE LOFGREN” https://lofgren.house.gov/upload...https://assets.donaldjtrump.com

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