STEM Delusions

[Anonymous]

Many STEM employers are hiring international students instead of US citizens through Optional Practical Training (OPT). This program by the U.S. government allows international students on an F-1 visa to work temporarily work in the United States for three years after graduating with a STEM degree.

Employers save money because OPT workers are exempt from FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare taxes). This saves the employer roughly 7.65% in payroll taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is up with all the unemployed STEM majors? Is it a supply imbalance or is AI? If supply side are any STEM fields more stable (e.g. civil vs computing, etc).

Not sure what you are talking about. By STEM, if you are referring to Chemistry and Biology majors hoping for medical school then I get it. If you are talking about Tech and Engineering, they are doing much better than their classmates not Tech and Engineering.

+1 Engineering grads are out-earning every other grad including business/Econ, and the unemployment is low compared to others, not counting bio and chem. It is primarily CS/CompE affected, and mostly from middling schools. CS majors almost all have added a second major at top schools, or at least a minor, such as EE, physics, math, mechE or AI for the schools that have it. That trend began in 2024 when the coming bubble was obvious. CS alone is no longer a great major. Even the faculty and advisors are not so quietly encouraging the second major, or a 4+1 masters in a related field for schools that allow it(most elite do).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is up with all the unemployed STEM majors? Is it a supply imbalance or is AI? If supply side are any STEM fields more stable (e.g. civil vs computing, etc).

Link? Your source? Take it to politics forum if it 's necessary

[Anonymous]

Amazon has around 12,000 OPT workers, Microsoft and Google have around 3,000 each.Goldman Sachs, Intel, and Walmart have around 2,000 each. The list goes on and on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many STEM employers are hiring international students instead of US citizens through Optional Practical Training (OPT). This program by the U.S. government allows international students on an F-1 visa to work temporarily work in the United States for three years after graduating with a STEM degree.

Employers save money because OPT workers are exempt from FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare taxes). This saves the employer roughly 7.65% in payroll taxes.

Due to the H1B fees, sponsorship issues and even fraud, companies have become quite leery of OPT hiring. The problem is that there are not enough US citizens with the background needed for the roles sought: masters level + is desired, not as many US citizens want to go to masters due to how expensive they are(80-100k total cost for typically 2 yrs).

[Anonymous]

CS and CSE totally in the toilet. Industrial is okay. Civil is booming and has least number of grads coming online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many STEM employers are hiring international students instead of US citizens through Optional Practical Training (OPT). This program by the U.S. government allows international students on an F-1 visa to work temporarily work in the United States for three years after graduating with a STEM degree.

Employers save money because OPT workers are exempt from FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare taxes). This saves the employer roughly 7.65% in payroll taxes.

Due to the H1B fees, sponsorship issues and even fraud, companies have become quite leery of OPT hiring. The problem is that there are not enough US citizens with the background needed for the roles sought: masters level + is desired, not as many US citizens want to go to masters due to how expensive they are(80-100k total cost for typically 2 yrs).

Makes sense, US students are taking remedial math in college because they still haven't figured out how to teach math in US Pre K through 12 where you have teachers telling their students they don't like math. And at home, parents either can't do the math themselves or share the same sentiment as teachers which influences their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Palantir. They are always looking for bodies to fill their meat assaults.

My kid sold out for an internship there this summer. Hoping its just this 3 months and hes out rather than turning into a FT gig after graduation. $10.5/month and TS clearance is nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many STEM employers are hiring international students instead of US citizens through Optional Practical Training (OPT). This program by the U.S. government allows international students on an F-1 visa to work temporarily work in the United States for three years after graduating with a STEM degree.

Employers save money because OPT workers are exempt from FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare taxes). This saves the employer roughly 7.65% in payroll taxes.

Due to the H1B fees, sponsorship issues and even fraud, companies have become quite leery of OPT hiring. The problem is that there are not enough US citizens with the background needed for the roles sought: masters level + is desired, not as many US citizens want to go to masters due to how expensive they are(80-100k total cost for typically 2 yrs).

There are no fees for OPT. It is a separate program. An international student can graduate with a BA/BS work 3 years on an OPT then get a masters and work 3 more years on a STEM OPT.

There were 294,253 international students participating in the OPT program during the 2024/2025 academic cycle.

[Anonymous]

DC wants to go into chemistry, with the ultimate goal of something like pharma/drug development or cosmeceuticals. Bad plan, considering everyone here seem to be saying Bio/chem have high unemployment levels?

[Anonymous]

All this is relevant to something my own brother (a US-born engineer) realized early on: there will be a lot of colleagues who are smart but not great at communicating//not great at communicating in English. If our US-born kids go into STEM, their ability to communicate science or engineering or business value could keep them relevant even as positions around them are filled by hardworking and smart immigrants.

SO: tell your STEM-interested children they better be good at communicating! It can't just be heads-down, do your math and submit on paper, because that can be done by a non-English speaking engineer/scientist/etc., with AI bridging basic gaps like translation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many STEM employers are hiring international students instead of US citizens through Optional Practical Training (OPT). This program by the U.S. government allows international students on an F-1 visa to work temporarily work in the United States for three years after graduating with a STEM degree.

Employers save money because OPT workers are exempt from FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare taxes). This saves the employer roughly 7.65% in payroll taxes.

Due to the H1B fees, sponsorship issues and even fraud, companies have become quite leery of OPT hiring. The problem is that there are not enough US citizens with the background needed for the roles sought: masters level + is desired, not as many US citizens want to go to masters due to how expensive they are(80-100k total cost for typically 2 yrs).

DP. Disagree there is a shortage of US citizens with advanced Engineering / CS degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC wants to go into chemistry, with the ultimate goal of something like pharma/drug development or cosmeceuticals. Bad plan, considering everyone here seem to be saying Bio/chem have high unemployment levels?

Not a bad plan, but for best opportunities in Pharma one ought to be getting an MS or PhD.

Not as many positions for a BS in Chem or Bio as with an adv degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many STEM employers are hiring international students instead of US citizens through Optional Practical Training (OPT). This program by the U.S. government allows international students on an F-1 visa to work temporarily work in the United States for three years after graduating with a STEM degree.

Employers save money because OPT workers are exempt from FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare taxes). This saves the employer roughly 7.65% in payroll taxes.

Due to the H1B fees, sponsorship issues and even fraud, companies have become quite leery of OPT hiring. The problem is that there are not enough US citizens with the background needed for the roles sought: masters level + is desired, not as many US citizens want to go to masters due to how expensive they are(80-100k total cost for typically 2 yrs).

Makes sense, US students are taking remedial math in college because they still haven't figured out how to teach math in US Pre K through 12 where you have teachers telling their students they don't like math. And at home, parents either can't do the math themselves or share the same sentiment as teachers which influences their kids.

Truth. It is common for international students to start college with a much better calculus background than the average american college-bound senior. Thus they can progress faster and with more depth in college stem courses. The culture is to study maths from a young age to keep up with schoolmates and do well on the testing to get into university. Paths are determined by age 16 or younger. The US system is designed for the mostly mythical "late bloomer" who struggles in middle and high school math only discover they are good at math/stem in college then go on to graduate-level studies in STEM. Sure it happens but it is rare. The US system does not like to acknowledge innate differences in strengths, and does not like to limit anyone, hence the curriculum is watered down in middle and high school compared to international norms, leaving students who are "A/B" or even "A" students in high school stem not ready for college level stem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How’s astrophysics and/or physics doing these days?

I have a friend who was at JPL and they got slashed too. She was able to find another job but some of her colleagues struggled.

The research cuts have been absolutely devastating to a ton of fields.

JPL is an FFRDC of NASA, which happens to be operated by CalTech. FFRDCs have been specifically targeted by Vought. Now that body shop contractors cannot be owned by companies that make widgets, the need for FFRDCs has dropped. Separately, NASA is now re-focused on manned spaceflight, such as Artemis, which most Americans support by an huge margin; JPL is all about un-manned space missions, so it has the wrong expertise given current NASA priorities. Long thread about (various) FFRDCs is in the Jobs forum.

www.NRO.mil is hiring for wide range of STEM degrees - including physics and astro.

Likely that would be a food fit for JPL folks -- but those folks really also ought to be looking at commercial options like Blue Origin and SpaceX (which both are actively hiring with lots of openings).

Blue Origin and SpaceX recruit on campus at top schools and target physics and math majors in addition to engineering, particularly mechE but they are very clear that any engineering field is fine as long as physics and math are heavily represented.

Not only at "top schools". Both recruit broadly including at lower tier engineering programs.