Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 15:51     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:Train and educate Americans. Strive like JFK implored the US to do with NASA and a MAN on the Moon. Minimize the imports.

WTF? So we can be isolationist like N Korea? How has that worked out for them?
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 15:46     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Train and educate Americans. Strive like JFK implored the US to do with NASA and a MAN on the Moon. Minimize the imports.
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 15:32     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Exactly uplift our own citizens. How many American students get grants from China and India to study in their universities in science stem field. Probably could fit in a VW SUV because they won’t allow US cars into their closed markets. Enough!

I know for a fact China offers scholarships to Americans and other foreign nationals to study in their top universities.


As a scientist, I have been approached by China. I reported to my security manager as we have been trained to do. Have you heard of the 1000 talents program? It is entirely about poaching scientists.


China is the true existential threat to us now. Ukraine is a distraction; trump is temporary and a distraction.

We are at war again: a Cold War with China. But academia continually fails to acknowledge the truth.
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 15:25     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:$57 billion says it all and don’t pay property taxes. Harvard’s got a great gig.


How does destroying Harvard help anyone? And the funding is cut across the board not just from Harvard.

Asking a federal funded institution to stay apolitical and non-racist is NOT destroying them!!!


It is not a federally funded institution. institutions compete for research grants and are awarded research grants based on the science, not based on some political ideology you're trying to impose. Or at least that's the way it should be. When you remove that, it is destructive.

The research itself may not be political, but they use the freed up cash to political stuff and become entitled to it. So now they need to lose the entitlement and fund their own research.


Ah so you are fine with the univ of Florida (say) being funded but not Harvard. Even if the UF prof is producing stuff at a lower quality level than the Harvard prof? You would be ok with your tax dollars undergoing some sort of political litmus test before you decide who to award? For the record, the UF professor often has a better proposal than the Harvard prof and is funded. But right now they win on merit and not some weird political scheme.


Exactly. They don’t want ALL politics cast down from the Ivory Tower - just the politics they don’t like.

It’s repulsive how transparent the hypocrisy is with these folks.


Let’s be honest, there is only one political group in the Towers.
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 15:22     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Maybe Harvard can come clean and self fund. Total disgrace. Ga Tech could do a better job and be more cost efective. Disperse the money to NC State, Purdue, Ohio State etc. Harvard margins and overhead way too high.


Trump is cutting funding for science research. Not redistributing it. Harvard’s webpage details the amazing science research they do and Trump is killing that. Shameful but just one of the many shameful things Trump does each day.

People also miss that Saudi Arabia, Dubai, China and other countries are giving large research grants to US labs to export the US scientific advantage to their country. My PhD science lab at a large state school got the majority of its funding from China and the Saudis. We also had a small amount of DARPA (US defense grants) but those came with tons of strings, paperwork and restrictions. NSF, NIH, and EPA funding was there, but also restricted. The foreign funding was far more useful and flexible for us to follow discoveries. For the foreign funds, our PI (a Nobel Prize recipient) had to spend a chunk of time every year teaching in their country and had to take students and post docs from their country to train them. But that was more manageable for him than writing a million grant request and reports for paltry amounts from US funding agencies.

The US needs to fund science or it will end up owned abroad with talented scientists working in antagonist countries. The middle eastern countries all know the oil is going to dry up someday and they are using that cash to buy themselves a spot as a scientific leader. And China plans to dominate the planet. It's huge a national security risk to kill US science and engineering funding in the way the Trump administration has done.

If the US has research funding, most of that foreign talent really does choose to stay in the US. We want those folks to stay. Many are brilliant. We literally won the atomic bomb race because of immigrants and many other discoveries come from foreign born, US-developed talent.

Why aren't Republicans worried about this? Out national security is at risk.
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 15:20     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:Focus on training US citizens and giving rural and city kids a chance. The US imports way too much foreign talent.

This already exists. I was one of those kids and got hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from the US government from undergrad through my PhD. Really.

You still need to fund actual science. And you need to recruit top global talent to have the best, most advanced science being done in the US. Many of those foreign students are funded by their home country and are basically free labor for US PIs. There's no reason to not have them come. They're bright and do a lot of good science to support US professors and universities.

I really think the biggest issue is that most people are generally clueless about the system. They've never heard of a Goldwater Scholarship or an NSF SRP or an NSF GRF. You have an opinion based on Republican talking points, but it's not based in reality. There are tons of programs to support US students in the sciences and pretty much every American student who wants to try to get a PhD in the sciences has a chance if they want it. Many decide it's too much work. Others fail out. But until the current administration, as an American it wasn't hard to get a fully funded spot in a US PhD program in the sciences. You needed a BS and at least middling grades.
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 15:00     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Focus on training US citizens and giving rural and city kids a chance. The US imports way too much foreign talent.


I agree in theory, but the US K-12 STEM curriculum is sh*t in most places. It is really hard/too late to correct for a poor foundation once the students are at the college and post-grad level, when you are talking about cutting edge research. That’s how you end up with school like Harvard having to add remedial math courses like pre-calculus to get some of their admits up to speed.


Democrats are always saying we need to get brainpower from foreign countries because our own kids have crappy math & problem solving skills.

Yet they have time to train kids in all manner of leftist politics & gender bull$hit.

Connect the dots, folks. Our kids could do math if the teachers focused on math instead of progressive grooming.
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 13:39     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:Focus on training US citizens and giving rural and city kids a chance. The US imports way too much foreign talent.


I agree in theory, but the US K-12 STEM curriculum is sh*t in most places. It is really hard/too late to correct for a poor foundation once the students are at the college and post-grad level, when you are talking about cutting edge research. That’s how you end up with school like Harvard having to add remedial math courses like pre-calculus to get some of their admits up to speed.
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 13:35     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My kid was planning to apply to SEAS at Harvard…. This just sucks


SEAS is not affected by this cut.

Per the article OP shared, the Phd admission cuts are in the Arts & Humanities dept and the Science dept.
SEAS is a different department within Harvard FAS.

Nor does it affect undergraduate SEAS admissions.

SEAS is part of School of Arts and Sciences. It is amazing how people spread shit information like this without knowing anything.
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 13:25     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:Focus on training US citizens and giving rural and city kids a chance. The US imports way too much foreign talent.


Or, you know, destroy the Department or Education and block teaching science that doesn't match the Bible.

Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 13:24     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:$57 billion says it all and don’t pay property taxes. Harvard’s got a great gig.


God Emperor Trump doesn't pay taxes either.
Harvard has thousands of employees that pay taxes.

Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 13:23     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Exactly uplift our own citizens. How many American students get grants from China and India to study in their universities in science stem field. Probably could fit in a VW SUV because they won’t allow US cars into their closed markets. Enough!

I know for a fact China offers scholarships to Americans and other foreign nationals to study in their top universities.


As a scientist, I have been approached by China. I reported to my security manager as we have been trained to do. Have you heard of the 1000 talents program? It is entirely about poaching scientists.

Thank you pointing that out, captain obvious!
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 13:15     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

$58 billion and they still have budget issues. US should support more worthy and cost efficient schools.
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 13:01     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:$57 billion says it all and don’t pay property taxes. Harvard’s got a great gig.


How does destroying Harvard help anyone? And the funding is cut across the board not just from Harvard.

Asking a federal funded institution to stay apolitical and non-racist is NOT destroying them!!!


It is not a federally funded institution. institutions compete for research grants and are awarded research grants based on the science, not based on some political ideology you're trying to impose. Or at least that's the way it should be. When you remove that, it is destructive.

The research itself may not be political, but they use the freed up cash to political stuff and become entitled to it. So now they need to lose the entitlement and fund their own research.


Ah so you are fine with the univ of Florida (say) being funded but not Harvard. Even if the UF prof is producing stuff at a lower quality level than the Harvard prof? You would be ok with your tax dollars undergoing some sort of political litmus test before you decide who to award? For the record, the UF professor often has a better proposal than the Harvard prof and is funded. But right now they win on merit and not some weird political scheme.

Didn’t know 99%of UF’s faculty is liberal or conservative.
Anonymous
Post 10/22/2025 12:30     Subject: Harvard slashing PhD programs + layoffs

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:$57 billion says it all and don’t pay property taxes. Harvard’s got a great gig.


How does destroying Harvard help anyone? And the funding is cut across the board not just from Harvard.

Asking a federal funded institution to stay apolitical and non-racist is NOT destroying them!!!


It is not a federally funded institution. institutions compete for research grants and are awarded research grants based on the science, not based on some political ideology you're trying to impose. Or at least that's the way it should be. When you remove that, it is destructive.

The research itself may not be political, but they use the freed up cash to political stuff and become entitled to it. So now they need to lose the entitlement and fund their own research.


Ah so you are fine with the univ of Florida (say) being funded but not Harvard. Even if the UF prof is producing stuff at a lower quality level than the Harvard prof? You would be ok with your tax dollars undergoing some sort of political litmus test before you decide who to award? For the record, the UF professor often has a better proposal than the Harvard prof and is funded. But right now they win on merit and not some weird political scheme.


Exactly. They don’t want ALL politics cast down from the Ivory Tower - just the politics they don’t like.

It’s repulsive how transparent the hypocrisy is with these folks.