Why are there very few Americans in grad school in tech programs when there are a lot of high paying jobs requiring MS and PHDs like Hardware, Software, AI, ML, Datascience, Analytics, etc. ?? In grad school, 95 percent of my course mates were foreign students. 70% of faculty in CS and Engineering all foreigners. What’s the deal. ?
Because Americans don’t need the degree to get a high paying job in the space. Whereas foreigners need the degree to get a work permit. Universities also benefit by raising tuition for those degrees to subsidize other programs. The higher opportunity cost makes an advanced degree even less attractive to Americans.
Oh I see. So if foreign students suddenly stopped coming to US for grad school. The colleges wouldn’t have enough grad students?
Programs would scale back, yes.
Why would an American go to a masters program? Unless they studied a non-STEM subject as an undergrad and want to be on par with CS undergrads. Masters programs (in CS) are all basically just visa factories. And if you were interested enough and smart enough you already took the relevant courses as an undergrad. You can get the same jobs either way. A PhD is a different thing, but with so much money to be made with just an undergrad, the only reason to do one is passion for research. As opposed to E1B greencard path for immigrants.
I get your point but is it not going to be easier to land a job with a MS compared to BS?
Not really. At least not in my experience. Hiring managers just see those masters degrees as an immigration tax.
Don't they make more money on foreign students?
Shit’s expensive yo
Grad Schools sell Visa.
You can get the high paying jobs even with just bachelors degree