Here are my thoughts on the comments below and I agree with all, except that I feel that one could easily “misconstrue” students’ and employees’ citizenship status based upon their appearance alone.
[quote=lifeisgood] In SD alone there are two Engineering schools pumping out graduates every year….[/quote]
[quote=deadzone]What lifisgood is pointing out, correctly in my opinion, is that it is bullshit to believe the U.S. does not pump out enough engineering grads who are US citizens. There is no evidence to support this.[/quote]
[quote=dumbrenter]If you really want to educate yourself and not “believe”, you could take a short drive to SDSU or UCSD, park by the engineering school and look at who is there. It will become very clear to you (in less than 15 mins) about the ‘kinds’ of graduates being pumped out of there. They do not look too dissimilar from what you will see when you park yourself by Scranton Rd. Then, hopefully, you will ask yourself the more relevant question: Why are engineering schools not “pumping out” enough americans ?
And if you think that is bad, park yourself by the business schools and watch!….[/quote]
My youngest kid is currently attending a CSU located out of county majoring in Bus Admin (Acct option). When I went to freshman orientation last summer, I spoke with several other parents of incoming freshman during the various activities we went through all day. The vast majority of these freshman were admitted to the School of Engineering, one of the schools which this particular campus is noted for. It was obvious to me that almost all of these parents had at one time no doubt been on student-visas to attend university in the US and H-1B themselves (their kids were born in the US). At least 10 out of the roughly 12-13 parents I spoke to throughout the day resided in the SF bay area and despite their sons having HS GPAs of 3.9+ and a dozen or more AP credits, they weren’t accepted to any UC or CSU they applied to within a 100 mile radius of home! SJSU was a first choice for several of them but they were all turned down for admission. My kid’s school was at or near the bottom of their choices out of the 4-10 campuses they applied to but in early April 2014, ended up granting hundreds of late rolling freshman admissions declaring several majors, accepting this group after they were rejected left and right in NorCal. For a data point, even though these kids admitted to engineering school were overwhelmingly of East Indian/Pakistani descent, they were actually born in the US. It is possible that East Indian families push their kids to go into Engineering. I have NO IDEA how many African American, Caucasian (incl Hispanic) or Asian kids were granted admission to the School of Engineering but I feel whatever the percentage of each of these groups is, it may not reflect the population of that age group as a whole, due to kids of East Indian descent taking up so many of the billets.
It is not just the tech field that H-1B workers dominate. Over the last 25 years, the medical field (incl biotech) has EXPLODED with (originally, but now citizens) H-1B physicians, surgeons and researchers. I saw this among cardiologists in SD when one of my relatives was hospitalized here for about 10 days while visiting me in the mid-nineties.
For the past four weeks, I’ve been doing some nationwide medical research for a (very athletic non-smoking, non-drinking) friend who was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in June and given just weeks/few months to live (as of today, he is still alive but hospitalized). I’ve been reading a lot of medical journal articles, physician bios and watching videos of surgeries. Unfortunately, he will be the 4th person in my life who will succumb to this dreadful disease, so I know what to expect and basically what’s worked in the past and what doesn’t work. I was/am desperate to determine if he is qualified for any surgery at all which will prolong his life by at least one year after surgery.
In reading and watching online, it was very clear to me that over 90% of the most distinguished and talented gastrointestinal surgeons in this country were at one time very likely on a student visa to attend university in the US and H1-B themselves. This particular specialty of surgeons perform the most difficult, lengthy and risky surgery on the planet! Overwhelmingly, these surgeons, from renowned cancer centers all over the country were of East Indian and Pakistani origin (with north African incl middle eastern, eastern European and South American mixed in). Almost all of them still had thick accents but their English was very understandable.
I have no idea if enough US born medical students have been/are majoring in gastroenterology over the past 30 years or why some medical fields attract so many foreigners. The surgeons I researched online appeared to me to be age 35-60 with the smallest age group 50-60 years old.
btw, dumbrenter, most of my kid’s fellow business majors appear to me to be Asian (primarily Filipino and Chinese with Caucasian/Hispanic following closely behind).
I do believe that it is VERY DIFFICULT for a HS senior of any race in CA today who has a 3.0 to 3.9 GPA to get admitted to a CA public university as a freshman (even to those “armpit” campuses of UC Merced, Fresno State and CSU Bakersfield)! In addition, the qualification bar is set quite a bit higher for UC/CSU admission for OOS and OOC applicants, and of course, they pay the “full freight” to attend (and no doubt bring up the campus graduation rate due to their higher qualifications at entrance). I don’t agree that the UC/CSU systems are “bursting at the seams” but that each campus offers admissions to the most qualified first (apart from their agreements with local school districts). And if the most qualified just so happen to be from OOS or OOC, that’s all the more money they can collect!
A handful of campuses (5-6 CSU campuses) do make a special outreach effort to offer admissions to “service-area” freshman applicants for select majors … those whose parents reside within commuting distance of campus (miles vary by campus). These applicants need a GPA of just 3.0 and can have a little lower SAT score than a general in-state applicant. They may need some math or English remedial work which must be completed on campus during the summer after HS graduation. My kid’s campus is one which honors their agreements with local HS districts in this fashion but these campuses are in the minority.
I really don’t think “foreigners” are taking up too many billets at the CSU but they may be at the UC (which is more competitive to get into) … I don’t know. I think that some ethnic groups/cultures who are actually American citizens push engineering and medical careers on their children from a young age and that is why the preponderance of “foreign-looking” engineers, physicians and nurses. It may be that not enough people born in the USA are deciding to go into these fields or not enough children of US-born parents are going into these fields. I don’t think that H1-B workers are being paid less than their co-worker who was born in the US.
I know when I went to college in the mid ’70’s, my campus was full of returning US born Vietnam vets (in all majors) and a several hundred mostly Iranian (engineering) students … all male and completely cash-funded by parents for OOC tuition. (I DO think many of them returned to their home country after graduation). But I don’t recall being aware of H1-B’s holding so many jobs in the US until the early/mid ’90’s. Today, a typical “Iranian” student is likely US born to possibly immigrant parents so a “foreign-appearing” college student in the US today is very likely not “foreign” at all!
I’m going to say it again here, folks … the competition for a CA public university slot is ultra-competitive for CA high school seniors today! Make sure your kid doesn’t drop the ball in HS and applies TIMELY to multiple campuses in each system AND DECLARES A MAJOR FOR EACH AND EVERY CAMPUS THEY APPLY TO!
