Magemaster

What do international students who go to US for university do after that? Do they usually find a job in US or do they move back to their country?

b@r!um

Some work in the US, some go to grad school in the US (often because they want to stay in the US but can't find a job), some go to grad school in another country (usually not their home country), some go home.

If your goal is to stay and work in the US after college, I'd urge you to select an employable major and be very aggressive in your career-building. (Hint: don't major in the liberal arts.) An employer has to go through a lot of trouble to hire foreign workers and that's rarely worth it for entry-level positions, unless you bring something exceptional to the table. (The "trouble" include several thousand dollars in processing fees, maintaining paperwork to document that hiring foreign workers does not have a negative impact on the domestic employees, and paying you an above-average wage for your position.)

Even if you have a job offer and an employer willing to sponsor you, you may not qualify for a work visa due to circumstances out of your control. There have been years in the past decade where it was literally impossible for new college graduates to receive a work visa. (There's a yearly cap on the number of work visas issued. New college graduates cannot apply for a work visa until their degree has been awarded. But at that time of the year, the quota for work visas may have been met already.)

Magemaster

Thanks for the info!

Magemaster

Bump! :-P ....

b@r!um

Maybe you could clarify what additional answers you are hoping for?

farkula

"(Hint: don't major in the liberal arts.)"

ummm... why? I mean, are you saying that international students who join the liberal arts schools (even the top ones) will find it really hard to find a job? I don't intend to to work in the US but I do really want a good job during my OPT time.


Oh, and I am majoring in econ hopefully but it's still a liberal arts degree/major. =.= thanks

vienneselights

xDDD

1) STEM majors, despite common opinion, are also liberal arts. As is anything that is not pre-professional

2) EVERYBODY majors in econ, la. Good luck.

b@r!um

Unless you attend a school prestigious enough that your affiliation with that university is reason enough to hire you (Harvard is such a school, Haverford is not), you'll have quite a hard time getting a job in the US with a liberal arts degree.

Half of all recent college graduates are said to be unemployed or underemployed. All of them would be happy to take a "good job" that requires no specific undergraduate training (the kind of jobs liberal arts majors rely on). Why would a company hire an international student - who'll either stay for less than a year or need an expensive and labor-intensive work visa - if there's a long line of more reliable American applicants happy to take that job?

I graduated from a liberal arts college. The only international students who found jobs after graduation were the computer science majors and a few social science majors who made a year-long volunteer commitment at non-profit organizations.