How funny, so is my nephew! But he’s an EU resident so I don’t think he’s paying very much.
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TU Delft is EXCELLENT! 
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Which university is that buddy at? Most I’ve seen only allow for a max of one year as an exchange student.
Posters are free to start a new thread about international schools where their children and family are attending but please get back on topic. TIA!
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This is all so heartbreaking and infuriating and frightening and mystifying.
I worry for our country, for our world, and for my son, who wants to major in chemistry, get a PhD, and perhaps to do research at the intersection of chemistry and climate change mitigation.
He’s a hs senior and just finished his applications.
Should I be encouraging him to have a back-up career plan or consider a different major? Something he’s also thought about is scientific patent law, but I guess that would be negatively impacted by all the cuts, indirectly.
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Make sure he has some LACs (if he doesn’t already) on his application list. Some have 1/15 or 2/1 deadlines. They’re small and not on the Administration’s radar.
Also, studying another language should he have to start his graduate studies in another country -French (Canada, France, Switzerland, Belgium) or German (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) make the most sense. Italian, for Northern Italy (Milan to Bergame) also makes sense, plus all of the Netherlands and Scandinavia (high levels of English proficiency and language less commonly taught).
Hopefully things will be more hopeful by 2030-2031 but there’s no guarantee, alas 
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My husband recently attended a major international conference in his chemistry-related field and said that many Chinese and Canadian speakers were clearly hunting for postdocs to fill positions in their labs. At the same time, several speakers in each section he attended couldn’t come due to visa processing issues.
Have to say that one great thing about a PhD in a scientific field is that the degree recognized all over the world without the need for any local licensing.
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Thank you for this advice. I’m a big fan of small LACs. He has a few on his list, but he decided he was more drawn to mid-sized universities. I’ll talk with him about all of this.
He’s been studying—and wants to continue with—Spanish. Maybe not the most strategic in this case.
Yes, let’s hope for a turning of the tide, but I also understand that the damage being done will have a long lasting impact.
Hopefully this is something meaningful? (Gift article)
Congress is racing to undo thousands of cuts to federal science programs that President Trump called for last year when planning the government’s current budget.
If enacted, the president’s bid for an overall cut in scientific funding to $154 billion from $198 billion — a plunge of 22 percent — would have been the largest reduction in federal spending on science since World War II, when Washington and the seekers of nature’s secrets began their partnership.
This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee released a bipartisan package of bills that largely scraps Mr. Trump’s planned cuts. Analysts say that, if the proposed budgets hold up in the weeks ahead, Congress will set aside roughly $188 billionfor federal research — a drop of about 4 percent from the most recent annual budget.
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Gift link.
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Hopefully this will help a little.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-senate-passes-bill-boost-federal-science-spending-after-white-house-sought-2026-01-15/
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I’m cautiously optimistic about this - I really have never understood the lack of investing in science - even the most uncontroversial areas. Perhaps Congress is finally remembering they’re an actual branch of the government
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This seems positive, but I’m curious how much change will occur with an exec branch that can summarily refuse to spend. Next step would be Congress enforcing the spending, I guess.
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Our son’s girlfriend graduated in 2024 from Northwestern with a degree in Neuroscience and a 3.97 GPA. She applied to some of the very top PHD programs in the country and did not get into any. She was told by Vanderbilt that in any other year she would have been invited into the program but because of budget cuts she wasn’t. Another school took 12 students into the program in 23 and in 24 only two.
This is a girl who grew up wanting to be a scientist. She was motivated to go into Neuroscience because she watched her grandmother’s cognitive decline and there was no good treatment. She is now getting her masters degree in Data Analytics and wants to get into a career in Machine Learning Engineering or Machine Learning Quantitative Analysis.
Maybe she would not have been the person to find some breakthrough in treating dementia or maybe she would have but she certainly won’t now.
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SIL teaches Machine Learning at the graduate level and has run into some issues with students who have non-math/physics/engineering background. Namely, these students lack the mathematical education and skills needed for the class. He says it requires at a minimum 3 semesters of calculus and linear algebra. Advanced statistical methods and probability theory are also highly useful if not 100% necessary.
Without at least linear algebra, she won’t be able to complete the homework sets.
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She is taking a MSDS -Masters in Data Science with a Specialization in AI. Linear Algebra seems to be a core requirement to complete this degree. She is scheduled to graduate in June of this year so in her case she must of had the requisite math background.
Popped up in my Facebook feed. France doing the opposite of the US. Not sure how the big the numbers are in real terms but the intent is there.
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So this has been a rough cycle for students applying to REUs. Lots have been cancelled. S24 just got an offer and is thrilled but many programs cancelled before taking applications and others after their application process was complete. He is doing physics and the programs are reporting 300-400 applications for 8-12 spots. Craziness
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