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Ask HN: What does Trump mean to a prospective foreign masters student?

4 points by hypothesist ↗ HN
Hi, I'm currently in my junior year and I'm planning on joining a masters program in the US (at a reputed university like Stanford, Berkeley, ...) after my undergraduate.

With Trump being elected, I'm confused as to how this affects my chance of getting a selected and then eventually getting a job at a big company like Google.

From what I've seen, the supposed crackdown on H1B visas does not only apply to highly-skilled workers (like the IT industry). Would I qualify as a highly skilled worker if I graduate with a masters at a top school and work as a software engineer? (not IT)

9 comments

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foldr
Impossible to say. It all depends what Trump does or doesn't do. There's a significant chance that nothing much will change.
hypothesist
Right, I understand. But what are his proposed policies? How would they affect me? Sorry, I haven't been able to follow the elections fully (I haven't been able to completely escape it either :D)
CalChris
At places like Stanford or Berkeley and in an area like the San Francisco Bay Area, you're good. California in general, you're gonna be just fine.

Depending on your accent and skin color, you might want to stay out of the Confederacy.

pmorici
This isn't what the OP was asking about.
CalChris
You're right. The idea that Berkeley, Stanford or Google's decision would be based on Trump's election is so plausible that I misread the question entirely.
pmorici
Here are a couple of articles about things he's said about H1B. From skimming them it sounds like he wants to raise the minimum prevailing wage an H1B would have to be paid and eliminate abuses like what happened at Disney recently where they fired their existing workforce and replaced them with lower paid H1B workers. Since you are shooting for a masters at a top school I wouldn't think these changes would affect your plans

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2973597/it-outsourcing/...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/...

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/63369555990007398...

HarryHirsch
Why would anyone with to put up with the insanity that is US healthcare? It's byzantine, expensive, the cost of health insurance is completely out of control. On top of that comes the H1-B madness.

Why not Canada, Europe, even post-Brexit Britain? Immigration and healthcare in any of these is actually sane.

hypothesist
Of late, I have been considering Europe more and more. This might sound a little shallow, but for a relatively similar cost of living, European wages are much less than the somewhere like the Bay Area. That is probably why I've been leaning towards the US.

But I really like Europe too, so that could be an option.

shams93
I doubt Trump will touch the H1B, if you read his 100 point plan, he makes it pretty explicit that he is in favor of the H1B. But he wants to make it hard to get a green card, so even if he is in favor of the H1B he may kill it accidentally. But if you can intern for Google in school they have overseas offices so even if you couldn't get a work visa here that doesn't mean you can't have a great career working in an overseas office for one of these big Silicon Valley companies.