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UC Berkeley indefinitely suspends international student work authorizations
- schaefer 1mo agoAs someone that went to community college... I'm pretty sure that the kids getting admitted to Berkeley actually are the best and the brightest. we should absolutely be welcoming them. what are we even doing here?
- dmitrygr 1mo ago> I'm pretty sure that the kids getting admitted to Berkeley actually are the best and the brightest. Are they? * UC-Berkeley math prof says she has to teach fractions to calculus students because standards have fallen so far. [1] [2] [3] [4] * "I teach calculus at Berkeley. Some of my students can’t do middle school math" [1] [2] [3] [4] * Bay Area high school grad rejected by 16 colleges hired by Google -- Zhong had a 3.97 unweighted and 4.42 weighted GPA, scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT's [5] * Star California student rejected by 16 colleges, hired by Google, gets legal win in racial discrimination suit [6] Seems like the best and the brightest are being rejected and suing over it, with receipts... [1] https://nypost.com/2026/08/16/us-news/uc-berkeley-math-prof-forced-to-teach-fractions-because-standards-have-fallen-so-far/ https://nypost.com/2026/08/16/us-news/uc-berkeley-math-prof-... [2] https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-27/uc-math-professors-demand-return-of-sat-for-stem-admissions https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-27/uc-math-... [3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/08/24/when-straight-a-students-arent-ready-for-college-math/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/08/24/when-str... [4] https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2026/08/15/uc-berkeley-sat-test-blind-admissions-math-scores/ https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2026/08/15/uc-berkeley-sat-te... [5] https://abc7news.com/post/stanley-zhong-college-rejected-teen-full-time-job-google-admissions/13890332/ https://abc7news.com/post/stanley-zhong-college-rejected-tee... [6] https://nypost.com/2026/08/30/us-news/california-student-stanley-zhong-gets-legal-win-in-racial-discrimination-against-colleges/ https://nypost.com/2026/08/30/us-news/california-student-sta...
- DANmode 1mo ago“Some students are five to eight years behind in mathematics. Office hours that should be spent discussing integrals instead become lessons on fractions and basic algebra you would expect students to learn in middle school,” wrote Zvezdelina Stankova, of UC Berkeley, in an op-ed piece on Saturday for the San Francisco Standard. Stankova — who rose through the mathematics world to earn a PhD from Harvard after being born in communist Bulgaria — described the admissions process as “less like careful evaluation and more like chance.”
- rtpg 1mo agoUniversity objectives of making a diverse student body (an objective I basically agree with!) make this tricky and futzy (but not impossible IMO! You can always do something a bit hybrid), but I really feel like if some US university just decided to go to an entrance exam model they'd probably instantly have a cohort of students that would be _much_ easier to onboard into university materials. Biggest problem is you'd need to make the entrance exams _actually tough_. Like "basically nobody who takes it gets an A". The objective is to rank students between each other, after all! It doesn't matter if the top scorer only has a 70% or something. Every argument against standardized testing in this kind of thing seems to boil down to "test results are heavily correlated to socio-economic status". But... every other form of university entrance criteria process is even more correlated, right? All those extracurriculars aren't free after all.
- tgma 1mo agoHow is this related to being "welcome" or not? Of course they are very welcome to study. They are simply not encouraged to circumvent their program of study and go to work under the guise of "CPT."
- stickfigure 1mo agoHow prevalent is that kind of abuse? Quantify it. I am sketpical.
- tgma 1mo agoNot sure what you mean by "abuse" or what you are skeptical of? Please clarify what stats are you looking for?
- sampullman 1mo agoYou said "They are simply not encouraged to circumvent their program of study and go to work under the guise of "CPT."" This implies that you are familiar with the system and aware of how it's abused, so presumably you can provide some evidence. I wasn't aware of any during my time there, but my personal experience doesn't necessarily mean it didn't/hasn't happened.
- tgma 1mo agoI ask because I did not use the term "abuse," as that's subjective. Circumvent was picked precisely because it was a clear run around the intent of the program, without the value judgement. The keyword is "Day 1 CPT" if you want to learn about the abuse. Certain colleges basically knowingly wink wink and allow incoming students to go immediately work under CPT.
- amazingman 1mo agoCan you quantify the scale of it or not?
- culi 1mo agoFunnily enough if you go to community college in California, you can do something called the Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) that guarantees you admission into any UC except for LA and Berkeley. The UC system is required to increase the amount of in-state low-income students they accept due to agreements with the state and programs like these are crucial to that. TAG is usually quite simple to qualify for. You just need 30 semester credits and to maintain a GPA ranging from 2.0 to 3.5 depending on the program you're applying for.
- whateverboat 1mo agowhat happens if you get GPA above 3.5? ;-) /s
- cheema33 1mo agoCruelty is the point.
- ungreased0675 1mo agoWhat is cruel about this?
- chronic29521 1mo ago> Cruelty is the point. Tell that to immigrants being cruel to other immigrants, even in America. Couple of countries people are famous for this.
- behnamoh 1mo ago[flagged]
- DANmode 1mo agoWait, why can’t you explicitly say who you’re talking about again?
- behnamoh 1mo ago[flagged]
- 1659447091 1mo agoMaybe its about the same admin that is killing Americans in the name of immigration and trying to get rid of the same pathway that same admin took to bring a whole family over[0] -- they just didnt want to get political so avoided naming them [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43256318 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43256318
- devindotcom 1mo agowhy even bother with this "you know what I mean" stuff? if you're going to say things like this have the conviction to say it straight. you come off as a bigot AND a coward this way.
- tequila_shot 1mo agoSO..you are saying the admin is acting because this country abused benefits. And you are not blaming the admin for stopping OPT from said country but everyone else. Do you see the problem?
- behnamoh 1mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- potentdream 1mo agoThis is sad.
- cheonc720 1mo ago[flagged]
- a2ff6eeb0 1mo agoWhy are Americans so focused on helping other companies get ahead, rather than trying to brain drain their best and brightest?
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- auntienomen 1mo agoThis comment misrepresents what the cancelled program does.
- cheonc720 1mo ago> This comment misrepresents what the cancelled programs does. It prevents international students from internships at companies while still enrolled in university. Unless you have a different definition of the word “student visa”? Perhaps you meant “F-1 green card” visa?
- dahinds 1mo agoYou said: > They just need to return to India after graduation. > If they wish to immigrate to America, there are different visa pathways for that. The CPT program is about working during a course of study, before graduation, and isn't an immigration program, so what is the relevance of your comment?
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- raincom 1mo agoSo, this is not about OPT, but CPT. Many from various schools have abused CPT; so, they want to put to close that loophole. Some real ones get affected by this because of others' actions.
- biotechbio 1mo agoIs this headline misleading? From reading the article, Berkeley is pausing authorizations for Course Credit CPT, which enables international students on visas to work in exchange for credits to complete their degree programs. It doesn’t outright ban work experience if it is an “integral part of an established curriculum”. The headline reads like Berkeley is suspending authorization of international student workers in general, but this actually seems like a relatively narrow restriction?
- Bnjoroge 1mo agoThe new directive requires that the course requires the internship. Most programs (especially CS/economics etc) dont. This effectively removed any pathway for international cs students interning. It’s far from a narrow restriction
- tgma 1mo agoThat is not true. It does not restrict anyone from applying for OPT and pursue one or more internships. Given your other comment, it is pretty obvious you are not super familiar with the details of CPT vs OPT.
- chronic29521 1mo ago> That is not true. It does not restrict anyone from applying for OPT and pursue one or more internships. Given your other comment, it is pretty obvious you are not super familiar with the details of CPT vs OPT. It's obvious that OPT will be banned next.
- tgma 1mo agoMay be obvious to you. I don't know, but to be clear, nothing new is "banned" here. The schools are now more carefully following the existing published guidelines, rather than playing fast and loose with work authorizations like Oprah. Dropping OPT would be a rule change; this one isn't.
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- sehw 1mo ago[dead]
- tempuser 1mo ago[flagged]
- porkpieshoe 1mo ago[flagged]
- behnamoh 1mo agoNo I'm not, and you're not worth my time.
- porkpieshoe 1mo ago[flagged]
- tomhow 1mo agoWe've banned this account. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505563 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505563 and marked it off topic.
- southbound 1mo agoWhen I did my CPT more than a decade ago in an age before the current admissions policies, I had to ensure that the place I was going to work at was a good fit for what I was studying, and there needed to be a written explanation of why it would directly benefit my studies. And it was no joke, I couldn't do an internship for a role not directly in my field of study. Either Berkeley isn't doing things right, or this is a shakedown. International students are the biggest money-spinners for universities (to the detriment of everything else at this point, from what I hear), and ICE is going for the jugular.
- cheonc720 1mo ago> International students are the biggest money-spinners for universities That is exactly the problem. Stanford University owns 7 private jets for “administrative use”. The fuck? Perhaps cut the free money from international students, then universities can finally focus on producing research, or god forbid, educating students.
- dahinds 1mo agoDo you have a cite for Stanford University owning any private jets?
- random6754478 1mo ago[dead]
- ungreased0675 1mo ago[dead]
- 737min 1mo agoSome comtext 36% of Berkeley students now from PRC (China), another 11% India. Big growth in last 15 years: https://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/student-stats2025.pdf https://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files...
- beebmam 1mo agoTotally embarrassing
- m681 1mo agoAnd at best misleading, if not outright false.
- 737min 1mo agoWhat is misleading?
- Dylan16807 1mo agoAs multiple people posted 5 hours before you asked, that's 36% and 11% of international Berkeley students, not 36% and 11% of Berkeley students. International is around 15% total.
- m681 1mo agoOf the international students at Berkeley, 36% are from China and 11% from India. Very big difference.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- Der_Einzige 1mo agoThe majority of these kids go back home after getting accused of being CCP agents and are then accused of being puppets of the west back home. They mostly are loyal to the USA and that's why they come here. It's colossally stupid to spit in their faces like this.
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