I’m studying IB at high school and will be applying later this year for undergrad studies in the US as an international student. I love Physics, Maths and Econs. So my dilemma is Engineering or Econs. I’m told if I apply for Econs, its easier to get into a better college but then job prospects not so good. With engineering, getting into a good program is really tough, but job prospects are much better.
My question is - assuming getting into an engineering program at a top college is practically impossible to get, is it then better to do Econs at a top tier college (like UC Berkeley or U Penn) or Engineering at a Tier 2 college (like Northwestern or Duke)? What’s better in the long run in terms of employment prospects?
If you really don’t care about one career path vs the other, which major is more employable in your home country? Since it’s extremely difficult to immigrate to the US based on work, you should plan to return to your home country (or some other country you’re entitled to live and work in).
Thanks b@r!um, but the fact is that my parents have been moving round the globe so I’ve spent very little time back home. If I’m going to do undergrad in the US, need to be employable so I can spend at least a few years working there, then plan to my post grad and then possibly work anywhere in the world.
If you need to be able to work in the country you’re studying, you may want to consider other countries. Canada is quite generous with work permits for university graduates, for instance.
An American student visa comes with a 12-month work permit (OPT). You can use it for internships during summer vacations or for your first job after graduation. After you use up your OPT, all bets are off. The most common work visa category (H-1B) has a yearly cap on the number of visas issued, which has sometimes been reached on the very first day that applications were accepted - necessitating the use of a lottery to decide which applications get processed at all. Employers need to submit work visa petitions in April so that the employee can start work in October.
How many employers do you think want to pay several thousand dollars (the price of an H-1B petition) to enter a lottery for a chance to hire an international student straight out of college half a year later? No matter how good you are, it’s just so much easier to hire an American college graduate instead.
Remember I said that H-1Bs are the most common type of work visa? There’s two others worth mentioning. The first is the E-family of investor visas. If someone is running a company in the US on an E-visa, they can hire essential staff from their home country only on an E-visa as well. E-visa companies are usually very small.
The other one are L-visas for intra-company transfers. After you work at the foreign branch of an international corporation for a year, the company becomes eligible to move you to their US branch on an L-visa.
Thanks a lot - that’s very useful info. Appreciate your inputs.
Just to correct a misconception: economics majors job prospects are NOT weak or low. They’re actually quite goo, provided they’d taken the necessary quantitative classes and done internships.
Thanks MYOS1634, but I hear its hard because Econs is one of the most popular majors in the US and there is a far greater supply than demand. Ya, I guess the more quanti subjects you load up on, the better the job prospects. But its still hard to stand out and demonstrate the ‘solidness’ of your degree amongst the rest of the Econs majors, right? Whereas in case of Engineering, the degree speaks for itself. You think threes some truth to that?
@sarita133, you didn’t heed @B@r!um’s information. You have to think in terms of returning to your country for Econ job prospects. If you think you will be staying in the US with an Econ major, you are dead wrong. Economics majors are plentiful in the US and your job prospects will be close to nil. Engineering will be just as difficult. Your education in the US is for educational purposes; if you assume immigration and job prospects, you will be extremely disappointed.
If you want to go to the US with a student visa, you have to go there to STUDY, not to work. Stop thinking about employment, since work = no visa.
After your BA/BS, you have 12 (Econ) or 27 (STEM) months of OPT, during which you can work, typically at the place where you did your internship (the number of full time months is deducted from the OPT total, but it’s a worthy investment). After OPT, you do a Master’s degree (or a PHD), then your employer applies for a H1B.
It’ll be more important to have good grades.In addition, CS is not engineering but carries the same benefits. Of course, you have to be strong at math.
An employer will review your transcript and will see whether you took two or zero statistics classes, two or zero calculus classes, one or zero analytics class, etc.
…while the above posters are dead right about being clear on your employment options before you commit a lot of time and money to any given course/university, I would also like to point out that your tiers are a bit dubious- there would not be a substantial difference in between a undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, U Penn, Northwestern or Duke from an employment point of view*. And as an international, all of them would be likely to cost you ~ $200K+ to get (yes, I know that there are variables in that number, but it’s not likely that he would get out for less than $50K pa by the time tuition, room, board, books, travel, etc. are accounted for).
Thank you all for the inputs.Will have to think this through and take a decision whether its worth it.