[geebee]

That still makes me a little nervous, though it would be an improvement.

Part of my problem with this is that I think a day of reckoning needs to come for higher education in STEM fields, and the sooner the better. PhD programs have atrociously high attrition rates and extremely long completion times compared to the professions, and MS programs are often a neglected stepchild. Employment prospects according to a RAND study[1] are surprisingly bad for such a challenging career path.

Americans are already shunning these programs, and I think this is a good thing to the extent that it will force the PhD programs to adapt and become more attractive (perhaps by following a professional school model, with far lower attrition rates and much more predictable and shorter completion times).

The problem is, PhD programs benefit enormously from the low cost labor of graduate students, and they don't want to adapt. One way they've avoided adapting is by tapping into international students who need their degree to gain admission into the United States. People who already have US residency may not bother, but people who don't have it yet will put up with all kinds of crap.

It's a strange situation. Should people who get a PhD from a top US institution be allowed to stay in the US? Hell yes! Should PhD programs be trusted with the power to bestow US residency on students? Hell no.

[1] http://www.rand.org/pubs/issue_papers/IP241.html