The headline reads like Berkeley is suspending authorization of international students workers in general, but this actually seems like a relatively narrow restriction?
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.
https://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files...
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?
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/28/us/elon-musk-immigration-wash...
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.
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.
Not that I'm against international students. But I think it's misleading to parade them around to show how "diverse" your student body is. The truth is that these international students are almost all the upper crust of the various countries they come from. Not much diversity in "rich kids" around the world.
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.
It's obvious that OPT will be banned next.
Tell that to immigrants being cruel to other immigrants, even in America.
Couple of countries people are famous for this.
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-...
[2] https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-27/uc-math-...
[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/08/24/when-str...
[4] https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2026/08/15/uc-berkeley-sat-te...
[5] https://abc7news.com/post/stanley-zhong-college-rejected-tee...
[6] https://nypost.com/2026/08/30/us-news/california-student-sta...
Another big issue is that many of these under-prepared students came from the same Bay Area 'under-represented' feeder schools: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2026/uc-acceptance-rate...
The sooner Cal cleans its act up, the better. College admissions IS zero-sum and it's absolutely harmful for the students rejected and those enrolled to accept unqualified candidates.
> 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
How does that relate to Berkeley?
> 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
What's the point here? Whatever happened with that person, there are many more Berkeley applicants who have exceptional records.
(There must be more to the story - neither citation says why he was rejected. To the degree there is discrimination, I expect it would be against borderline applicants and not exceptional ones.)
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.”
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.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/28/us/elon-musk-immigration-wash...
And no, to be clear, you are totally mistaken about "school break" thing. In fact, you have to be enrolled in credits to get CPT, not on a full break (this is in no way a new rule.)
My guess is that you're just repeating something to dismiss something you agree with, and misunderstand the quote you're using.
Boalt has kind of been the butt of a lot of jokes since I was a student decades ago. Maybe those jokes came to fruition. (A bit like Brown among the Ivies.)
Another modifier is going to be parental income, which I think makes much more sense than race. But those two modifiers can compound to make it where something like an Asian from a high household income family needs to essentially be the next Einstein in order to be admitted over an average student who happens to be from a historically poor performing minority.
Plenty of other countries already do it this way
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.
I was in the American school system up until HS and then moved to France. The _way_ stricter grading compared to what I had in the US was very hard to get used to.
One thing that I did witness while studying for the engineering school exams (which is a whole two year affair) was seeing a lot of people who were very used to being the top of their class and getting good grades flame out, because they had already been working super hard in high school to keep their grades up.
I think there's a good chunk of "straight A students" who might struggle with the hit to their ego in that environment. But it was helpful and humbling to me.
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.
Speaking as a teacher it's highly unfortunate that at most schools this doesn't really fly - even with curving, because parents and kids alike expect 100% for basic understanding and application. So it's the analog of understanding akin to an assembly line worker instead of an engineer. This is especially a shame in the era of LLMs when rote regurgitation is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and higher order 'understanding' is becoming much more relevant.
Always been much more an application than theory guy, but we all have to adapt to technology and this is where it's at now.
In my opinion, it would have to be obvious and fairly extreme to take action over, because there are issues that dwarf whatever impact it might have, the top one being bureaucratic bloat. If 90% of the non-teaching/researching staff at Berkeley were replaced with CPT abusers, I think it would be a net positive.
The Berkeley International Office announced Wednesday that it will pause international students’ applications for Course Credit Curricular Practical Training “for the foreseeable future.”
The office is acting in accordance with a new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo sent to the office Monday, which is a follow-up to another memo sent less than two weeks earlier, which provides additional guidance to universities to monitor CPT authorizations in compliance with federal regulations.
“It is unlikely that we will be processing such applications in the near future, so please plan accordingly,” BIO wrote in an email sent to all international students. “We regret taking this action but we believe that it is in the best interest of students who hold F-1 status and that of the university.”
Course Credit CPT is a work authorization for international students, allowing visa holders to gain practical work experience in exchange for credit toward their degree program.
Now, in accordance with ICE’s updated warning, BIO will be suspending all applications for Course Credit CPT, preventing international students from obtaining work experience unless an “integral part of an established curriculum.”
In its email, BIO said it hoped to resume processing Course Credit CPT applications next week but said it needs more time to consult legal counsel following ICE’s warning.
The memo said the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, a government program that manages international and exchange students under ICE, has begun auditing schools to ensure compliance. Failure to comply with the regulations may result in an institution losing certification to enroll international students, according to the memo.
In the case that Designated School Officials are being pressured by superiors to make noncompliant decisions on behalf of international students, SEVP introduced a new tip line to report concerns for review by SEVP and Homeland Security Investigations.
BIO said it will continue processing “degree-requirement” CPT as usual and told international students that it remains “committed to ensuring that your academic experience is fulfilling and rewarding with the present limitations notwithstanding.”
“We want to continue to emphasize that we do not take these actions lightly, as we know the importance that CPT plays in your academic journey,” BIO wrote. “We will work collaboratively with academic programs to ensure that we have the necessary infrastructure in place so that we can move forward with processing Degree Requirement CPT applications that comply with ICE requirements.”