Hundreds of thousands of Indian students apply to study in American universities every year — with many hoping to eventually land a job in the other country. But a significant number of Indian students may have to return empty handed as US President Donald Trump leads a stringent crackdown on immigration and visa regulations.
Tech influencer ‘Deedy’ Das summed up the stark situation in a social media post on Monday — predicting that most of the 150,000plus students in the country would not get a job in America.
200,000 Indians to get US Master’s in 2025
The lengthy post noted that Indian students doing their Master’s degree in the US had tripled over the past five years to reach approximately 300,000 at present. The number is double the pre-pandemic highs and represents around 81% of all Indian students in the country.
“As discretionary wages have expanded in India, many companies have sprung up to help lower the barrier to entry for Indians to come to the US for their Master’s. Ten years ago it was approximately four times less. Master’s programs last one to two years — meaning approximately 150,000 to 200,000 students graduate this year, and most will be out looking for a job,” Das added.
According to an ICE report released in early June, there were a total of 4,22,335 Indian students actively enrolled in US institutions in 2024. An Open Doors analysis released in November 2024 suggested that Indian students had surpassed their Chinese counterparts for the first time in 15 years during the 2023-24 academic year.
‘Simply not enough jobs to…’
The post warned that a significant number of these graduating students would face massive hurdles while hunting for jobs. Das outlined four key reasons for the situation — contending that education was becoming an unviable path to the US. He noted that most of these students were funding their academic dreams with loans and a vast majority (around 70% of them) were studying Computer Science or Engineering.
“But there are simply not enough tech jobs to meet this demand. For comparison, all of Microsoft has approximately 100,000 engineers…BigTech hiring has still not recovered. Trends show that new graduates with zero to two years of experience are the worst affected,” he wrote.
The social media post also flagged the growing scarcity of visas as the Trump government cracked down on immigration and announced stringent curbs for students. Changes proposed by the US Department of Homeland Security are likely to make the process harder — with no option to change courses or universities while studying for a Master’s degree in the US. International students will also face additional limits on visa duration and OPT grace period
“Visas are harder than ever before. The recently proposed rule for wage-based H-1B visas means fewer jobs will qualify. Add to that the four year F-1 cap…means Day 1 CPT will no longer allow you to stay beyond the three years of OPT if you don’t get into the lottery. Credible rumors signal that visas at least in this administration will continue to get harder,” Das noted.
