Tilted against them by design: U.S. college grads increasingly shut out of American Dream

While news feeds are filled with stories of U.S. graduates locked out of careers, some applying for hundreds of jobs with little to show for it, San Jose State University is celebrating a very different outcome.

The school recently announced it was ranked No. 1 in the nation for international student employment outcomes by FrogHire.ai, boasting data that shows its foreign alumni outperforming peers in post-graduation success.

But for domestic students struggling to find work, the numbers tell a far different story.

A bleak job market for Americans

The broader job market for American grads remains bleak. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has risen to an average of 5.3% this year, compared with about 4% for the overall labor force. That makes it one of the toughest job markets for new graduates since 2015, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as reported by NBC News in August.

The Federal Reserve Bank underscored the implications, noting that “the concentration of unemployment increases among recent college graduates and white-collar workers suggests that traditional assumptions about education and career security may need significant revision. The data indicate that even highly educated workers in previously stable fields are not immune to economic disruption.”

This reality collides with universities like San Jose State touting international student job placement as a badge of honor.

The OPT advantage

At the root of this disparity is the OPT (Optional Practical Training) program, provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. OPT authorizes international graduates to have up to three years of U.S. work authorization in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

For employers, the incentives to hire foreigners under this program are big: They are exempt from paying payroll taxes for OPT workers, saving as much as 8.25% per hire. That discount makes foreign graduates artificially cheaper than Americans, thereby creating a structural bias that boosts international alumni outcomes in employment rankings.

No wonder San Jose State’s foreign graduates shine so brightly on FrogHire’s lists.

Following the money

For universities, prioritizing international students makes financial sense under the current system. They often pay out-of-state tuition, which in some cases can be three times more than what in-state students pay.

Supporting strong employment outcomes for these foreign students enhances rankings, strengthens institutional reputation and appeals to future international applicants.

Meanwhile, however, many domestic graduates face fewer opportunities, heavier debt burdens and a job market that grows more competitive by the year.

When education becomes a backdoor to immigration

Even the employment statistics suggest universities are playing a different game for different students. FrogHire.ai’s ranking openly highlights strong PERM filings and green card sponsorships for San Jose State’s foreign alumni, pipelines that transform temporary student visas into permanent residency.

To understand why this matters, it’s important to consider how the F-1 visa is supposed to function. The F-1 visa is a non-immigrant student visa. Applicants must prove they are enrolled full-time in an approved program, have financial means to support themselves and – most critically – intend to return to their home country after completing their studies. By law, the F-1 cannot be used as an immigration pathway.

Yet, by rewarding schools for the number of graduates who transition from F-1 status into green cards through OPT work authorization, long-term employment outcomes and PERM filings – the first step toward an employment-based green card – the rankings normalize a practice that directly undermines the legal requirements of the F-1 visa. Since this has been a known survey criterion for years, universities are not only aware of it, but actively compete in a system that measures success by converting temporary student visas into permanent residency. That makes it more than an incidental outcome; it demonstrates institutional participation in a system that knowingly converts temporary student visas into permanent residency pipelines, directly violating the statutory purpose of the F-1 visa and possibly facilitating visa fraud.

According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s SEVIS Database, San Jose State University reported 5,250 active F-1 student records in 2024. That places it at #59 nationwide on the ICE Top 500 list of higher education schools hosting F-1 students.

The American dream – outsourced for tuition dollars

Universities, intent on sustaining the inflow of international students and boosting their standing in outcome-based rankings, appear willing to assume the risks of fines and penalties associated with visa fraud. That very willingness exposes the lack of any comparable effort to support American students, at a time when U.S. graduates face some of the highest rates of unemployment and underemployment. The contrast is undeniable: Institutions will assume legal risks to advance international pipelines while failing to prioritize the success of their own country’s citizens.

For American graduates, there is no OPT pathway, no payroll tax breaks for employers and no special incentives to make them more attractive hires than foreign workers. Instead, they graduate with rising debt and enter a job market where opportunities are shrinking, tilted against them by design. The outcome is a higher education system where tuition revenue and international recruitment take precedence, while American students bear the burden of diminished returns on their investment in education.

Where is the return on investment for American graduates? If universities are praised and ranked on international student outcomes, then the same scrutiny should be applied to U.S. students. Rankings should measure how many American graduates are unemployed, underemployed or pushed into jobs unrelated to their degrees at the very institutions collecting their tuition. If the comparison shows outcomes tilted heavily toward international students, then what justification exists for Americans to keep paying for degrees that leave them at a disadvantage?

The issue is compounded by the fact that many of these universities are publicly funded, meaning American tax dollars are being used to subsidize institutions that promote the careers of foreign students while sidelining Americans. Not only are universities giving international students special advantages and employment pipelines, they are also actively facilitating permanent residency through PERM filings. This does not just shape short-term job competition; it permanently reshapes the labor pool and reduces long-term opportunities for American alumni. Americans are thus being forced to bankroll their own replacement.

An even bigger question revolves around what this says about the actual mission of today’s higher education. American universities were founded to serve American citizens, yet they now channel their resources into global rankings, foreign tuition dollars and visa pipelines that displace the very students they were meant to uplift.

If American graduates cannot count on their own universities to protect their futures, then the system is not simply broken; it is complicit in outsourcing the American dream.