Just curious, how many of the HN faithful have Master's or higher level education? I would suspect that STEM grads who'd benefit most from this would predominately 'only' have Bachelor's degrees, if that even.
U.S. Bachelor's degrees usually take 4 years to complete, after which a U.S. Master's degree takes 2 years.
Many non-U.S. bachelor's degrees take only 3 years and as a result, the USCIS deems having a 3 year Bachelor's + 2 year Master's as being unworthy of a U.S. Master's degree, instead equating it to a U.S. Bachelor's degree.
Granted, they could have made more cash by going straight into programming - or banking for that matter - but they've got passion and intellectual curiosity, and in my book that's a good thing for a programmer to have.
That's not to say everyone with a postgraduate degree is great - I'm sure the population has its share of idiots and assholes, like every population!