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Comment by eitally | Hacker News Reader

When I was in grad school (2008-2011), of the 60 people in my program only 5 were American. The vast majority were Indian or Chinese (~50). I wouldn't say there was discrimination, though. The matriculation statistics were interest-based, mostly. A lot of the Americans who received their BS went immediately to industry.

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During my engineering grad program I was fascinated by the gender disparity among americans (almost no women) versus the nearly equal gender balance among engineering grad students from India, the Middle East (including Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia), and China.

The engineering gender imbalance seems to be almost unique to the USA. Countries with awful records on women's rights sent just as many women to get PhDs as men.

Others have observed this as well, but it is considered a disputed finding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-equality_paradox

yeah most people are normal human beings, im saying the discrimination happens in getting admitted into the program

My 1.8 GPA is literally discriminated-against, too. So unfair!

it's more like skin color, ethnicity, and religion

Who is the one that discriminates? You mean the white american prof?

My undergrad program in the late 2000s had very, very few white profs.

are they Americans?

You’d hafta ask them I suppose, if they’re alive. This was over 2 decades ago. My guess is no.

My understanding this is because being a grad student is hardly an economically good deal for a typical American student, but for the sort of foreigner who can afford to send their child to school in the US, it can still be valuable.

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