

US lead in science shrinks - daviday
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704381604575005023822489804.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews

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timr
_"The U.S. awarded 22,500 doctorates in natural sciences and engineering in
2007, but more than half of them were awarded to foreign nationals....The
report noted that 60% of temporary visa holders who earned doctorates in
science in engineering in 1997 were working in the U.S. in 2007."_

Ah, sweet irony...you rarely see it put so plainly in print. I wonder if the
report noted the percentage of US natural science doctorates who have in-field
employment after graduation? It might go a long way toward explaining why US
students aren't doing it anymore.

As one of the people who filled out the survey in 2007, I think it's telling
that even today, not all of my PhD friends who graduated in 2007 have jobs in
their field (and no, I don't count "post-doctoral research" as a job). If the
US wants more PhDs in the sciences, they're going to have to do something
about the labor market for scientists. Right now, it's a sucker's bet, and
smart kids know it.

~~~
elblanco
You mean people might think twice about spending an additional decade in
school so they can get a PhD and then move on to an entry level job that pays
<40k/yr? ~~~~~crazy~~~~~

I think a different, but similar problem is the crazy student visa policy in
the U.S. We happily allow foreign nationals to come study in the U.S. but they
aren't allowed to legally work while here, and they can't easily convert that
student visa into permanent residency like the vast majority of them probably
want to at some point.

Some folks manage to do it, but often as not, you see some poor slob who's
been trying to find someplace that'll hire them and sponsor them for an H1-B,
and ends up staying in school _forever_ in order to keep their student visa
active, all the while sucking up a slot at the school that some other kid
could use. And of course in order to keep their student visa active and ensure
they can have their best chances to convert it to an H1-B, they don't go back
home and they can't see their families.

I've never really understood the logic of the policy. It would make more sense
to me if we actively tried to keep these folks, and convert them from school
to skilled work force as rapidly as possible.

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chancho
But spending on r&d, in absolute terms, increased in the US as well as
everywhere else, which is a win-win-win for everybody. It just happened to
increase the most in China, but the US lead over China (why pick on China
anyway?) is still huge, as the body of the article describes. Nice
scaremongering headline, WSJ.

