International students seem to be having a tougher time when it comes to finding jobs after graduation than their domestic counterparts.
Many prospective students are drawn to DePauw because of its positive after-graduation statistics. According to the exit survey taken by the class of 2013, which 75 percent of the class responded to, around 30 percent of the class of 2013 was attending graduate school, 59 percent was employed, and 7 percent had been awarded national fellowships.
Of DePauw's current 267 international exchange students, Loutfi Jirari, director of international student services, estimates that 60 percent will go on to graduate school, while around 20 percent will remain in the U.S. to work and 20 percent will return to their native country.
These numbers are staggeringly different. The highest percentages gravitate towards very different occupations after undergraduate, with domestic students having greater numbers of employment, while international students trend towards graduate school.
It is difficult to say if this is by choice though.
"There are inherent challenges in the job search when you are an international student," Jirari said.
Among these challenges are limited career paths, the necessity of visas and sponsorship and even the search for companies willing to hire international students.
"One of the challenges is that international students come under student Visas," Raj Bellani, dean of experiential learning and career planning, said.
International students have two different work opportunities under a student visa: Optional Practical Training (OPT) which allows international students to stay a year after graduation for work-study without getting a new visa, or Curricular Practical Training (CPT) which grants international students the ability to complete internships while completing their undergraduate degrees.
"These are designations that allow international students to get real work-study experience," Bellani said. "But there's a time limit. And when that time limit is done, they either have to leave the U.S. or get sponsored by a U.S. based sponsor."
Sponsorship by a U.S. company is necessary for any international students wishing to remain in the U.S. to work for any amount of time over what is granted them by the OPT. This is where post-graduation plans for international students become complicated.
"One, it's expensive to sponsor someone," Associate Director of Career Services Erin Mahoney said. "And two, often companies can't justify it to the U.S. government that there's no one else who has this skill set and that they need to bring in someone not from the U.S."
These problems make American companies unlikely to sponsor international students, not just from DePauw but everywhere.
"All the liberal arts institutions are struggling with this issue of how to work with international students and work with these companies," Bellani said.
Junior Shudi Li, who is from China, feels that there's truth to Bellani's statement.
"At the University of Illinois' Career Fair, there will be nearly one hundred companies," Li said. "But I'll tell you, as long as you use the filter [online] that allows you to look at which of those companies will hire you and sponsor visas, there were only eight companies."
However, Li also feels that the Hubbard Career Center has not been as helpful as it could have been with her search for a summer internship.
"The Hubbard Center doesn't pay much attention to [international students]," she said. "And I don't mean to say anything bad about them but they don't seem to be putting an effort towards helping us."
When it came to setting up her own internship, Li said, "I basically used my own connections."
Senior Mami Oyamada, who is from Japan and is the president of the International Student Association, agrees that DePauw's career services for international students, a complicated process at best, could be improved.
"Someone at the Bar will direct a student to someone, who will direct the student to someone else. So it's like, where is this going?" Oyamada said. "If we could have one person at the Bar who could specialize in helping international students, and at least give them a direction it would be so helpful."
Mahoney is hopeful that this help is on its way. She plans to soon have two international peer advisors at the Bar as employees. These employees will be able to answer many questions that international students have from the unique perspective of being international themselves and having been trained by Hubbard Center staff.
"We will really help them prep, so that they will then be able to explain to their cohorts here at DePauw how to navigate this," Mahoney said.
The government regulations and red tape make finding a U.S. job after graduation difficult no matter the university. While DePauw and the Hubbard Center do what they can, some international students wish for more guidance. However, Jirari stressed that for the talented and focused at DePauw, there are always opportunities.
"We have international students who work at Google, international students who work at Microsoft," Jirari said. "So students who are really bright, who are really focused, and who work super hard do get jobs."
