On-campus jobs are increasingly competitive for students across the U.S., but especially for international students who are left with fewer options.

First-year international students are not allowed to have jobs in Chicago, meaning on-campus jobs are the only option for these students who need to pay for their schooling or day-to-day expenses. This can be a challenge given the competitive nature of having to apply alongside DePaul’s population of over 20,000 students.

Of DePaul’s student population, 6% come from an international background, according to the university’s 2023-24 Fall Census Data. 

Nupur Bosmiya, a first-year graduate student at DePaul, transferred from India. Since coming to the U.S., she had been in desperate need of a job. She wanted to go to a university out of the country to gain more experience in the journalism field and felt that pursuing a master’s degree in Chicago would be a more formative experience. Bosmiya was in need of a job because her parents struggled to send money over from India to pay for her schooling which required them to convert Indian rupees to U.S dollars. As of 2023, there was an increase in the value of the US dollar against the Indian rupee with the USD/INR rate experiencing a positive shift of +0.62%. 

Nupur Bosmiya works at her desk as a communications assistant in the Career Center on June 10. Photo by Alexandra Murphy.

“The income inequality and the conversion rate is so different – that’s why I needed to find an on-campus job,” Bosmiya recalled. The jobs available on campus, however, are often hard to come by, and it can take months of consistently applying before attaining employment. 

“It’s difficult because it’s very competitive,” said Bosmiya. “Every international student feels the exact same way. So, they’re all looking for jobs, and I’ve heard some people say that they won’t even look at your application unless you know somebody on the inside who has already been reviewing resumes.” 

Bosmiya explained that she first started applying for an on-campus job in the fall and after applying for several different positions decided to start mass applying during the winter break — looking at the job board every single day to see if there was anything available. After about six months, she finally landed a position with the Career Center. 

Nupur Bosmiya in front of the Career Center on DePaul University’s Loop Campus on June 10. Photo by Alexandra Murphy.

“When I got this job, I had actually applied for another one,” said Bosmiya. “How I got the job was because someone reached out and said they didn’t want to put the communications assistant up on the job board and asked if I wanted to do the job.” 

Another DePaul first-year graduate student, Nida Jabir, also moved from India and expressed that applying for an on-campus job was intense with the amount of competition from DePaul’s large population of students.

“A lot of recruiters say they get 200-plus people for one on-campus job, so, yeah, that’s pretty competitive,” said Jabir. She explained it took eight months for her to get an on-campus job at DePaul. A series of factors contribute to a hiring decision, some of which depend on where you’re applying and if a student is overqualified for a position (the jobs offered are mainly based on a transfer skill base). 

“We have, like, ABC level, but people try for months and don’t even get an A-level job, you know a desk receptionist or whatever. So, I think it’s just a massive competition,” said Jabir. 

However, even when international students finally land an on-campus position, there are limitations with having an F-1 or M-1 visa. When international students transfer to a university within the U.S., they have to apply for an F-1 visa to pursue academic studies full time. There are also M-1 visas, which are for full-time international students pursuing vocational studies. For both types of visas, international students may only qualify for work on campus or at a job related to their studies. 

Bosmiya said applying for a visa to transfer is a strenuous, often competitive process for international students; thus, being accepted is a privilege. To be accepted for the visa, she had to first go through the Homeland Security website to fill out a form and pay 13,000 rupees*, or more than $350, which is expensive for a visa. After filling out a bunch of forms on the website, international students then have to select an interview location. Bosmiya had to take a four-hour train ride to get to the nearest site in India. 

“The interview is basically like they take a look at your documents, they ask you a couple of questions about your courses, and it really feels like a sort of lottery because they could just deny your visa for some reason,” said Bosmiya. “And I know people who try it multiple times and it is just not accessible for them.” 

Having an F-1 or M-1 visa also comes with limitations when having an on campus job — a limited number of work hours. Having a valid F-1 status, international students are only allowed to work on campus for up to 20 hours per week when classes are in session, compared to other student employees without a visa who are allowed to work 25 hours per week. If international students exceed the 20-hour maximum, they are at risk of losing their F-1 visa. Bosmiya also said even if international students fall sick during the work week or an emergency comes up, those hours cannot be rolled over and made up the following week.

With these limitations, some international students have had to take means into their own hands, finding jobs illegally in Chicago to be able to make ends meet. Because these students are being paid under the table, this also means they are vulnerable to being overworked and underpaid. 

Bosmiya said her friend, who does not wish to be named for safety reasons, takes the train two hours from campus to go to a fast-food job where they continually work overtime for below minimum wage. 

Recent DePaul graduate Adit Jaganathan has an entirely new fear which is to find a job before being kicked out of the country. Jaganathan also transferred from India to pursue a graduate degree in journalism but has been struggling to find a job before being forced to leave the country. The deadline given to him by U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is October of this year.

“I’m tired of looking at my laptop,” he said. “Like, all I do is send out emails to news directors, sports directors, or I go to LinkedIn or Handshake and stuff like that.” 

Even after the relentless application process, one of the major road bumps he has come across is the question of whether the company would need to sponsor his visa. This question, he explained, is on almost every application out of the hundreds he applied for, and most of the time will make or break whether a recruiter looks further at an international student’s resume.

Jaganathan sits at his desk in the Radio DePaul booth on July 11. Photo by Alexandra Murphy.

“Usually for international students, big companies don’t want to sponsor their visa because it costs a lot obviously,” said Jaganathan. “I have heard that in the last 20 years, only eight people have had the visa sponsored with a journalism base as compared to tech or other careers.” 

While Jaganathan wishes to stay in Chicago as long as possible, he expressed that with his lease ending by the end of June, he and other graduating international students may have no option except to return home. 

Header by Alexandra Murphy

*CORRECTION: An earlier version said the visa for international students is 30,000 rupees. A visa is 13,000 rupees.