Any STEM DACA PhD Students?

I am interested in knowing if there is anyone currently working on their Phd in a STEM field who has DACA and whether your funding depends on you work permit.

I would like to explore the option of continuing school if the worst happens and our work permits get revoked.


Thank you in advance!

Most PhD funding goes towards Citizens such as the NSF graduate fellowship and other company government contractors. Nonetheless you can get funding from the professor, from the school doing TA and also from companies that do not look into citizenship status.

Prior to going to a PhD talk to a professor. Work for him during your undergrad. Do a good job and he or she will pay for your PhD or partial. At my school TA pays for half.

Each year professors have to submit ideas of projects they wantto work on called proposals. If the professor is good he or she will get the proposal accepted and obtain funding. There are times where the proposal is not accepted.

When you select a prpfessor, select one with great reputation and lots of money in funding.

My question remains, is the pay always going to be tied to a work permit and do they have to fill out an I9?

This girl i hook up with is also illegal and she's doing a TA and working on her master's. I'll ask her about it.

Thanks, that would be great help!

I'm on my 4th PhD. Sadly my pay is dependening on a valid EAD ((( Mine is expiring in July 2017. If I managed to graduate before I'll probably be jobless..... So FUDGE...... Anyway I applied for my school doctoral dissertation fellowship. Since that from the school fellowship I think I'll be fine. I really hope I'll be fine... Got some saving put away though. If thing is going to shit I'm gonna finish up and do a postdoctoral in another country like Germany or Australia and never come back....

I anticipate the funding for science in the next 4 years is going to be cut drastically... That mean low acceptance rate into STEM grad program. Even if you are brilliant enough to out compete those PR and USC to get in, the school is going to have to deal with your lack of paper work.... Trust me the HR people hate us and the international relation people don't know what to do with us. Even with DACA I had to deal with a bunch of BS just to be treated like a dammmm human.

The perk of going to grad school for a PhD degree is your tuition is waved. Without a valid EAD you might have a hard time getting your stipen. If you live at home and don't need to make money at the moment it's a great path. Be ware that this policy varied from school to school. If you get into an Ivy League school, thing will be better. State school sucks ass because it's funded by the gov blah blah... So they put PR and USC before you. That's why I did everything I can to get into an Ivy League school. Good luck man. If you decide to go, may the grad school God be forever on your side.

Very insightful. Thank you!

From the looks of it. People exploring this option might be better off saving some money, maybe 50 kUSD and try to go abroad to pursue their degrees.

I do not know if I have the drive in me to pursue the PhD at this stage (I am already too old 27). I got my MS and thought that was it, I was actually already enrolled for my second MS which I will be forced to drop out of.

My brother however is exploring the Ph.D option.


Thank you sir and I really hope you can finish your degree in time without too much difficulty. I can totally see how state schools might suck for us. With so many international students it is hard to imagine that they would give us a pass on the documentation part of it.


To make it worst I have a M.S in Mechanical Engineering and there are a gazillion of Indian students who have F visas competing for a chance for the Ph.D.

I am still putting money aside, so that if my plans for AOS fail for one reason or another, I will have enough money to go for this option abroad.


I am hoping for things to get clear in the next couple of months as far as to how drastically our lives will change.

I worked as a research assistant (UC Berkeley) as an undergrad and I was required to show my working permit.

Since we can't get federal funding (NSF etc...), we have to get support working as TA or research assistant, not sure if that's possible since we won't have working permits. People might have to drop out (and screwing the ongoing research of the lab and the principal investigator).

You need to have EAD or a student visa.

I'm a STEM PhD student. It is possible to obtain funding without a work permit. It's really hard, but not impossible. I was admitted into my program before DACA existed. I don't mean before I applied for DACA; I mean before the DACA program existed. Before applying to grad school, I contacted various private universities to inquire if there was a way they could fund me. I only applied to the ones that gave me positive answers. I applied at the time as an international student. Because I had no EAD, the school put me on a 5yr fellowship. I was fully funded and happy. The key is to apply to private, rich school that can afford massive fellowships. Also, it helps to apply to the top schools in your field. The better the school the more they believe in investing in you. Because it's hard to get into top schools, they figure that if you got in you are worth funding. Also, the best schools tend to be richer. Bottom line: it's possible to get funding without an EAD.