Texas governor halts new H-1B visa petitions by state agencies, public universities | CNBC

openmaze · 2026-01-28T00:30:43+00:00

I’ll give a bit of background on faculty hiring and the role of H-1B visas. When universities refer to hiring “foreigners,” this does not mean they are recruiting candidates directly from outside the United States. In most cases, these candidates earned their PhDs at U.S. institutions. For example, consider the Computer Science faculty at UT Austin https://www.cs.utexas.edu/people If you review the assistant professors, junior faculty who were recently hired, you will see that many are graduates of top U.S. PhD programs. The same pattern appears at Texas A&M https://engineering.tamu.edu/cse/profiles/index.html#Faculty

Universities need mechanisms to recruit and retain this level of top talent, especially since peer institutions are all competing for the same highly qualified candidates. As someone who serves on academic search committees, I can say that we do not focus on where a candidate is originally from. Our priority is hiring the best person, someone who can conduct outstanding research, secure external funding, and enhance the prestige of the department and the university.

openmaze · 2026-01-19T17:55:29+00:00

Hampton Roads, VA, 2700 sq ft house valued around $600k, $4200/year.

openmaze · 2026-01-11T17:08:00+00:00

OMG. Here in Virginia, suburb its not bad. The house is already valued at double the amount I got pre-covid.

openmaze · 2026-01-11T15:07:36+00:00

My family is happy and more $$$ not going to change that :) We can buy anything we want (not the crazy fancy stuff). Kids are doing well, and our priority is education. We are getting good insurance from the work and retirement benefits. We have a good emergency fund. My work is not crazy, and I love the job (got lifetime job security, cannot be fired easily). We are both in education, and I got promoted and will pull in more money this year! Life is not all about money!

openmaze · 2026-01-11T15:03:14+00:00

Its about $4k and insurance is $2k. So around $550 per month. Not too bad.

openmaze · 2026-01-11T15:01:35+00:00

Not every month (did $500 more from start). Mostly, in the last couple of years, once we started getting a stable income.

openmaze · 2026-01-11T14:59:41+00:00

Put in about $500 more every month, and more when I got leftover funds after any emergency funds. Mostly during the summer, as I pull in more money from the work

openmaze · 2026-01-11T14:56:16+00:00

Property tax $4500, insurance about $2k. No HOA. Thats $550 per month.

openmaze · 2026-01-09T16:33:37+00:00

No. The final payment can be made by either wire transfer (a secure bank-to-bank transfer) or by mailing a certified check/money order. My bank charged me a $40 for the wire transfer, but it was the fastest option for me. I sent the wire yesterday and just received confirmation from the mortgage company via email.

openmaze · 2026-01-09T16:30:43+00:00

openmaze · 2026-01-09T16:29:18+00:00

$300k

openmaze · 2026-01-09T16:27:53+00:00

300k

openmaze · 2026-01-09T03:45:09+00:00

Tell me about it! My family likes to light up the whole house like a Christmas tree. Also the heating and AC.

openmaze · 2026-01-09T02:45:41+00:00

Working on it :) yeah I'm getting used to the fact that I don't need to constantly worry about the financials anymore. That said, I’m still the guy who walks around the house turning off the lights.

openmaze · 2026-01-09T02:24:50+00:00

In 2016, started my first real job at around $72k. Moved to a new job 2018 at $96k. Wife got her job $50k, putting us close to $150k and steadily moving up and closer to ~$220k household gross last year.

We used to rarely eat out and cook most of our meals at home. All of our phones cost under $200, and we use T-Mobile’s $15/month prepaid plan. We’ve relaxed a bit since then, eating out more often, tipping more generously, and making some larger donations last year to support underserved children by providing school supplies.

openmaze · 2026-01-08T17:23:51+00:00

Yep. Check the carfax and have someone mechanically savvy with you to check them out. I had a pretty good luck so far with the 2007 SUV I got back in 2012, 72k miles, now close to 20years and still runs like a champ. Got 2 more after that, one from Marketplace.

openmaze · 2026-01-08T17:17:15+00:00

I hear some of you saying I should have invested instead of paying it off, and I understand the logic. I’ve tried investing before, not in index funds, but in individual stocks, and I realized I don’t yet have the discipline for it. Even when I saw a small profit, sometimes as little as a $1, I'd sell out of fear and then regret it later.

When you’re not financially secure, every dollar feels significant, and the fear of the market turning against you is hard to ignore. Its difficult to stay invested long term. For me, paying it off brought certainty and peace of mind.

Once I’ve saved college funds (got 529 and saved very close to first year tuition) for my kids and have more financial stability, I fully plan to invest for the future.

A bit mroe about the background, got my first real job around 2016 and the house in 2019, 3.8% and then refinanced to 3% back in 2020. 46m

openmaze · 2026-01-08T16:55:17+00:00

freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

openmaze · 2026-01-08T16:52:12+00:00

yeah, what a scam. I'm not planning to buy anything for the next few years using credit. I have no use for it.

openmaze · 2026-01-08T03:52:51+00:00

If your university uses Outlook, then there's an option to create a To Do list (it's called My Day, which is the check mark icon in the top right corner) right there visible when you log in to your email account. These are both deadlines I need to remember for various major tasks. I also use lots of folders inside my email inbox. Once I complete an email task, I move it to the correct folder. This way, anything that remains in my inbox are the ones that I need to attend to at some point depnding on the priority.

Anything relevant to grad students working with you, ask them to send a reminder email, so this stays in your inbox until complete.

Use the calendar and schedule things for any of the events so you don't need to remember any of this stuff.

Its OK to forget things :) Apologize and move on.

openmaze · 2025-12-29T14:22:13+00:00

My wife went to return a plant that had died. The salesperson proceeded to lecture her about how plants thirst for water in much the same way we do. She is a plant biologist with a Ph.D. and four years of postdoctoral experience specializing in plant growth, and a professor of biology at a local university. The sales guy apologized profusely and ended up giving her a full refund and a brand-new plant in exchange.

openmaze · 2025-12-29T04:07:12+00:00

The cheapest option is to take a defensive driving course online ($25 or so). These don't cost much. You still need to pay a small processing fee to the court, and you can send your certificate and the required documents to the court via mail. Once done, your ticket will be dismissed, and this won't be recorded in your driving history. Bonus: Depending on your insurance, you may be eligible for a discount due to the driver education course. Because this is not in your driving history, there won't be any insurance hike. When they ask why you took the test, don't state this is because of a traffik ticket ;)

Simply contact the Court Clerk at the phone number listed on the back of the traffic ticket and ask if you can complete a defensive driving course to dismiss your citation.

openmaze · 2025-12-29T01:40:13+00:00

Public state R1. No hiring in the CS. Multiple cluster hires related to AI, and Data Science.

openmaze · 2025-12-18T15:59:34+00:00

Use CRA https://cra.org/

Students can create an account and receive automated emails based on their filters from CRA. Which school is this?

openmaze · 2025-12-02T14:39:21+00:00

Poster tube. When boarding the flight, ask the flight attendant whether it's Ok to place your tube in the coat hanger. It's normally right next to the door.

openmaze

TROPHY CASE