The Rule Didn't Change. Your School's Answer Did.

In partnership with

This Hedge Fund Algo Just Leaked to The Public

Buy on Blue... Sell on Red. This 2-Time Award Winning hedge fund Algo just caught a 6,566.5-point move on the Nasdaq (NQ)—worth more than $131,000 per contract.

Designed by active hedge fund manager Mark Helweg, this institutional trading indicator is being released to the public for the first time.

A new Blue Dot BUY signal just appeared on a little-known ticker.

Click here to get your FREE live entry on the chart.

See The Algo Here

Welcome to today's SCALIS EarlyCareers newsletter! 🚀

In June we told international students something that was true at the time: your F-1 visa already lets you take most U.S. internships, and Curricular Practical Training costs the employer almost nothing. Stop self-rejecting.

That advice needs an update, and we would rather give it to you now than let you find out in October.

On August 12, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program sent a broadcast message to SEVP-certified schools titled "Reminder of Liability for DSOs Regarding CPT Authorization." It warns that school officials who authorize CPT improperly can face personal liability. It did not change any regulation. It did not need to. Within days, some universities began pausing entire categories of CPT rather than absorb the risk.

Here is what that means practically. Your visa status is the same. The regulation is the same. But whether your school will actually authorize your internship now depends on which campus you attend and how conservatively its international office read that memo. Same rules, different answers. That is the part nobody is telling you, and fall recruiting for Summer 2027 is open right now.

Learn From the Books Top Leaders Read.

Learn from the books that shaped the world's best businesses and leaders. Shortform breaks down the most important ideas in strategy, leadership, marketing, entrepreneurship, and management into insights you can put to work.

Get 49% OFF

3,788 BRAND NEW internship positions freshly posted today. View the full list below and start applying!

There are two kinds of CPT. Find out which one you were counting on.

Almost every international student thinks of CPT as one thing. It is two, and the distinction just became the most important fact in your search.

Degree Requirement CPT applies when your program requires an internship, practicum, or capstone work experience in order to graduate. Course Credit CPT is the other route: you enroll in an internship or independent study course, and that enrollment is what makes the work curricular. That second route is how the overwhelming majority of undergraduates have historically done a summer internship, because most undergraduate majors do not require one.

Course Credit CPT is the flavor the August memo targeted. At UC Berkeley, it has been unavailable since August 12 and is not being authorized. Degree Requirement CPT continues to be processed there normally. If you assumed you would sign up for a 197 or a 299 in the spring and be fine, that assumption is the thing to go verify this week.

Your course catalog is now the document that decides.

This is the test that has quietly replaced the old one. The question is no longer "can I find a course to attach this to." It is "does my degree program state that practical training is required for completion."

The University of Colorado Boulder published its list, and it is worth understanding how narrow these lists tend to be. Boulder's currently covers programs like elementary education, dance, theater, media studies, certain journalism tracks, audiology, and a handful of graduate engineering emphases. Berkeley's runs heavily to master's and professional programs: analytics, financial engineering, the MBA, public health, public policy. Boulder also specified that the requirement has to attach to your degree or major, not a minor.

Go pull up your own program's catalog page and read it with that question in mind. Then check your international office's website for a dated notice from the last two weeks. Not the general CPT page, the news or alerts page. Schools have been posting these quietly.

Verify eligibility before you apply, not after you accept.

The old advice was to start the CPT process early because processing takes time. That advice assumed the answer would eventually be yes.

The question has changed shape. It is no longer only "how long will this take." It is "is this category open at my school at all right now." Those need different timing. Processing time is something you manage after an offer. Category eligibility is something you need to know before you decide where to spend fifty applications this fall.

If your route is paused, that does not mean stop applying. It means apply with clear eyes about your start date, and prioritize employers and terms where the timeline has room to absorb a delay.

If your route is paused, you are not out of options.

Pre-completion OPT is the documented alternative, and Boulder has pointed students toward it during previous CPT tightenings. It works differently: USCIS authorizes it rather than your school, it requires a fee and a work permit card, it takes considerably longer, and time used counts against your post-completion OPT. It is slower and more expensive. It is also not dependent on your school's current risk posture.

Two other things worth knowing. An internship you do in your home country does not require CPT authorization at all, which makes remote and home-country roles genuinely more attractive this cycle than they were in June. And on-campus employment sits under a separate authorization entirely, so campus research and department roles are not affected by any of this.

One caution: unpaid does not mean unauthorized. Any off-campus work experience needs authorization whether or not you are being paid. Taking an unpaid role to sidestep the paperwork is a status violation, not a workaround.

Short on cash? Get up to $750, no credit check.

Access up to $750* from your upcoming paycheck within minutes for a small fee, or wait 3 days and get it for free. No credit check. No late fees. 

Get Started Now

^{*Not all users will qualify. Advances range from $25–$750; average advance is $170. Express transfer fees may apply.}

The three questions that get you a real answer

International offices are overloaded and their default reply right now is some version of "we are awaiting further guidance." That is not something you can plan around. Ask narrower questions and you will get narrower answers.

Email your DSO with exactly this:

Three specific questions, each answerable in one line. That is a message someone can actually reply to on a Tuesday.

If you already hold an approved CPT I-20 for this fall, both Berkeley and Boulder have said existing authorizations are not affected. Keep that document. Keep every CPT I-20 you have ever been issued.

And when an employer asks about your start date, do not guess to sound easy to hire. Tell them your authorization runs through your university and you will confirm the date once it is issued. A candidate who manages a timeline honestly reads as competent. A candidate who promises a date and misses it creates a real problem for a manager.

The gate moved. It moved somewhere you can actually go look. Go look.

(General information, not legal advice. Immigration rules are specific, consequential, and moving quickly right now. Confirm your own situation with your school's international office before you act on any of this.)