Policies for:
a) CPT Internship Job Search while living On-Campus
b) Staying in F-1 Visa Status
c) Professional Standards during CPT Job Search, Accepting a CPT job, during CPT Employment
d) Specialization Program: Extending program length
e) Extended Leave of Absence
f) Optional Practical Training (OPT) employment
a) Policies for Living On-Campus During Full time CPT Search. Once a student has completed the 8 months of on-campus studies and completed the 3-week Career Strategies job search workshop, the student will then be engaged in full-time internship search. He/she will be subject to the following policies:
i) Students may remain on campus for a maximum of 10 months (including all on campus studies plus CPT search activities.) The student must submit a daily job search report (Monday- Friday) of their CPT-seeking activities at https://infosys.cs.mum.edu/infosys/, they must continue with a passing grade in their Development in Consciousness course by attending at least four group meditations each week (usually held each morning in Dalby Hall), and they must be responsive to working with Compro Career Center coaching team during the job search.
ii) After 8 months, room and board costs to live on campus are $840.00 per month. These are charged to the student’s MUM Student Account.
iii) Continuing to live on campus beyond 8 months requires that the student must contact computercareers@mum.edu and request an extension to live on campus. This request must be repeated after 9 months of living on campus
iv) Being extended beyond 9 months of living on campus requires that a staff member of the Compro Career Center approve the extension.
v) It also may be possible to work at MUM 18 hours/week evenings and weekends to pay the cost of room and board. Students working 18 hours/week must continue to do full-time daytime job search activities. While working part-time at MUM, students must continue to meet Development of Consciousness standards by continuing to attend group practice of the TM program.
vi) We recommend that after about 9 months of time on campus (and one month of job search), that you leave campus and live elsewhere on your own means (perhaps with a friend or family member) while internship searching. All internship job search related expenses are the student’s responsibility, so be careful about finances during your internship search. Try not to go into debt while internship searching. When you start working, your MUM debt is your first priority. Students are not allowed to include personal debts as part of their loan or intern agreement calculations.
vii) If a student lives in the town of Fairfield, they do not have the option of working 18 hours per week for any credit. Students that look for work while living off-campus will not receive a stipend or any other remuneration while off campus. This includes living in the town of Fairfield.
viii) Note that in all cases, you must still file daily job search reports (Monday – Friday) and must continue to have your resume posted publicly including at the MUM site www.csmasters.org.
b) Policies for CPT Seeking Students regarding staying in status with their F-1 visa: The main USCIS policy is that students have satisfactory progress towards their degree.
i) Once a student is looking for work, he/she must have 6 units per semester (12 per year since we are on the Block system), to still be considered full time students. The Fall semester goes from graduation in June until graduation in December. The Spring semester goes from the last week of December through the 3rd week of June.
ii) There is another USCIS regulation that states that no more than 3 units of Distance Education courses can be counted towards the required 6 credits per semester. Therefore, students must also have either 3 units of CPT credit, or 3 units of on-campus credit. This means that if a student is not working for at least 3 months during any semester, they must return to campus to take a 3-unit seminar.
iii) If a student has completed all the required academic course work (excluding practicum), then they have one year from the ending date of the last course to be still in status with their visa. They must be diligently filing their daily job search reports in order to keep in good standing with the program.
iv) If a student has courses left to take, but they are not offered at that time, then they can wait until the next DE start date to take the required courses.
v) If a student has courses left to take and they are offered, then they must take that course.
vi) If a student has a lot of courses to take (e.g. 2 or more), then there are no excuses to be not enrolled in DE, unless (and until) they have a full time CPT position.
vii) If a student works full-time for MUM for CPT credit, his/her salary will be determined at the time of hiring. The student must apply for this position through the University Personnel Office and must be accepted before returning to campus. The student must be regularly practicing the Transcendental Meditation program twice a day in order to be accepted to work on MUM staff. There is a two-month trial period for all staff members.
viii) Any students who have been CPT searching for 8 months or longer will be reviewed to see if they are making satisfactory progress towards getting an internship. If they are judged to be making significant progress, they may be granted a two-month extension. This review will also happen at the 10- and 12-month point. We want to see what each student has been doing in order to improve his or her chances of getting an internship in the US. For example, if someone has not found an internship in 6 months, what has the student done to enhance his professional skills? Has the student completed any certificates (such as Microsoft or other professional certifications)? What are the grades in the student’s DE courses? Is the student engaged in self- directed learning such as doing a project, etc. We will be looking for concrete evidence of completion of one of these types of activities at the end of 8 months. If it is felt that the student is making satisfactory progress, the student may be allowed to search for 2-4 more months. This means that the student would be allowed to do internship search for a maximum of 12 months.
c) Curricular Practical Training (CPT)
i) Getting a CPT position
Steps to Take: When you receive a written CPT offer that you accept, email it to the Career Center: computercareers@mum.edu. The Career Center office will send a credit application to the bank for the loan to cover your program charges. You will sign the bank loan papers and return them to the bank. Once the bank loan is processed, the Career Center will be able to issue you the appropriate work authorization.
ii) Professional behavior while in job search, interviewing, and accepting offers: Students who do not honor their verbal or written promises to employers may be subject to a fine of up to $1,000 as determined by the Compro Career Center. If you are not sure about what constitutes the right action for a particular situation, please contact the Career Center to discuss your situation and also to advice: computercareers@mum.edu A few examples of unprofessional behavior include: accepting a job offer (whether v erbally or in writing) and then canceling your acceptance; falsifying your resume; agreeing to work for a specific hourly rate or salary, and then changing the amount during or after the interview process; and, not being willing to politely discuss with your supervisor any issues you are having at work.
iii) Changes in Employment: Students are required to notify the University and get approval before starting to interview or voluntarily terminating from a CPT position. All students in the Coop program are working as a part of their academic program and visa, and thus all CPT position placements must be pre-approved by the University. Without this a student is in an illegal visa status and will be dismissed from the program and their visa canceled. If you feel that you need to leave your current employer, for whatever reason, you must contact the Career Center before starting to interview for a new internship.
• Any violations of this policy not only endanger your student and visa status, but also damage the University‘s relationship with employers. Thus, for any not pre-approved change of internship status (interviewing, quitting one internship, or accepting another offer), the student will be put on immediate disciplinary review, and their case reviewed by the Placement Office. If the change is then approved, they will be assessed a $500 fine for violating the policies and remain on a probationary status.
If a student changes employer, the bank loan obligations will remain the same, including the direct deposit requirement with the Bank issuing the loan.
If the change is not approved, the student will be assessed a $1,000 fee, and may be dismissed from the program, and thus all program costs then become immediately due.
Factors for changing internships
Here are some things that are considered to authorize an internship change, and which you should consider in making a request for an internship change:
• You must leave in good standing. Your current employer should be comfortable with your leaving and will give you a good reference.
• Your current employer is being given proper advance notice (at least 2 weeks, or as agreed with the employer) so that a replacement may be trained. We may work with employers to provide another student from our program as your replacement.
• You are receiving a sub-standard salary for your position and responsibility. Note that this does not mean just that you were able to find a higher paying internship.
• You are being overworked with a lot of overtime hours that you do not want.
• You are being mistreated in anyway, psychological, physical, or financially. (They don’t pay you on time, or at all.)
• Many of your duties are non-IT related.
• Your current work is below your experience level and capabilities and the new position is a good opportunity for professional development and growth.
• You find your employer is not honorable in some way. (e.g. They ask you to falsify time sheets or other information.) You need some concrete evidence of this to make this claim.
Other changes in Employment status: Notice of all other changes in employment must be made within 2 days of the change (termination, suspension, layoff, relocation, long-term travel assignments, extended illness, personal emergencies, change in visa status, etc.).
d) Extending Form I-20 Program End Date with Specialization program
(i) Students in the final four months of their initial enrollment as shown on page one of Form I-20, may contact Distance Education Department at csde@mum.edu to inquire about extending their program end date by up to 18 months by taking a specialization program.
(ii) This involves taking four more Distance Education courses (at the tuition cost for each course), and CPT employment is also required during this program.
(iii) Students extending on the Specialization Program must have completed all of the academic graduation requirements.
e) Returning to Your Home Country for an Extended Period of Time (LOA) Students that need to leave the country or take a break in their academic program (including taking a break in the internship job search or during CPT employment) may do so by requesting a Leave of Absence (LOA). However, since this is a break in the original program schedule and commitments, the University reserves the right to review the status of the student (academic and Development of Consciousness grades) and determine if the student is still performing at an adequate level to remain at the same financial aid level as he/she is currently receiving. If the financial aid changes to less aid, then the student will be required to pay the difference on returning to campus. If a student is gone more than two months, then their health insurance coverage is likely to be terminated. If so, it will be re-implemented at the next possible enrollment date after the student contacts comprohealth@mum.edu to confirm having returned to the U.S. Students who are paying on a loan should make arrangements to continue paying the loan while they are gone. Please contact the Compro Career Center computercareers@mum.edu to confirm this arrangement has been made. If a student is on LOA for more than 4 months, then all program costs may become due at that time, before the student can continue with the program. The student may also be re-evaluated for acceptance into the program.
f) Optional Practical Training (OPT): please contact csinternationals@mum.edu for a full list of the current requirements (financial and academic) and the precise timing required for applying to OPT. The requirements will vary from student to student depending on current status of making progress toward graduation and the amount still due on financial aid loan and payment program.
i) OPT: if a student completes all academic requirements (including practicum), then they may apply for and receive OPT. This may happen even if they have not officially graduated from the program due to finances or the timing of the MUM graduation date. If a student has already been authorized for and undertaken MORE THAN one year of full time CPT, then he/she would be ineligible for any OPT upon completion of the academic requirements.
ii) OPT: Once a student has received OPT, then they have 90 days to look for work or to be working. After the 90 days of not working during the first year of OPT, then they cannot continue on OPT. All students are responsible for payment of their education as specified in Section 8 entitled “Financial Issues”.
iii) As of the date of this publication (March, 2019), OPT allows for one year of initial work authorization followed by a two-year STEM OPT extension for a total of three years of OPT employment that must be directly related to the MSCS degree.