CIP Codes Warning

[sarahmac]

Oh, this is very important information for the people who come here asking for advice about degrees for immigration. How do you see what the CIP code for a given degree even is? I had no idea this was a possibility.

For the CIP codes, I believe user sarahmac included TESU's CIP codes as a hyperlink. I'll link it directly anyway: https://www.state.nj.us/highereducation/...Edison.htm

I don't think all the degrees are specifically mentioned, but some of them might be included as part of a group (e.g. the BA Math degree might be part of the "BA Natural Sciences and Mathematics" degree group on the list I mentioned above).

They aren't individually mentioned no, which is very much the point. They should be. Unfortunately, TESU has been mass registering the degrees as various forms of multidisciplinary studies.

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For most people this post doesn't apply, or isn't important, and you can disregard.

However, if you are planning on using a TESU degree for migration, government work, or the military, check the CIP code for your degree is what you expect it to be. TESU has some funky stuff going on with their CIP codes.

This was an unfortunate way to discover that the BA Math is technically registered with the state of NJ as a multidisciplinary biological sciences degree (30.XX series). Not a 27.XX series math degree. You'd never have seen it coming because they are reporting a 27.XX series bachelor in federal govt statistics. Not sure what that is, but it isn't the BA Math. My guess is BS Data Science.

BSBA CIS is not registered at all, and likely falls under general management. So it is not technically a tech/information science degree at all.

A lot of the BS majors (including IT, Cloud, Electrical Engineering etc.) are also 30.XX multidisciplinary under "Applied Science & Technology". For example, Electronics Systems Engineering Technology should have a CIP of 15.0303. It does not.

For most people this won't matter, but federal employment and the military base your eligibility for certain jobs given your degree off the CIP code--not the degree title/name. If the degree doesn't have the right CIP, for all intents and purposes you don't have it. Same for immigration purposes (i.e. for HB1 you need to have a degree in your field of work).

They heavily market some of these to military folks so it's particularly disappointing to know this is going on. Most of the ones they push people toward are functionally near useless as far as military employment is concerned, because they are not actually technical or STEM degrees based on the CIP.

Edit: And for those who clicked on this out of interest and are now worried about WGU/UMPI etc. you're all in the clear, I checked. There's just something weird going on with TESU in particular.

Hmm, that looks interesting as I'm thinking of working for the government in the future. Also, by migration purposes, you mean to the US, right?

I'm doing the BA Computer Science from TESU and it has a CIP of 11.0701. It seems to fall under Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services. Would you say that this one is safe or should it fall under another category like the 30.0801 CIP under the 30.XX category?

Thanks for the info anyway!

Yes, migration to the US. A lot of people come to these boards are looking for degrees to help with migration. When determining visa eligibility and field of study-job match the federal govt uses the CIP, so it very much matters.

BA Comp Sci has exactly the code it needs. It is one of the few--fortunately for you, you're in the clear!