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Data changelog

Costs, salaries, and visa rules change - and sometimes we get things wrong. Every material change to our data or methodology is listed here, dated. If a number on your scorecard looks off, check this page first, then email hello@truthpathms.com.

2026-08-27

DHS has proposed a new $103,265 H-1B fee. It is a proposal, not a cost.

  • ·On 2026-08-24 DHS proposed a $103,265 fee on H-1B cap-subject petitions, published in the Federal Register on 2026-08-25 (DHS Docket USCIS-2026-0298). Public comments close 2026-09-24. It is not in force, nobody is paying it, and a final rule may be months away or may never arrive. We have written it up as a proposal and will not describe it as a cost unless and until it is finalised.
  • ·This is legally separate from the $100,000 fee corrected on 2026-08-02, which remains vacated and uncollected. DHS is going through formal rulemaking under different authority precisely because the executive-order route lost in court, so this is not the old fee returning.
  • ·The detail that matters for a master's graduate: the $100,000 fee did not apply to a change-of-status petition for someone already in the US, which is the route most Indian students take off OPT. As drafted, this proposal has no such exemption and covers cap-subject petitions including the advanced-degree (master's) exemption. Cap-exempt employers, and extensions or employer changes for workers already counted, are excluded.
  • ·While updating the H-1B guide we also found and fixed its opening paragraph, which still described the vacated $100,000 fee in the present tense as being 'in force through at least September 2026' - contradicting the corrected paragraph directly beneath it. That copy has been live since the 2026-08-02 correction and should have been caught then.

2026-08-02

Correction: the $100,000 H-1B fee is not currently in force

  • ·CORRECTION. Since 2026-07-07 this site described the $100,000 H-1B supplemental employer fee as a settled cost, in every USA program's risk flag, in the Q&A pages and in three guides. That was wrong from June 2026 onward. The fee was vacated by the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts on 2026-06-08 as an unlawful tax, and the First Circuit declined to reinstate it pending appeal on 2026-07-24 - so it is not enforceable and is not being collected. The government's appeal is still pending, so this can reverse.
  • ·Every mention has been rewritten to state the litigation status with dates rather than the fee as a current cost, and the status now lives in one exported constant (H1B_FEE_STATUS_2026) that every surface reads from, so it cannot drift again. The wage-weighted lottery, which is the change that actually still bites entry-level applicants, is unaffected by any of this and remains as described.
  • ·We are flagging this prominently rather than quietly editing the pages, because a site that claims every figure is sourced and dated owes you its corrections too.

2026-08-02

Open dataset, two new tools, calibration page, and 24 new answer pages

  • ·Published the full verified dataset at /data as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0 - 14 programs, 18 columns, every row carrying its own sources and check date. The 356-university coverage layer is deliberately excluded, because those figures are rank-tier estimates and publishing them as a dataset would turn estimates into apparent facts.
  • ·New free tool at /tools/bank-loan-eligibility: check whether a university appears on an Indian lender's published education-loan list. Currently covers SBI's Global Ed-Vantage annexure of 100 select institutions, published 2026-01-05, linked to the source PDF. Only lists a lender publishes itself are included - second-hand copies on consultant and loan-aggregator sites are not.
  • ·New free tool at /tools/rupee-depreciation, built on the IRS published yearly averages 2021-2025. It shows both halves of a falling rupee: the fees go up, and so does the rupee value of a salary earned abroad. Set salary to zero and it shows the case where depreciation is pure cost - which is the case for anyone planning to return to India.
  • ·New page at /calibration showing real self-reported admission outcomes in aggregate. Universities need at least 5 reports before they are broken out; below that a number is noise and can identify the reporter. Verified counts are shown separately from self-reported ones.
  • ·Expanded /qa from 27 to 51 answer pages. Every figure is computed from the verified dataset at build time rather than hand-copied, so these pages cannot drift from the scorecard.
  • ·The paid report now opens with a parent one-pager on page 2: the money in plain language, the funding gap expressed as a monthly EMI, and an explicit list of what the report cannot tell you.
  • ·Free tool results can now be shared as a link. Those links carry numbers only - the payload has no name, email or phone field at all, so there is nothing personal in one to leak.

2026-07-24

Coverage layer expanded to 356 universities (UK, Canada, Australia, Germany)

  • ·Deepened the broad coverage layer for UK, Canada, Australia, and Germany from the top 20 per country to every university QS World University Rankings 2026 lists for that country - 84 new pages. UK now has 50, Germany 49, Australia 36, Canada 29 (Canada and Australia's QS 2026 editions don't rank more than that per country - not a gap on our side, a real limit of this ranking edition).
  • ·Cost, salary, and payback for the new entries are estimated by interpolating/extrapolating from our existing QS-rank-tier bands for that country, same methodology and same disclosure as the original 272 - not independently verified per school.
  • ·Corrected an existing entry's name: 'The University of Adelaide' is now listed as 'Adelaide University', reflecting its 2026 merger with the University of South Australia.

2026-07-23

New free tool: CGPA to GPA Converter

  • ·Launched a free CGPA-to-GPA converter at /tools/cgpa-to-gpa: enter your Indian CGPA (10-point) or percentage and see two US 4.0-scale conversions side by side - the simple linear method and a WES-style letter-grade band method - plus a German grade conversion using the actual Modified Bavarian Formula.
  • ·Honesty notes, since this page exists to keep us honest: there is no single official CGPA-to-GPA formula. WES performs real evaluations course-by-course from a full transcript, not a single multiplier on your final CGPA - our WES-style figure is a disclosed estimate using WES's published India grade bands, not what an official WES evaluation would return. The page says this before and after the numbers.
  • ·Everything computes client-side: no API call, no account, nothing stored.

2026-07-17

New guide: US ends “duration of status” for F-1 students

  • ·DHS published its final rule today (effective ~September 15, 2026) replacing open-ended F-1 stays with fixed admission periods up to 4 years, a 30-day grace period (down from 60), paid I-539 extensions, and a near-total ban on graduate students changing programs or transferring universities mid-course. Full sourced explainer at /guides/us-ends-duration-of-status-2026, including the transition rules for students already in the US.
  • ·Honesty notes: litigation could still delay or block this rule (the 2020 version was withdrawn), and USCIS extension processing times at this volume are genuinely unknown - the guide says so rather than pretending certainty. We have not changed any program's visa-pathway rating yet; we'll reassess once implementation details are clear after the effective date.

2026-07-16

New free tool: The SOP Teardown

  • ·Launched a free SOP checker at /tools/sop-checker: paste your Statement of Purpose, get a 0-100 score across four disclosed rubric categories (technical density 30, metric-driven outcomes 30, faculty/program alignment 20, career ROI logic 20) plus line-level flags with fix directions.
  • ·Honesty notes, since this page exists to keep us honest: the score comes from an AI model applying our published rubric - it is a disciplined checklist, NOT a validated admissions predictor, and the page says so. Free allowance is 2 full teardowns/day (5/month) per verified email; the score preview needs no email.
  • ·Privacy: we store a one-way hash of your SOP text and the result - never the SOP itself.

2026-07-08

Outcome reporting opens, and a fairness fix for German programs

  • ·You can now report your admit/reject/waitlist at /report-outcome (or from your scorecard). Self-reported outcomes - rejects matter as much as admits - will be aggregated and published as real admission bars, always labeled self-reported until individually verified.
  • ·German open-admission programs (TU Berlin, KIT, TU Darmstadt) were topping rankings on cost alone while their real gate - undergraduate credit-profile requirements - isn't something our GPA-based score can check. Each now carries an explicit "high score ≠ you qualify" risk flag with the exact credit minima to verify against your transcript.

2026-07-08

GRE now scored (where verified), plus 12 more programs: Canada, Germany, more USA

  • ·The GRE now affects the admit score - but only for programs whose GRE policy we verified from the official page: 325+ adds 8 points, 315-324 adds 4. Where a program REQUIRES the GRE (NC State, Stony Brook, Rutgers, TUM, RWTH) and you haven't entered one, the score drops 10 points and a risk flag explains why: you can't submit a complete application without it. Programs with unverified policies ignore the GRE entirely - we don't guess.
  • ·Added 12 requirements-verified programs (ranked matching now totals 38): UBC, McGill, Alberta, and SFU in Canada; TU Berlin, KIT, and TU Darmstadt in Germany; UMD College Park, Ohio State, Rutgers, Minnesota, and UMass Amherst in the USA.
  • ·Honesty notes from the research: TU Berlin and TU Darmstadt are effectively open-admission if your credit profile qualifies - there is no GPA bar, so we set a deliberately low one (2.5) rather than invent a fake threshold. Minnesota will not read a GRE score at all - don't pay to send one. UMD publishes a 3.5 GPA eligibility bar, the highest in this tier.
  • ·As before: cost/salary for this tier are QS-rank-tier estimates with a "≈ costs estimated" badge - only the admission bars are verified.

2026-07-07

New tier: 12 requirements-verified USA programs join the ranked matching

  • ·Added 12 USA MS CS programs (Purdue, NC State, UT Dallas, Northeastern, USC, Texas A&M, Stony Brook, UB Buffalo, UC Irvine, UF, ASU Tempe, NYU Tandon) to the ranked matching - total is now 26.
  • ·For each, the admission bar (minimum GPA and GRE policy) was verified against the official admissions page or graduate catalog on 2026-07-07. Where a school publishes no minimum (Purdue, USC, Texas A&M, UF), we use a disclosed estimate of the competitive threshold - each card's note says which kind it is.
  • ·Cost and salary for this tier are QS-rank-tier ESTIMATES (same basis as the coverage search), not verified per school - these matches carry a "≈ costs estimated" badge, and the comparison table shows a data-confidence row.
  • ·Recorded each program's structured GRE policy (required / optional / not considered for international applicants). Notable: NC State and Stony Brook still require the GRE from international applicants; USC states submitted scores are not reviewed. GRE still doesn't move the score - that remains disclosed on the form.

2026-07-07

University pages, consultant-push badge, and scoring disclosure

  • ·Added an individual page for each of the 272 coverage universities, with the same tiered estimates and the same disclaimer as the search - now linkable and crawlable.
  • ·Promoted the consultant-marketing flag to a visible "⚑ Consultant-push" badge on match cards. It remains our editorial judgment, not a sourced statistic.
  • ·Disclosed on the form and in the methodology that GRE score and branch are saved with your submission but not yet part of the score. They were previously collected without this being stated.

2026-07-07

USA H-1B risk flag and 272-university coverage layer

  • ·Added a risk flag to every USA program: the $100k supplemental H-1B employer fee (effective Sep 21, 2025) and the wage-weighted lottery (effective Feb 27, 2026) make post-OPT H-1B conversion structurally harder for entry-level applicants. The 3-year STEM OPT window itself is unchanged.
  • ·Added the broad coverage layer: 272 universities from the QS World University Rankings 2026, with cost/salary/payback as tiered estimates by QS rank - deliberately separate from, and lower-confidence than, the 14 verified programs.
  • ·We do not publish admit likelihoods for coverage universities: QS rank did not predict actual admission bars when checked against our 14 verified entries, so we won't fabricate one.

2026-07-06

Full refresh of the 14 verified programs

  • ·Re-checked tuition, living costs, and entry requirements against official university pages; INR conversions at mid-market rates of 2026-07-06 (1 USD = ₹95.36, 1 GBP = ₹127.14, 1 CAD = ₹67.22, 1 EUR = ₹108.87, 1 AUD = ₹66.10).
  • ·Adopted official per-institution salary data where published: Georgia Tech MS CS median $138,500 (2022-23 career survey) and NJIT MS Data Science average $91,323 (Class of 2024, N=13 - small sample, disclosed). All other salaries remain broad market bands, not per-university outcomes.
  • ·Corrected a common assumption: TUM now charges real non-EU tuition - it is no longer near-free. RWTH Aachen remains near-zero tuition for non-EU students.
  • ·Flagged UK Graduate Route shortening to 18 months for visas granted from Jan 2027, and Australia's 2026 Subclass 485 tightening (age cap 35, IELTS 6.5, higher fees), on the affected programs.
  • ·Noted data channels we tried and could not use (US College Scorecard program-level earnings, HESA/LEO per-programme PGT salaries, QILT per-university international medians) - so "we couldn't verify" is on the record, not hidden.