US universities report record enrollment drops in international student applications as federal hostility discourages talent

Multiple US universities reported sharp declines in international student applications for the 2025 to 2026 academic year, attributing the drop to federal enforcement actions against universities, visa uncertainty, the administration's hostile rhetoric toward international students involved in campus protests, and the perception that the United States was becoming an unwelcoming environment for foreign-born scholars. MIT, Columbia, and several state research universities reported double-digit percentage declines in graduate program applications from China, India, and other major sending countries. International graduate students fill a disproportionate share of PhD positions in science, engineering, and mathematics, and their departure from the applicant pool threatened to reduce the research workforce available to US universities and companies. The decline in international applications compounded the domestic brain drain driven by grant cancellations and DEI enforcement.