Applications from international students to U.S. are down

Although international student applications in the U.S. are down for fall of 2017, the winter/spring of 2017 saw a 1.7% increase overall to a total of 1.18 million internationals.

The continuing uncertainty regard the Trump administration's Executive Order on travel of internationals appears to be a likely cause for applications being down in 40% of U.S. universities. The most hard-hit are the six targeted Muslim-majority countries specified in the the most recent update of the Executive Order but ripples are seen elsewhere - China and India in particular. While shifting economic conditions may be partially responsible for the drop among Indian applicants, the primary causes identified for the overall decline include:

• perceptions that study visa denials have increased in China, India, and Nepal
• poor welcome and support for internationals in the U.S. in general
• uncertainty of future visa renewals and ease of travel to and from the U.S.
• fear that the countries banned could be increased in future Executive Orders

A subsequent article by Elizabeth Reddin of 300 institutions and published April 4, 2017, confirmed that approximately 40% of U.S. institutions are currently down in international student applications.

The issue at hand is not only the lost revenue from international students coming to the U.S. Of perhaps greater concern is the contribution international students make to healthy and diverse campuses as well as the loss of talent for research and workforce development.