Foreign student visas decline

Trump crackdown shifts collegiate landscape

By: Mary Ann Koruth
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Being a foreign student was a highlight of college life for Lavi Raghavan, a Glen Ridge graphic designer, when she arrived from Mumbai, India, to begin pursuing an undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College in 1990.
..... She made "friends around the Earth" at Dartmouth she said, and loved her "outward-looking life," fostered at a time when international students were still a small but growing community on American campuses.
..... In 2026, the outlook for foreign students is far removed from her experience, she said, speaking with NorthJersey.com on the eve of National College Decision Day on May 1, [2026] when high schoolers, including Raghaven's child, commit to a university at the end of an arduous application process.
..... The Trump administration's drastic crackdown on international students has played an outsizes role in a significant drop in student visas that echoes a slowing in admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic, when international travel was severely limited.
..... In New Jersey, a top destination for international students, enrollment has dropped by 3.5% in March 2026, after peaking in 2025, according to an analysis of U.S. department of Homeland Security visa data by Manifest Law, an immigration law firm.
..... The firm's analysis extracts insights about where international students in the United States are studying, where they're coming from and how the trends are changing over time, said the law firm, which has offices in Arizona and New York City.
..... To address the situation, Rutgers University, among others, has been offering admissions deferrals for students stuck in their home countries waiting for visas.
..... Montclair State University and other schools are bracing for a decline in revenue as the international student numbers decline.
..... New social media vetting policies for visa applications, rhetoric from leading MAGA influencer characterizing foreign students and immigrants as stealing American jobs, and visa appointment delays as embassies work to incorporate directives from the U.S. government have all depressed the once-welcoming milieu that was synonymous with an American education for foreign students.
..... So have free speech concerns rising form high-profile students arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement - including a Turkish graduate student detained in Boston after writing a pro-Palestinian opinion piece in a collage newspaper - and signaling from the government that it will "terminate the period of optional practical training, or OPT, which permits American companies to hire young foreign graduates temporarily.
..... "The U.S. just hit a turning point for international students," Mannifest Law's study says. "After reaching a record high in 2025, enrollment is now declining again, signaling a potential shift in the global education market."
..... In March 2025, there were 31,468 international students in New Jersey. by March 2026, that figure was down to 30,371. a 3.5% drop it said.
..... The coastal states of New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey are seeing big shifts in actual numbers of foreign students.
..... "Visa delays, OPT concerns and increased social media scrutiny are very valid issues influencing international student enrollment and its complex ecosystem" said Nicole Gunara, principal attorney at Manifest Law.
..... "Uncertainty after graduation generated from headlines and policy changes surrounding employment visas - a common pathway for students to remain in the United States to work post-graduation - have certainly contributed to lower demand."
..... Inc erased competition from institutions in Europe and Asia are also :putting downward pressure on U.S. enrollment numbers," she said.
..... In 2025, new enrollments deceased nationally be 17% for international students attending a college or university for the first time, said the Institute of International Education, a New York-based think tank that conducts an annual census of international students.
..... Foreign graduate student numbers bean falling before 2025, due to reductions in master's programs enrollment, but last fall [2025] saw a 12% decline in international graduate enrollment, "nearly the largest single-year decline on record, said the American Association of Universities.
..... "There is reason to believe that the data do not reveal the full extent of the effects of the Trump administration's policies seeking to limit the ability of international students to enroll and complete their degrees at U.S. universities and gain practical training or work experience following graduation," the association said in a November [2025] report.
..... New Jersey ranks 14th in the nation for the number of international students, reported Opendoorsdata.org , an organization partly funded by the U.S. government. It total, their estimated expenditure was $950 million. the majority - 42.9% of foreign students -came from India, followed by China at 22.6%, and South Korea, Nepal and Canada, at around 2%. International students pay higher fees than out-of-state students.

Rutgers offers admissions deferrals

..... Rutgers University is among many colleges offering admissions deferrals for students stuck in their home countries waiting for visas to enter the United States.
..... "While we've seen more student requesting these deferrals due to visa reasons, the overall number of deferral requests hasn't changed drastically since 2020," spokesperson Dory Devlin said in February. [2026] "the university is aware of global challenges regarding visa delays and travel reconstruction for specifies countries."
..... Last fall, [2025] the New Brunswick campus saw a 9.1% increase in international undergraduate enrollment, "through it did experience a decline in graduate student enrollment and applications,, " Devlin said.
..... "It's very apparent that there's been a narrowing of options for international students," said Raghaven, who is also a member of AAPI-New Jersey, a social justice collective founded in 2021 to support Asian American and Pacific Islanders.
..... "Yes, I lined up outside the U.S. embassy [for the student visa appointment, and yes, my father insisted I register at an Indian university," Raghavan said, thinking back to when she was preparing to enter the United States to study, but short of a visa denial, nothing would have stopped her from attending Dartmouth.

Decline brings revenue loss for universities

..... As international students look to other countries, universities are feeling the revenue pinch.
..... "We expect our international students enrollment to be lower for the first time in five or six years ... and that's going to put additional financial pressure on us," Montclair State University President Jonathan Kopoell told lawmakers in Trenton on April 27 [2026] during a budget hearing attended by local colleges and university presidents.
..... Princeton University does not release information on undergraduate applicants, a spokesperson said. but the state's private universities have seen a "precipitous decline" in enrollment, Felician University President Mildred Mihlon said, speaking on behalf of the Independent colleges and Universities of New Jersey at the state budget hearing.
..... "In terms of impacting our budgets, it's very significant," Mihlon said. "It has certainly skewed our enrollment statistics recently."

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