When, in early 2025, the Trump administration tightened the visa application process for international undergraduate and graduate students studying in the United States, many anticipated that this would adversely affect international student enrollment the following year. We finally have some data that could illuminate whether this projection was correct or just good, old-fashioned fear-mongering. 

While the truly informative data will emerge next year with the publication of the 2026-2027 Common Data Set across elite colleges (reflecting the international enrollment of students admitted to the Class of 2030), colleges assembling cohorts for the Class of 2029 indeed had to weigh how much of a bureaucratic and legal burden they were willing to take on to advocate for visas for international students. In other words, the chart below shows how the chips have already started to fall regarding elite college enrollment of international students. So, without further ado, let’s dig in:

International Enrollment at Top National Universities

College / University	2026 US News Rank (“Best National Universities”)	Proportion of International Students in the Class of 2029	Proportion of International Students in the Class of 2028	Proportion of International Students in the Class of 2027	Proportion of International Students in the Class of 2026	Proportion of International Students in the Class of 2025
Princeton University	#1	14.10%	12.15%	13.27%	14.83%	12.34%
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	#2	10.01%	11.38%	9.99%	10.65%	10.20%
Harvard University	#3	15.80%	16.15%	15.21%	15.33%	14.73%
Stanford University	#4	12.70%	14.29%	13.60%	13.44%	11.62%
Yale University	#4	11%	10.88%	11.46%	11.58%	11.53%
University of Chicago	#6	Not Yet Released	18.42%	17.27%	15.38%	15.25%
Duke University	#7	~7%	9.20%	10.56%	9.86%	6.08%
Johns Hopkins University	#7	13.53%	15.05%	15.66%	14.30%	15.63%
Northwestern University	#7	Not Yet Released	13.06%	10.37%	10.06%	10.35%
University of Pennsylvania	#7	~15%	12.91%	13.33%	13.17%	13.26%
California Institute of Technology	#11	Not Yet Released	15.14%	17.67%	13.84%	9.63%
Cornell University	#12	9.75%	10.07%	10.12%	8.82%	9.82%
Brown University	#13	Not Yet Released	14.08%	11.62%	13.51%	11.26%
Dartmouth College	#13	12.78%	14.38%	14.43%	15.21%	13.60%
Columbia University	#15	16%	16.93%	16.30%	15.86%	13.41%
University of California, Berkeley	#15	11.40%	6.08%	9.19%	10.20%	13.14%
Rice University	#17	Not Yet Released	13.60%	12.76%	13.32%	12.82%
University of California, Los Angeles	#17	8.38%	7.41%	6.80%	7.03%	10.48%
Vanderbilt University	#17	~15%	12.33%	10.67%	10.44%	10.39%
Carnegie Mellon University	#20	14.47%	20.02%	16.16%	18.88%	20.41%
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor	#20	18%	4.19%	5%	4.11%	5.58%
University of Notre Dame	#20	8%	7.64%	7.57%	7.41%	7.14%
Washington University in St. Louis	#20	12%	11.37%	10.83%	10.37%	5.51%
Emory University	#24	Not Yet Released	16.55%	17.39%	16.71%	17.07%
Georgetown University	#24	8.37%	7.05%	8.51%	7.86%	9.45%
University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill	#26	Not Yet Released	5.91%	5.53%	4.53%	6.10%
University of Virginia	#26	Not Yet Released	5.20%	5.25%	5.37%	4.81%
University of Southern California	#28	21%	16.34%	16.63%	17.63%	12.81%
University of California, San Diego	#29	18.06%	11.01%	9.80%	9.11%	14.63%
University of Florida	#30	Not Yet Released	3.78%	2.63%	2.13%	2.09%
The University of Texas at Austin	#30	Not Yet Released	4.27%	3.60%	3.97%	4.24%
Georgia Institute of Technology	#32	7.64%	8.66%	7.53%	7.82%	9.62%
New York University	#32	Not Yet Released	25.35%	26.69%	25.16%	23.06%
University of California, Davis	#32	13.89%	15.56%	14.13%	Not Available	Not Available
University of California, Irvine	#32	Not Yet Released	16.95%	13.77%	10.55%	13.98%
Boston College	#36	9%	8%	6.85%	7.20%	6.24%
Tufts University	#36	~11%	13.23%	11.87%	12.99%	12.06%
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	#36	15.60%	13.88%	13.25%	16.77%	13.60%
University of Wisconsin–Madison	#36	3.82%	8.08%	8.30%	8.64%	9.64%
University of California, Santa Barbara	#40	12.40%	8.99%	10.77%	13.65%	15.45%
The Ohio State University	#41	6.74%	8.87%	8.77%	11.08%	8.24%
Boston University	#42	Not Yet Released	22.67%	23.82%	23.00%	23.01%
Rutgers University–New Brunswick	#42	Not Yet Released	Not Available	6.91%	5.80%	7.76%
University of Maryland, College Park	#42	3.63%	3.33%	3.40%	3.23%	2.82%
University of Washington	#42	8.69%	10.76%	12.52%	14.21%	12.37%
Lehigh University	#46	4.63%	5.60%	6.92%	8.07%	6.19%
Northeastern University	#46	Not Yet Released	9.79%	11.92%	11.08%	9.55%
Purdue University–Main Campus	#46	9%	9.05%	7.75%	8.13%	8.36%
University of Georgia	#46	Not Yet Released	1.38%	1.01%	0.82%	1.22%
University of Rochester	#46	Not Yet Released	24.07%	Not Available	Not Available	Not Available

We get it, there’s a lot of data to sift through. But let us do the heavy lifting. To cut right to the chase, while some top schools did indeed report lower international student enrollment among the Class of 2029, this was by no means a universal trend. Among the schools reporting a decline, Carnegie Mellon University, Dartmouth College, and Stanford University number among the most dramatic losses. But for the most part, this figure has remained relatively constant, with many schools, including the University of California schools, the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, reporting statistically significant increases. 

The moral of the story? Sometimes, there’s a lot of bark in the news cycle without a lot of bite to back it up. International enrollment may be on the decline at many American universities, but that trend does not extend to the nation’s most selective institutions, which continue to be highly sought after by students around the world. While the Class of 2030 will prove to be the true test of how federal shifts in visa processing have impacted international enrollment en masse, the Class of 2029 appears just as cosmopolitan as prior years.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance for International Applicants to America’s Top Colleges

If your child is an international student intent on studying in the United States, you’ve come to the right place to optimize their odds of admission to a highly selective college. Ivy Coach’s team of former elite college admissions officers helps international students each year achieve admission to the colleges of their dreams.

To get started with us, simply fill out our complimentary consultation form, and we’ll be in touch with an outline of our services.