International Applicant Enrollment Numbers

A piece in “The Wall Street Journal” highlights how international applicant enrollment numbers have held steady from last year.

Have international applicant enrollment numbers taken a nosedive in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency, in light of his administration’s anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric? While the answer may surprise some, the answer is a resounding no. International applicant enrollment figures are about on target with the same figures for last year, according to statistics from 165 universities in the United States, as reported by “The Wall Street Journal.” Indeed the rate of international applicant enrollment (the percentage of students admitted who actually matriculate) stayed more or less the same at universities in the northeast and west. The numbers did drop a bit in the south and midwest.

As reports Doug Belkin and Newley Purnell for “The Wall Street Journal” in a piece about international student enrollment figures, “More than one million international students were enrolled in U.S. schools during the 2015-16 academic year, according to the IIE. International students contributed more than $35 billion to the U.S. economy in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. There are 85% more international students studying at U.S. institutions than were reported a decade ago.” As we speculated at the beginning of Trump’s presidency, we did not anticipate a drop in application numbers to America’s most highly selective schools — though we did anticipate a drop in such figures at less selective American institutions. That prediction indeed proved true with respect to application numbers.

With respect to yield, among the states hardest hit this year is Texas, which has seen a 9% decline in its yield of international applicants. Speculation that perceptions of racial and religious intolerance in the south and midwest are contributing to this slight decline in international applicant enrollment numbers, particularly since these same figures have remained steady in the northeast and west. But what do our readers think? Let us know by posting a Comment below. We look forward to hearing from you.