Berkeley’s International Enrollment Intent Rises Amid National Decline

(BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, USA) UC Berkeley is seeing a sharp rise in international intent to enroll for Fall 2025, even as universities across the United States 🇺🇸 report steep drops in new foreign students and the money they bring to campuses and local communities. The public research university admitted 1,469 international first-year students for Fall 2025, almost double the 760 international admits in Fall 2024, according to new admissions data that set the campus apart from the national picture.

The jump represents a 94.8% increase in international admits in just one year, an extraordinary change at a time when many institutions are struggling to fill seats with students from abroad. UC Berkeley also became slightly less competitive for foreign applicants, at least on paper. The international acceptance rate rose from 3.38% in Fall 2024 to 7.33% in Fall 2025, suggesting that the university chose to admit a larger share of its international applicant pool even as demand stayed strong.

Application and admit trends (first-year and transfer)

Applications from international students climbed as well. For Fall 2025, UC Berkeley received 24,040 international applications, up from 22,300 the year before. That means the campus is not just admitting more students from overseas; more of them are trying to get in.

At the transfer level, the pattern is even more dramatic:

• International transfer admits: 885 for Fall 2025, compared with 365 the previous year.
• Transfer applications: rose from 2,957 to 3,297.

For many families outside the United States, these numbers send a clear message: despite global competition and national headwinds, Berkeley remains an attractive and realistic option.

National context and economic impact

This growth is taking place against a much darker national backdrop. Across U.S. higher education, new international student enrollment for Fall 2025 fell by 17%, according to sector-wide estimates, wiping out more than $1.1 billion in revenue and nearly 23,000 jobs linked to tuition, housing, and local spending.

Key national declines included:

• Graduate enrollment: down 12%
• Non-degree enrollment: down 16%

Those groups often pay higher tuition and spend more in local economies, so declines in their numbers quickly show up in university budgets and city tax bases.

Overall, the United States enrolled 277,118 new international students in the most recent academic cycle, a 7% decrease from the previous year. For many smaller or mid-tier colleges, that kind of fall means staff cuts, program closures, and less support for both domestic and foreign students.

The contrast makes UC Berkeley’s expansion look less like a simple success story and more like a sign of how sharply the market is now split between elite, high-demand schools and those that depend on every additional overseas applicant to stay afloat.

Why Berkeley could expand while others contracted

One key reason Berkeley can increase international admits while others contract is capacity. The university added roughly 350 more enrollment seats for first-year students in Fall 2025 compared with Fall 2024. That gave admissions officers more room to admit qualified applicants from abroad without displacing California residents or domestic students from other states.

At the same time, overall demand for a place on campus stayed intense, with 126,798 total first-year applicants competing for spots. The rise in seats meant the campus could grow its global reach while still claiming to protect in‑state access.

According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, this kind of targeted expansion at top public universities may become more common as they try to balance:

• Political pressure to serve local students, and
• Financial pressure to bring in higher-paying nonresidents.

International applicants to UC Berkeley usually pay nonresident tuition, which can help support academic programs, research, and student services that benefit the wider campus community. For some critics, that raises questions about whether public universities are relying too heavily on global demand. For others, it is simply a sign that prestigious campuses like Berkeley now compete in a worldwide education market.

What admitted students face next

For the students who received UC Berkeley offers for Fall 2025, the numbers translate into life-changing choices. A higher international acceptance rate and more seats do not mean the process is easy, but they do suggest that strong foreign applicants now have a better chance of receiving a positive result than just a year earlier.

Once admitted, these students still face the familiar immigration steps:

1. Secure the right F‑1 student visa
2. Prepare and present required financial documents
3. Arrange travel and initial housing

Official information on student visas is provided by the U.S. Department of State on its student visa page, which many new UC Berkeley admits will study closely in the months ahead.

Campus-level implications

For campus officials, the rise in international intent to enroll also carries practical questions. More foreign students mean higher demand for:

• Housing
• Visa advising services
• Language support
• Mental health services aimed at people far from home

It can also deepen the global character of classrooms and research labs, which UC Berkeley leaders regularly highlight as a strength. International undergraduates often bring different schooling backgrounds, languages, and experiences with technology or political systems, all of which can shape classroom debate and group projects in subtle ways.

National debate and future outlook

Nationally, the contrast between UC Berkeley’s numbers and the overall U.S. decline feeds into a wider debate over the country’s place in global education. Some policy analysts argue that:

• Visa delays, safety concerns, and rising competition from countries like Canada 🇨🇦 and Australia have chipped away at the traditional draw of American degrees.
• Costs and currency changes make top U.S. universities harder to afford.

Others note that for a certain tier of institution, academic reputation and perceived long-term returns continue to outweigh those worries for many families—evidenced by Berkeley’s ability to sharply grow its pool of international admits for Fall 2025.

Yet Berkeley’s success story does not automatically solve the problems facing less selective campuses, especially in smaller cities and rural areas that rely heavily on full-paying foreign students. As more international applicants focus on a handful of well-known universities, gaps may widen between institutions that can raise tuition and expand globally and those that cannot.

That could push federal and state policymakers to pay closer attention to:

• Immigration rules affecting students
• Work options for international graduates
• The overall message the United States sends to would-be students abroad

Final takeaway

For now, what stands out is how sharply UC Berkeley has pulled away from the national pattern. With almost 1,500 international admits for Fall 2025, rising application numbers, and expanded capacity, the campus has turned a moment of nationwide decline into an opportunity to strengthen its global presence.

Whether that momentum continues will depend not only on Berkeley’s own decisions, but also on how U.S. immigration policy, economic conditions, and global competition for talent evolve in the years to come.