Columbia Faces Drop in International Applicants for 2025 Cycle

(COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (NEW YORK, NY)) Columbia University said the share of international students in its incoming class will fall to 16 percent in fall 2025, down from 20 percent last year, a sharp shift at one of the United States’ most selective campuses that underscores a wider national slide in overseas enrollment. The decline, first reported by the student-run Columbia Spectator, reflects problems far beyond Morningside Heights: colleges around the country are reporting fewer applications from abroad, more last-minute visa hurdles, and millions in lost tuition revenue tied to delayed or denied student visas.

Administrators and enrollment officials say the pipeline began tightening months ago, with accepted students unable to secure interviews or move paperwork along in time to arrive for the start of the academic year.

“We had a lot of students we admitted in March, April and May, and they can’t find an open appointment to have an interview,” said Chandra Foote, associate provost for graduate and international enrollment at Niagara University.
That bottleneck was echoed by national advocates, who link the slowdown to federal decisions that rippled across the entire higher education sector.
“The turning point was when the government decided that they were going to pause visa interviews. That impacts every student, irrespective of what institution we go to,” said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA.

For Columbia University, which reported that international students made up about 20 percent of its total campus population in fall 2024, the shift to 16 percent in the new entering class raises urgent questions about how a global research institution sustains its international mix. International students are central to Columbia’s academic profile and financial model, particularly in master’s and professional programs that traditionally enroll high numbers of overseas students. The new class composition suggests that even Ivy League campuses are not insulated from problems facing smaller schools.

Those smaller institutions are absorbing some of the steepest declines. Niagara University in New York said international student enrollment fell by 45 percent this fall, according to officials cited by the Spectator. Lee University in Tennessee expects a drop of up to 39 percent, signaling that regional and faith-based schools that built recent growth around foreign enrollments are now bracing for deep cuts. The University of North Texas projects a loss of about $47.3 million in tuition and fees in the 2024–25 academic year due to slowing international enrollment, and administrators said indicators for fall 2025 point to a similar decline. The financial impact can cascade through budgets, thinning course offerings and student services that rely on tuition dollars to break even.

National data on student visas mirror those campus-level figures. The U.S. International Trade Association reported a 28 percent decrease in student visa arrivals in July 2025 compared with July 2024, equal to about 30,500 fewer students arriving that month. In May 2025, the State Department issued 17,000 fewer F-1 and J-1 visas than the previous year, a shortfall that left students and universities scrambling to rebook travel, defer start dates, or abandon plans for the United States altogether. Visa backlogs have always ebbed and flowed, but this year’s numbers suggest a sustained slowdown during critical months when students must finalize plans to enroll.

The reasons run through consulates and policy offices rather than admissions committees. The F-1 visa is the most common academic student visa, while J-1 visas cover exchange and certain non-degree programs; both require in-person interviews in most cases and depend on consular staffing and appointment availability. When appointment calendars shrink, even students admitted to top programs see deadlines slip beyond the start of classes. Advocates say they have heard more stories of students who secured financial sponsorships and housing, only to be stuck waiting for consular slots to open. The State Department’s student visa page outlines steps and timing for interviews, but those rules are only workable when appointments exist; students, families, and schools have watched calendars fill fast and stay full during peak months. For official requirements and guidance, the U.S. government directs applicants to the State Department’s Student Visa (F and M) information page.

At Columbia University, the shift to 16 percent international students in the incoming class comes as elite schools try to maintain global reach while responding to changing conditions abroad, including currency pressures, higher travel costs, and growing competition from Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia for graduate and STEM students. But the core constraint this cycle appears to be procedural and federal.

“The turning point was when the government decided that they were going to pause visa interviews. That impacts every student, irrespective of what institution we go to,” said Aw, who added that “The numbers are reflecting the fact that government policies absolutely impacted every type of institution, well beyond the elite.”

The slowdown has been particularly visible in graduate and STEM master’s programs, where international students often form a majority or near-majority of the cohort. When those numbers dip, departments face tough choices: delay admits to spring, shrink class sizes, or expand domestic recruitment to fill seats. The consequences are immediate for research labs and industry partnerships that count on graduate assistants, and for universities that price programs around expected international enrollments. Columbia’s decline for fall 2025 suggests that even high-demand programs are not immune when consular interviews stall.

Administrators at campuses such as Niagara University describe a scramble that began in late spring.

“We had a lot of students we admitted in March, April and May, and they can’t find an open appointment to have an interview,” said Foote.
Students who would typically arrive in time for orientation faced the choice of deferring to the next term, shifting to online coursework if available, or losing their place entirely. The problem compounds over time: a missed interview in May 2025 can push an applicant into late summer, when slots may be even more scarce, and flights are costlier.

Financial modeling by NAFSA points to the stakes. The association projected that a 15 percent drop in international student enrollment nationwide would mean about $7 billion in lost revenue for U.S. colleges and universities, counting tuition and associated spending. For schools where international students pay full tuition and subsidize certain academic offerings, those losses can force hiring freezes or program cuts. For Columbia University and peer institutions, the immediate impact may be smaller in percentage terms but still meaningful, especially in departments closely tied to global applicant pools.

The broader national picture reinforces how widespread the challenge has become. The University of North Texas’ expected $47.3 million tuition and fee shortfall this academic year, with early signs of a similar trend for fall 2025, shows the stress on public universities that expanded international enrollments quickly over the past decade. At Lee University, anticipating a decline of up to 39 percent means rethinking class sections, residential housing occupancy, and student employment budgets. Colleges on both ends of the prestige spectrum are adjusting recruitment timelines, with more emphasis on earlier document collection and contingency planning should consulates reduce interview availability again.

For students, the effect is stark and personal. Graduate admits pin their futures on precise chains of events—confirmation of funding, official admission letters, SEVIS records issued, visa interviews scheduled, and travel booked. A single broken link can reset the entire plan. Admissions teams at Columbia University and elsewhere say they are preparing for more last-minute arrivals and more deferrals into spring terms. The fall calendar is merciless for late starters: missing the first weeks of lab or studio courses can set students back a full year.

Some universities are experimenting with dual-start options or adding January cohorts to cushion the blow. But those strategies can only do so much when the underlying problem is visa throughput. Data from the U.S. International Trade Association showing 30,500 fewer student arrivals in July 2025 than in July 2024 highlight how lost months are hard to recapture; missed July arrivals rarely convert into on-time fall arrivals. The 17,000 fewer F-1 and J-1 visas issued in May 2025 compared with a year earlier mark the point in the cycle when delays start to cascade across orientation and housing.

At Columbia University, admissions staff also face the delicate task of explaining rapidly shifting conditions to overseas families. Parents planning for fall 2025 must balance deposit deadlines with uncertain interview schedules. The drop from 20 percent in fall 2024 to 16 percent international in the new incoming class is not just a statistic; it means fewer countries represented in classrooms, fewer languages heard in residence halls, and fewer connections to global industries that often recruit from Ivy League graduate programs. University leaders are likely to push for faster federal processing windows ahead of the next cycle to prevent further erosion.

The pattern is not limited to any single region or academic field. Advocates say interview pauses and appointment scarcity affected students “irrespective of what institution we go to,” as Aw put it, which means that well-funded private universities and tuition-dependent regional colleges saw the same constraints. In that context, Columbia University’s numbers for fall 2025 look like part of a national recalibration driven by policy and logistics, not a collapse in demand for U.S. degrees. International students continue to apply in large numbers where pathways remain open, but campuses are now building backup plans around the possibility that key consular posts will be oversubscribed when it matters most.

Some institutions have shifted recruitment earlier, urging admitted students to complete financial documentation in February and to monitor appointment portals daily by March and April. Others are working with congressional offices to flag urgent cases for research fellows or grant-funded scholars. Those tactics can help at the margins. The bigger lever—faster, steadier interview capacity—sits with the federal government. When interview calendars constrict, the effects spread quickly: departments lose teaching assistants, campuses rework budgets, and students lose a year.

The immediate question for Columbia University is whether the 16 percent figure for fall 2025 is a one-year dip or the start of a longer slide. If visa issuance rebounds in the spring and early summer, classes could quickly regain international balance. If not, more programs may add spring intakes and rethink course sequencing to prevent bottlenecks. In any case, the national numbers from May 2025 and July 2025 show how vulnerable the system is to changes in federal processing.

Far from Columbia’s campus, a different kind of aerial visitor drew crowds in eastern North Carolina this week. The Goodyear Blimp is scheduled to be visible over Greenville and Pitt County as it visits Pitt–Greenville Airport from November 3 through November 6, 2025, mooring at the field between flights.

“We’re thrilled to welcome the Goodyear Blimp and its crew to Pitt–Greenville. It’s not every day our community gets to see such a legendary aircraft right here at home,” said John Hanna, operations manager at Pitt–Greenville Airport.
Airport staff said public tours or rides are not available and asked spectators to view the blimp from designated areas and to park in the PGV paid lot at 400 Airport Road, Greenville, NC, emphasizing safety around active operations. Local excitement aside, officials said there is no evidence yet that the blimp’s visit has any bearing on airport admissions or university enrollment trends.

For now, the numbers tell the story back in New York. Columbia University will welcome a smaller share of international students in fall 2025, a step down from 20 percent to 16 percent that mirrors a national squeeze. How quickly visa interviews stabilize—and how universities adapt if they do not—will determine whether this year’s slide becomes a lasting feature of the American higher education landscape.