Lack of international students affects college applications

Uncertainty.

That feeling in every senior class.

Words floating around college circles like gossip.

Legacy admissions. Affirmative action. Test optional.

And now international students.

Senior class admissions fluctuate from year to year. Of course, the “success” of a senior class is measured subjectively by outsiders. By many accounts, however, the class of 2025 performed well. Really well.

But there are many factors for consideration.

“I think it’s really hard to ever pinpoint (admissions) to one thing,” college counselor Josh Shandera said.

One factor that may have affected the 2024-25 college admissions cycle was the decrease in international students who applied to American universities.

“Policies around visas for international students have changed,” Shandera said. “I think some students are more reluctant to travel now compared to before because they’re just uncertain of how things may shift in the future when they’re in school.”

Universities have a quota of students whom they try to reach. Student enrollment provides more than 90 percent of revenue for private colleges. And as a result, they spend a significant amount of effort recruiting students from all across the world.

“If a school is now suddenly losing a population of students, they’re going to have to make up for that with other students,” Shandera said. “So from an admission standpoint, it might mean that schools may target international students less because it’s not a very stable population for them to try to recruit, and they may end up having to shift focus and bring in more domestics to focus.”

Although fewer international applicants may help seniors at school, they have different effects afterward.

College communities thrive in its inclusion and diversity, similar to the school.

“You might be missing out on an opportunity to meet people you wouldn’t otherwise or have different perspectives and classes or at school that you wouldn’t be able to have if you didn’t have international students,” Shandera said.

But the lack of international students doesn’t affect admissions strategy — the application process remains the same.

“It doesn’t really matter what the institutional priorities are because that’s not something that we can really know in advance or try to really plan for, and instead it’s just helping students craft their own application,” Shandera said.