An Easier Year for U.S. MBA Applicants: Why Now is the Time to Apply

It has been one of the easier years, and applicants who do apply are finding themselves with many offers and large scholarships says Scott Edinburgh, the founder of Personal MBA Coach, in remarks to Poets & Quants.

The reason why Edinburgh said that is the ongoing collapse in MBA applications. Poets reports that one top ten MBA program saw applications plunge by 30 percent, and a “highly ranked second-tier school” saw applications fall by 20 percent. At some schools, applications are off as much as 40 percent.

MBA applications appear to be plummeting as far fewer international students apply to U.S. MBA programs. This is part of a larger trend in which more international students appear to be applying to graduate schools in other nations, such as the United Kingdom and Canada, but not the United States. This trend seems to run counter to historical patterns.

Historical Patterns

As we’ve pointed out in several articles here on BSchools, MBA applications are countercyclical because they run counter to economic trends. Economic boom times tend to drain off the supply of applicants to business schools, because there’s less motivation to leave good jobs for those programs. But any time there’s a recession, MBA applications tend to surge because out-of-work professionals return to graduate school. 

That was the case during the global financial crisis in 2008, and it was also the case during the Covid pandemic when applications soared to record levels at many elite universities. That demand remained strong during the post-pandemic period. 

But unemployment currently stands at a relatively high 4.4 percent, and we’re in a volatile economic and geopolitical period with many economists predicting a recession. As Poets’ Marc Ethier points out, this is the kind of scenario where MBA applications should be climbing. 

Yet that’s not the case, and the reason is that demand for U.S. graduate programs among international students shows steep declines. An October 2025 Reuters analysis of 10 graduate programs shows massive drops in the number of first-year graduate students enrolling from abroad. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign saw a 22 percent drop among those students; the State University of New York at Buffalo saw a 58 percent decline; and DePaul University in Chicago saw applications fall by 62 percent.

In addition, data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) shows that international graduate enrollment declined by 5.9 percent in fall 2025. This was the first drop in three years for the number of grad students enrolling in U.S. universities. Undergraduate enrollment actually increased slightly by about 3 percent, but that was less than half of the 8 percent increase of the previous year.

Then a November report by the Institute of International Education (IIE) showed the number of newly enrolled international students at U.S. colleges and universities fell by about 17 percent. About 57 percent of the institutions polled registered a decrease in new international enrollment.

A chart in Either’s article that compares the percentages of international students at leading MBA programs between 2023 and 2025 shows sharp declines at eight of 14 schools. At the University of North Carolina and Indiana Kelley, the drop was 16 percent, and at UCLA Anderson the loss was 12 percent.

These trends are also affecting the most restrictive visa in the American immigration system. H1-B visas, the gateway to the U.S. labor market, the engine behind Silicon Valley’s productivity and the driver of many U.S. MBA enrollments, are also way down this year. This slide is about 27 percent off from the 470,000 students and graduates who received these visas last year. 

About 65 percent of these visa applications were rejected. Moreover, employer registrations dropped 33 percent, from about nine per employer last year to six this year.  

Optional Practical Training (OPT), which enables international grads to work in the U.S. after completing their degrees for up to three years, is also under fire from the Trump Administration. This little-known bridge program between degrees and careers has drawn more attention from Trump’s administration than many realize. Ethier continues:

The program has increasingly become a political target. The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized OPT as a loophole that undercuts American workers and has explored regulatory and legislative options to restrict or eliminate it, according to policy proposals and statements from federal officials. Even the prospect of tighter OPT rules has introduced a new layer of uncertainty for international students, undermining confidence in the post-MBA career pathway that has historically justified the cost of an American degree.

Why is This Happening?

“Because of the challenges to the visa system combined with the declining desire for international students to study in the U.S., we are seeing massive disruptions to our enrollments in many areas around the university,” DePaul’s leadership wrote in a letter to faculty and staff in September 2025. 

According to the IIE report, which polled 825 schools, the main reasons cited include new Trump Administration policies, such as restrictions on international student visas. The Administration wants to limit these students’ enrollment at universities in the United States. 

Among institutions citing declines in new enrollment, 96 percent reported that concerns about visa applications were a factor. Travel restrictions were a factor for 68 percent. Another Reuters analysis continues: 

The U.S. State Department has authorized consular officers to ask visa applicants to make their social media accounts public in an effort to identify any who may be hostile toward the United States. Some student visas have been revoked, and students seeking new visas have faced delays.

Last May, the Administration required consulates to quit scheduling interviews for visas with international students while it developed a new policy to review the social media accounts of applicants. Dr. Dick Startz, an economics professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, told Higher Ed Dive that international students couldn’t obtain visas at all for the following two-month period, which then resulted in an applications backlog during which applicants had to wait for approvals.

IIE’s report attributed visa delays to long wait times, as well as a pause in visa issuance earlier in 2025 that affected students’ ability to obtain visas. A post on X in January from the State Department said it had revoked 8,000 student visas as part of an effort to “keep America safe.”

Fanta Aw, the executive director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, said that “the ripple effects of these policy changes are being felt across campuses and communities around the world.”

Economic Impacts

Bureau of Economic Analysis data shows that international students contributed $55 billion to America’s economy in 2024. About 1.2 million of these students studied in the U.S. during the 2024-2025 academic year. 

One reason these students contribute so much is that they pay full tuition, since they’re ineligible for U.S. financial aid. Schools that need to offset cuts in government funding, higher costs, and decreasing enrollment of U.S. students find these international students to be an important revenue source. 

The report also says that declines in Indian students are driving the declines nationwide. At American colleges and universities, about 70 percent of international students come from Asia, India is the top source for international students, and India and China together account for over half of all foreign enrollment. 

In the 2024/2025 academic year, India topped the list with 363,000 students, followed by China with 265,000. Other top nations include South Korea, Canada, Vietnam, Nepal, Taiwan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Brazil. 

About 27,000 of these students study at New York University, followed by Northeastern University in Boston with 21,000. Other schools with high proportions of internationals include Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of Southern California, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Boston University, and the University of California at Berkeley. States with the largest numbers are California and New York, followed by Texas and Massachusetts. 

Dr. Startz says that international students typically want to attend English-speaking institutions, particularly colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. But he said he’s heard that English-speaking colleges in Singapore and Hong Kong were now the targets of school guidance counselors in China who feared that the U.S. would deny access to their students. 

He said, “Right now, we would have a real opportunity to grow our market share, but we seem to be putting in policies to go in the other direction.”