While overall international student enrollment has declined only 1 percent since fall 2024, new enrollment has declined 17 percent, according to fall 2025 snapshot data in the annual Open Doors report, published Monday by the Institute for International Education. The 825 U.S.-based higher learning institutions that responded to the fall snapshot survey host more than half of all international students in the country.
The Iraqi student walked up to me and told me he'd arranged an interview for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Because he'd gone to the trouble of setting it up, I went to the interview but straight away told my interviewer that I didn't have a visa, so I was probably wasting her time. In typical New York fashion a city where anything feels possible she said: We can make that happen. When can you start?
My great-grandfather and I were both 24 when we arrived in America. He landed at Ellis Island in 1912 with nothing but a suitcase, his savings, and the belief that America would offer a better life. I touched down at JFK airport in 2022, ready for the adventure I'd waited most of my life for. We know little about my great-grandfather's time in America, but we know he brought his fortunes back to Ireland after 20 years doing industrial work in Philadelphia.
