Indian Undergraduate Applicants to US Drop 15% in Latest Admission Cycle

The number of Indian first-year undergraduate applicants to colleges in the United States has fallen sharply this year, dropping 15% in the 2025–26 admission cycle to 14,424, according to Common App’s end-of-season report.

The decline marks a major reversal for India, which had experienced nearly a decade of sustained growth on the platform. In contrast, applicants from China slipped 2% to 18,435, leaving China as the platform's largest international group and widening the gap between the two countries to 4,011 applicants.

Across Asia, the largest source region for international applicants, total numbers fell 11% to 79,287. Overall international applicants declined 10% from the previous year. The Common App report noted that the drop in Asian applicants was largely driven by the 15% decline from India, though it did not attribute the decrease to a specific cause.

The downturn has wiped out a significant share of gains made by Indian applicants over the past four admission cycles. In 2016–17, Common App recorded approximately 7,900 first-year applicants from India compared to nearly 29,700 from China. Indian applications grew steadily to around 9,400 in 2019–20 before jumping to 12,500 in 2020–21 and about 16,900 in 2021–22.

Applications from India remained stable near 16,900 in 2022–23, dipped slightly to 16,700 in 2023–24, and returned to roughly 16,900 in 2024–25 before falling to 14,424 this cycle. Despite the drop, India remains the second-largest source of international applicants on the platform.

While international applicant numbers from India fell, domestic US applicants of Indian descent continued to rise. The number of domestic first-year applicants reporting an Indian background grew 6% over the past year to 40,949, more than doubling from roughly 18,500 recorded in 2016–17.