Indian Students’ Interest in US Education Wanes; Applications Drop by 15%
China remains ahead of India in Common App data. For the 2025-26 admission cycle, there were 18,435 first-year international undergraduate applicants from China. However, applications from China also saw a 2% decline.
A significant drop has been recorded this year in the number of Indians applying for undergraduate studies in the US. According to the Common App report for the 2025-26 admission cycle, the number of Indian students applying for first-year undergraduate programs at US universities fell by 15% to 14,424. This decline comes after years of steadily rising application numbers from India.
China Still Has More Applicants
China remains ahead of India in Common App data. For the 2025-26 admission cycle, there were 18,435 first-year international undergraduate applicants from China. However, applications from China also saw a 2% decline. Meanwhile, the gap in application numbers between India and China has widened this year; China recorded 4,011 more applications than India. Previously, this gap had been consistently narrowing, and India had come very close to overtaking China as the largest group of international applicants.
Rapid Rise in Indian Applications Over the Decade
According to Common App data, there were approximately 7,900 first-year international applicants from India in 2016-17. The figure rose gradually thereafter, reaching around 8,200 in 2017-18, 8,600 in 2018-19, and approximately 9,400 in 2019-20. Subsequently, applications from Indian students surged, reaching about 12,500 in 2020-21 and approximately 16,900 in 2021-22. In 2022-23, this figure stood at approximately 16,900. Subsequently, there was a slight dip to 16,700 in 2023-24, followed by a return to around 16,900 applications in 2024-25. However, in 2025-26, the number dropped to 14,424. In other words, a significant portion of the growth achieved over the past few years was erased by this year’s decline.
Narrowing Gap Between India and China
Over the last decade or so, the gap between applications from India and China on the Common App had been steadily narrowing. In 2016-17, China submitted nearly four times as many applications as India; at that time, there were approximately 29,700 applicants from China compared to about 7,900 from India. By 2023-24, this gap had shrunk considerably, with around 17,600 applications from China and 16,700 from India—a difference of just about 1,000 applicants. However, the gap widened again in 2025-26 following a 15 percent drop in applications from India. Currently, there are 14,424 applicants from India compared to 18,435 from China.
Decline in International Applications from Asia
The drop in applications from India has also impacted the overall figures for international applications from Asia. According to the Common App, there were approximately 89,000 international applications from Asia in 2024-25, a figure that fell to 79,287 in 2026. In 2016-17, there were around 58,000 international applicants from Asia; this number rose steadily over the following years, reaching 89,000 by 2024-25. However, applications from Asia saw an 11 percent decline this year. According to the report, a 15 percent drop in applications from India played a significant role in this decline.
Rise in applications from students of Indian origin in the US
Meanwhile, data regarding first-year students residing in the US who identify as having an Indian background presents a different picture. According to the Common App, the number of domestic first-year applicants identifying as having an Indian background rose from approximately 18,500 in 2016–17 to 40,949 in 2025–26—more than doubling during this period. Similarly, the number of applicants with a Chinese background increased from around 19,000 to 26,296. Notably, in the last year alone, domestic applicants of Indian origin increased by 6 percent, whereas the increase among those of Chinese origin was 1 percent.
