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But Black student enrollment is lower at the two universities after years of turmoil in elite higher education.
Aug. 29, 2025, 11:01 a.m. ET
Black student enrollment is down. But the number of international freshmen has remained steady — at least at two of the nation’s most prestigious universities.
Data released this month about the incoming freshman classes from Columbia and Princeton have provided the first glimpse of whether the upheaval in U.S. higher education is affecting college enrollment.
This month, college freshmen began to arrive for orientation at American campuses amid concerns that students from other countries have been blocked by new Trump administration policies, along with signs that some might stay away out of anxiety about the fraught political climate.
At the same time, admissions experts have been watching closely to see how the Supreme Court ban on race-conscious admissions in 2023 is continuing to reverberate across campuses.
The data from Columbia and Princeton offered an early indication that the turmoil has not yet triggered profound disruption in the flow of international students, at least at these elite universities. Neither Ivy League school, for example, saw international enrollment plummet this year.
Princeton even reported an increase from last year in foreign students in this fall’s class of 2029, while Columbia’s numbers held largely steady, though it is possible some international students may be delayed or unable to make it campus this fall because of the Trump administration’s enhanced vetting of student visas. It may also be impossible to know if the Trump administration’s actions changed the makeup of this year’s cohort in other ways, and whether top talent from other countries will come to study at the same rates.
