MINNEAPOLIS — Many college leaders are warily eyeing their international enrollment numbers amid two staggering forces: the expected decline of traditional-aged college students in the U.S. and the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on foreign students.
Federal courts have temporarily halted some of the Trump administration’s efforts, but the confusion and instability around the future of international enrollment in the U.S. has persisted. Some major public institutions have already reported declines in foreign students this academic year.
At the annual National Association for College Admission Counseling conference last week, admissions experts from three institutions with large international student populations — Rice University, the University of Connecticut and Northeastern University — shared how they've bolstered foreign recruitment efforts in the past and how they plan to weather the current policy tumult.
Committing to international enrollment
At one point, 41% of Rice's international student body came from just one country, according to Yvonne Romero.
The Texas university's vice president for enrollment and dean of admissions and financial aid told conference attendees on Friday that Rice has since significantly ramped up its efforts to build its foreign enrollment and be more present in countries that were underrepresented in its student body. Those international recruitment efforts were funded to the tune of $1.5 million over three years, according to Romero.
In Rice's graduating class of 2029, international students make up 13% of undergraduates and represent 56 different countries, according to institutional data. That's up from 11% of undergraduates and 24 countries in the university's class of 2023.
Nearly 1,800 miles away, UConn faced a similar pipeline issue, according to Vern Granger, the university's director of undergraduate admissions. The public flagship, where foreign students made up 6% of undergraduates in fall 2025, previously relied heavily on just one country for undergraduate international recruitment — China.
In 2018, nearly 90% of UConn's international undergraduates came from China, according to the Connecticut Post.
Granger said the lack of diversity in students' countries of origin was due in part to the university not offering any financial aid to foreign students at the time. That's not uncommon across the sector, as international students often pay full freight when attending U.S. colleges.
But Granger said that standard curtails economic diversity among foreign students.
"International students, in a lot of ways, are looking for the same things that the U.S. students are," he said. He cited affordability and the desire to feel welcomed on campus as examples.
The university has since worked with donors to set up merit scholarships for international students.
In fall 2025, international students from China made up 60.9% of UConn's undergraduate enrollment, according to institutional data.
Rice now offers financial aid for international students as well, Romero said.
"I've always said, my job is not to get the next class," she said. "It's to build a pipeline to students from around the world for the next 20 to 25 years."
Meeting students where they are
At Northeastern, the admissions team has worked to make its policies more inclusive of and flexible for international students, said Satyajit Dattagupta, the Boston-based university's chief enrollment management officer and head of global expansion.
A large share of students attending the university, which has three international campuses, are from foreign countries. In fall 2025, 33.1% of its students were from outside the U.S. in fall 2025. And that's down from 40.9% two years prior.
Some of Northeastern's updated policies can benefit all foreign students, such as allowing them to start the semester late because of visa or travel issues. Others are tailored to students from countries that are increasingly sending young people to the U.S. to study.
For example, Northeastern now offers students the chance to earn college credit based on their results from two Indian matriculation exams.
Targeting recruitment efforts to students
All three panelists said it's important to know which elements of a college — or its campus — could be appealing to students from different backgrounds.
"Whenever I go overseas and I'm talking to families, I'm kind of surprised that they are aware about the geographic differences within the United States," Granger said. "Folks are keenly aware of where we are located, and that ends up being an advantage for us."
He said UConn is able to market itself as a place that is "very open, very inviting and very welcoming" to international students, in part, because the Connecticut Legislature has not sought to pass laws curtailing immigration and state leaders continue to invest and expand global business development opportunities.
Romero also said Rice's location, in Houston, can help recruitment efforts, though in a different way.
The Houston metropolitan area is home to one of the largest Nigerian populations abroad, she said. And Nigeria doubled the number of its college students studying in the U.S. between the 2015-16 and 2024-25 academic years.
Nigerian international students "can find their communities in our city," Romero said. "That's very, very attractive."
Above all, Dattagupta said, it's important to consider each applicant and student as an individual and consider what aspects of an institution could make their attendance a good fit.
Boots on the ground
UConn, Rice and Northeastern have all undertaken significant recruitment efforts abroad.
Rice's Paris Center, which first opened in 2022, hosts a day-and-a-half program for K-12 counselors from across Europe, which Romero said helped the university establish strong ties to the continent.
During the event, Rice officials broke down the intricacies of the U.S. college application system to "demystify" the process, she said. And current graduate students joined to explain the support services the university offers.
Romero said Rice also hosts a fly-in program in Sao Paulo similar to the one it has in Paris. She plans to continue both efforts as long as she has the budget to do so.
"Next year, we'll be going back to both of those regions because, again, it's not one and done," she said.
Granger encouraged college leaders to collaborate with other institutions if they're interested in coordinating international visits.
In 2024, UConn joined seven other colleges, including Cornell and Johns Hopkins universities, for a two-week-long recruitment tour to half a dozen sub-Saharan African countries.
"It was amazing, the reception that we had," Granger said. "It let us know the power of us actually just being there."
Romero said colleges' presence abroad is empowering to international students and their families.
"When we see fellow institutions out on the road recruiting, we are sending a large collective message that their voices matter and our institutions want them," she said.
Weathering the storm
Romero stressed to conference attendees that international recruitment is a long game. The ongoing political uncertainty "makes it challenging, but I think that institutions have to stay the long course," she said.
"Sometimes, the strategic, wise move is to stay the course with your eyes wide open, making minor adjustments, but not totally shifting strategy," said Romero.
And even now the U.S.'s higher education system is still appealing to many students abroad.
"Students remain remarkably interested in the type of education that American universities and colleges provide," Romero said. For undergraduates, a big part of the appeal is their ability to explore multiple subjects when pursuing their degree rather than solely focusing on one topic for the duration of their studies, she said.
Northeastern's global team hosts outreach events in countries like India, China, South Africa and Nigeria. They allow prospective students to ask questions about the application process in person and express interest in the university.
Amid tightening visa policies, Dattagupta said he "was expecting a massive decline in interest." Instead, he said the university saw record turnout, with many of the prospective students and applicants seeking guidance from Northeastern officials.
In responding to questions, he and his team sought to balance optimism and support with honesty and transparency amid the U.S.'s shifting federal rules and regulations.
"They see us as the people that they can ask questions to be reassured that they should come to the United States," Dattagupta said. "For a lot of families, this is the single biggest decision that they're making."
Granger likewise advised admissions leaders not to shy away from international recruitment because of changes to federal policy.
UConn has not reduced its recruitment efforts in African countries despite the U.S. government denying visas to the continent’s students en masse, he said. In 2025, the U.S. denied almost two-thirds of visa applications from African students, up from less than half four years prior.
"I am an optimist by nature," Granger said. "I do truly believe that things are going to open up from a federal standpoint." The colleges that persist and stay invested abroad will be the ones that see the most success when the pipeline reopens, he added.
