23% drop in Indians at US law schools contributes to overall 14% decline in LLM applications

According to fresh data from the Law School Admission Council, the overall decline in Indian students at US universities is reflected in falling numbers across individual fields, even in law schools.

Drop in Indian student applications at US law schools

The council, which maintains data on most Master of Laws (LLM) programs–a one-year advanced degree for foreign-trained lawyers to study US law or international law–showed that Indian applications had dropped 23% at US law schools.

The South Asian country, alongside China, has generally been the largest source of LLM students in the US. New data, on the other hand, suggested that the slipping number of Indian applications (and 21% fewer Chinese applicants) sparked a major drop in the overall international applicant pool, which has shrunk 14% from last year, according to the Law School Admission Council.

The declining number of international students, including Indians, in the US immediately reminds one of the heightened scrutiny around visa applications under the Donald Trump administration. The immigration-related situation became even more complicated in the US last year when the Department of State announced expanded screening and vetting for visa applicants, in turn, stretching out the visa application process and triggering delays and cancellations for many.

Through these policy changes, the administration intended to look deeply into the online presence of all student and exchange visitor applicants hoping to come to the US using the F, M and J non-immigrant visas.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly reiterated that a “US visa is a privilege, not a right.”

Regardless of which data table or source you look at, findings from the US continue to reflect dissipating international enrollment. According to an April report from Shorelight Education, a company which helps universities recruit international students, the US denied 35% of international student visa applications last year, the highest in a decade.

The international education organisation NAFSA also disclosed that foreign undergraduate enrollments in US colleges have fallen by an average of 20% this spring as compared to a year earlier, Bloomberg reported.

According to the report, 62% of the 149 surveyed American schools reported lower international enrollment in undergraduate and graduate programs compared to the previous year. 84% of those institutions cited “restrictive government policies” as one of the major reasons for the lower enrollments.

What are US law school experts saying?

Given the situation at hand, Gisele Joachim, the Law School Admission Council’s vice president for law school engagement, said that student visa denials or delays could further take a toll on international enrollment amid already gloomy circumstances, Reuters reported.

The report showed admission officers, professors and LLM admission consultants mentioning the current administration’s immigration crackdown and anti-immigrant rhetoric, and uncertainty over student and work visas in the country as a few major factors fuelling these changes.

“There is a feeling that the United States, generally speaking, is maybe not as welcoming to international students as it used to be,” Joachim said.

Uncertain about whether his school would be able to meet the fall target of 240 students, Dean Joseph Lindsay said that LLM applications to the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, were down 20%. American University law professor Padideh Ala’i is also expecting fewer students in the upcoming semester, as per Reuters.

Similarly, applications to the University of Michigan Law School’s LL.M. program recorded a 30% decline this year.