Last month, The New York Times reported a 19% decline in international student travel to the United States this August compared to last year.
At Tufts, the percentage of international students across all degree programs decreased from approximately 15% in fall 2024 to 14% in fall 2025. In particular, the number of Tufts-sponsored F-1 and J-1 student visas dropped by roughly 3.6% from last year.
As of 2024, 1,912 international students representing 124 different countries are enrolled across all Tufts campuses, 1,554 of whom study on the Medford/Somerville campus.
“While this summer presented many anticipated challenges for the incoming international student population, most international students successfully arrived as expected for the fall 2025 semester,” Patrick Collins, Tufts’ executive director of media relations, wrote in a statement to the Daily.
Anna Garson, director of the International Center, highlighted the university’s continued commitment to fostering a diverse global community.
“Going into the 2025 academic year, we are very lucky to have welcomed such a vibrant and resilient group of new and returning international students. The number of Tufts visa-sponsored students may be slightly down this semester, but we actually have a more globally diverse population this year than last,” Garson wrote in a statement to the Daily.
The Tufts International Center has worked to provide support for students in the face of policy changes.
“We have shared regular immigration updates through community messages, newsletters, workshops, information sessions with guest immigration attorneys and beyond,” Garson wrote. “We’ve participated in national and campus advocacy and have also worked to get students and scholars safely back to campus when more imminent policy changes or executive orders threatened to make travel more difficult.”
An Iranian graduate student at The Fletcher School, whose name was withheld due to safety concerns, explained how the past year has posed new challenges for international students on campus.
The student added that, while it was always difficult for Iranian students to obtain visas to study in the United States, the travel ban limiting the entry of Iranian nationals into the country has made the barrier for Iranian students pursuing degrees at U.S. universities even more severe.
“The acceptance rate [for Iranian student visas] was never high, but now it’s zero,” the student said. “No one holding an Iranian passport can enter the U.S. since [June 8] this year,” the student said. “So if you see any Iranian nationals in the U.S., they either have passports, green cards or entered the U.S. before this executive order was applied,” the student explained.
For students from countries affected by U.S. travel bans, political tensions and restrictive immigration policies make even short visits home risky. The choice to study abroad may come with the trade-off of missing family milestones, cultural traditions and years of physical connection with loved ones.
“I don’t dare leave and visit my family,” the student said.
Housing remains one of the immediate concerns for many international students. With limited off-campus options and rising rental prices around Medford and Somerville, securing affordable housing can be particularly difficult for students who cannot visit the United States in advance or sign leases without a credit history.
While the student said the International Center has been doing an overall good job in their support for international students, the student said they wished Tufts could show more support to international students when it comes to finding affordable housing off campus. The student faced various barriers in their search to live off campus.
The student concluded by saying, “Ask your international colleagues to share their stories, because usually people have no idea of the situation. … I believe these experiences being shared helps a lot in improving the community and their understanding of their peers.”
“This was just my story; there are many students from different nationalities who have their own stories that relate to the challenges of being an international student.”
