Mumbai: After years of rapid growth that had brought India close to China as the biggest source of international students on Common App, the number of Indian first-year undergraduate applicants to the USA has fallen sharply this year.Applicants from India declined 15% in the 2025–26 admission cycle to 14,424, while those from China, still the largest international group on the platform, slipped 2% to 18,435. Across Asia, the largest source region for international applicants, numbers fell 11% to 79,287. International applicants overall declined 10% from the previous year, according to Common App’s end-of-season report released this month.The decline marks a striking reversal for India, which had been one of the strongest growth stories on the platform over the past decade. The Common App report does not attribute the international decline to a particular cause. But its decade-long data show just how unusual the latest movement is for India. After climbing from fewer than 8,000 applicants to nearly 17,000 and almost catching China, India has recorded its sharpest reversal in the period shown in the report.In 2016–17, Common App had only about 7,900 first-year international applicants from India, against nearly 29,700 from China. India’s numbers rose gradually to around 8,200 in 2017–18, 8,600 in 2018–19 and 9,400 in 2019–20, before accelerating sharply. They climbed to roughly 12,500 in 2020–21 and 16,900 in 2021–22. They remained at around 16,900 in 2022–23, dipped marginally to 16,700 in 2023–24 and returned to around 16,900 in 2024–25.This year’s fall to 14,424 has therefore wiped out a substantial part of the gains made over the previous four admission cycles. Figure 21 of the report identifies India as the second-largest source of international applicants, behind China.China has followed an almost opposite trajectory. Its applicant numbers were already close to 29,700 in 2016–17 and peaked at about 32,300 the following year. They then fell to around 29,900 in 2018–19 and 24,800 in 2019–20, before dropping further to about 20,200 in 2020–21.The decline continued, though more gradually, to roughly 19,400 in 2021–22, 18,200 in 2022–23 and 17,600 in 2023–24. China saw a modest recovery to around 18,800 applicants in 2024–25 before slipping 2% to 18,435 this year.For much of the past decade, therefore, the India-China story on Common App was one of convergence. China had nearly four times as many applicants as India in 2016–17. By 2023–24, the gap had narrowed to barely 1,000 applicants, roughly 17,600 from China against 16,700 from India. India was within striking distance of becoming the largest source country on the platform.The sharp 15% fall this year has widened that gap again: China now has 4,011 more first-year international applicants than India.The two countries are part of a broader Asian slowdown. Asia had recorded several years of strong growth, rising from around 58,000 international applicants in 2016–17 to close to 89,000 in 2024–25. In 2025–26, however, the number dropped to 79,287, an 11% year-on-year decline. The report specifically says the fall in Asian applicants was driven by the 15% decline from India.The trend is particularly notable because it is not mirrored among US-based students reporting Indian and Chinese backgrounds.Among domestic first-year applicants identifying with detailed Asian backgrounds, the number reporting an Indian background has more than doubled over the decade from roughly 18,500 in 2016–17 to 40,949 in 2025–26. The corresponding China-background group rose from about 19,000 to 26,296. In the latest year alone, India-background domestic applicants increased 6% compared with 1% growth among those reporting a Chinese background.
