Ohio State University reported a nearly 37% drop in first-year international students this year in its annual enrollment report, among other changes.
Across all campuses, the university reported 67,255 total students, a few hundred more than last year, with graduate student enrollment reaching a record high at 11,463 students. On its Columbus main campus, Ohio State reported fall 2025 freshman enrollment at 8,210, marking an almost 14% drop from last year’s first-year student population of 9,530 — the largest in the university’s 155-year history. This fall’s freshman class has 536 international students, while last year’s had 850.
Though this year’s more traditional-sized freshman class may help explain the 314-person drop, the international first-year student population still marks a 24% decrease from 2023. Total international enrollment dropped just under 5%.
In August, University President Ted Carter told The Dispatch he expected a first-year class of around 8,200 and a drop in international enrollment by 5% to 7%. University spokesperson Ben Johnson emphasized that this year’s incoming class was smaller “by design.”
“It’s important to remember the record numbers for 2024-2025 were part of an intentional strategy following the graduation of one of the university’s largest classes and two years of decreasing the size of the first-year class,” Chris Booker, another OSU spokesperson, said in an email.
Changes to international student body
Ohio State’s decline in first-year international students follows an academic year of student visa revocations, the removal of diversity, equity and inclusion programming, a 19-country travel ban issued by President Donald Trump effective June 9, and a weeks-long pause in new student visa interviews from the end of May to mid-June to expand social media vetting.
When asked the extent to which these factors affected Ohio State’s decline in international enrollment, Booker said, “the current class represents a planned class size that supports balanced enrollment across the university.”
Across all classes, Ohio State saw a 5% drop in international students, falling to 5,996 this year versus 6,305 in 2024. Booker noted that this year’s number is still higher than the 5,901 international students the university had enrolled in 2023, which he said “aligns more closely with historical levels.”
In terms of country of origin, the number of international students from China dropped 8.6%, with the country supplying 302 fewer international students this year than the 3,528 it did in fall 2024. India, the next-biggest contributor to Ohio State’s international student body, didn’t see much change at 777 students, only four fewer than 2024.
Regional campus growth
Ohio State’s regional campus enrollment is up 8.6% from fall 2024, with 5,929 Buckeyes spread across the university’s Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster campuses this year. Newark’s campus saw the biggest jump, with a 13% or 333-student increase from last year.
According to an Ohio State news release, 3,070 of these regional campus students are first-years, marking a 15.1% increase from last year and a 37.1% increase over the past three years.
Booker attributed this growth to various initiatives across Ohio State’s regional campuses, like fee waivers for students who apply directly to a regional campus as their first choice and expedited application reviews. He added that the five regional campuses have added new, specialized degree options, like engineering technology.
“Many students are also drawn to the advantages of studying close to home and the experience of a smaller campus,” Booker said.
Bigger drop in out-of-state freshmen
The report shows that of Ohio State’s fall 2025 freshman class, there was a bigger drop in out-of-state students enrolling than those from Ohio.
While both groups decreased to meet the university’s goal of a smaller incoming class, this year saw roughly 5,600 new freshmen from Ohio — a drop of nearly 500 students, or 8.2%, from last year. Meanwhile, this year’s 2,080 out-of-state freshmen mark a 20% drop from last year, or a loss of over 500 students.
When asked about the reason for this gap, Booker reiterated that the current class size was planned to support balanced enrollment across the university.
How did Ohio University enrollment fare?
Total fall enrollment at Ohio University was 30,682 students, an increase of 3.6% from 2024, according to a university news release. This growth was largely attributed to a record-high freshman class of 4,550 students.
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at ewozniak@dispatch.com or @emma_wozniak_ on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: OSU freshman, international student enrollment drops
Reporting by Emma Wozniak, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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