Interim Vice President for Enrollment Management Tim Brunold said Wednesday during an Academic Senate meeting that international graduate student enrollment is down about 12% since last year. 

International graduate student enrollment has been trending downward since 2022, Brunold said, with enrollment in the social work, business, education, public policy and law schools seeing the biggest decreases.

Brunold said while the undergraduate side of admissions is stable, the graduate side is “a more stormy, uncertain picture.” He said USC has seen a roughly 12% decline in graduate applications for the academic year 2026-27; engineering is down 19%, business is down 24% and international applications as a whole are down 23%.

Though applications are still coming in, Brunold said USC is working on strategies to combat lower application rates, such as trying to release acceptances earlier. He ended his segment by stating his office is aware of faculty concerns and is trying to proactively respond. 

On the drop in graduate applications, Vice President of Finance Greg Condell said the United States government’s elimination of the Grad PLUS program — a government student loan program that allowed for unlimited borrowing for tuition, room and board — means USC has to explore new potential lending partners for graduate student loans. 

“From my point as the admission guy, we are definitely trying to respond to these concerns [about graduate loans and international admissions] that we know are out there,” Brunold said. 

Condell said half of USC’s graduate students “would likely have access to credit through private markers without USC assistance,” however, he also said roughly 10% of people who currently go to USC will likely not be here in the future because they will not be able to acquire loans. 

Condell said about 30% of graduate students could acquire loans through new potential lenders, but those lenders would require USC to bear some of the risk of default. This means USC may be obligated to make payments if borrowers cannot. Condell said it may be worth it for USC to lend money to some students. 

Julie Cederbaum, a professor of social work, said USC providing aid based on how much risk the University is willing to take would risk USC losing students in less lucrative fields.  

“People like social workers and teachers are not going to be considered a good risk,” Cederbaum said during the meeting. “But we want those people.”