The Trump Administration and Student Visas: What’s Behind the Headlines

Worried about how recent actions by the Trump administration are impacting international students? In this post, Crimson CEO Jamie Beaton provides some key facts and some crucial perspectives for what’s really happening and for why we believe most international students — including Crimson students — have little to worry about. Whether your child is already studying in the U.S. on a student visa, or making plans to apply in the future, you should find Jamie’s insights illuminating and, we hope, reassuring.

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The Trump administration is introducing a wave of federal policy reforms in the US and some of these efforts are putting universities and international students into the headlines. 

Families and students we support have told us they have concerns about what’s in the news — in particular, reports about federal officials revoking international student visas.  

While the headlines are alarming, our view is that these political developments have no material impact on Crimson students or their ability to study in the US.

In fact, the actions being taken by federal officials and the Trump administration, at least so far, are narrowly focused on a small group of student protesters — not the broader international student community.

In this post, I’m going to share a few insights I hope will provide some useful perspective and assurances for Crimson families, whether they have students on study visas attending a US university, or have a student interested in applying to US universities in the near future.

1. Student Visas: Who’s Affected?

While the headlines do get people’s attention, only a very small fraction of all student visas have been revoked. And in most cases, the Trump administration is targeting international students who participated in pro-Palestine protests and speech.

The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, confirmed this targeting in a statement to the press on March 27, 2025.

So far roughly 300 students have had their visas revoked for pro-Palestine activities. The Trump administration has also targeted some students for minor crimes.

But these students represent only a very, very small percentage of students attending US institutions on student visas.

Last year, the USA issued more than 400,000 visas — a number that puts the current headlines into perspective.  It means that the deported students make up less than 0.07% of this large cohort.

Furthermore,  more than 1.1M international students were enrolled in a US institution in the 2023-24 academic year. By this measure, deported students represent only 0.02% of this group.

We also note that these 1.1M international students are estimated to have contributed $43.8B to the nation’s economy during last academic year, making it highly unlikely we will see mass visa revocations outside of the targeted pro-Palestine crackdown.

2. Other Views on International Students

Not everything in the headlines is bad news for international students either. Before returning to office, President Trump also expressed interest in attracting talented students to the US from abroad, and even said graduates from top colleges would “automatically” receive a Green Card. 

While no legislation has followed, the statement is a reminder that Trump’s larger approach to immigration issues has some nuance, targeting very specific groups for deportation while also looking to attract top talent to the US from other nations.

3. Impacts on University Research Funding

Beyond targeting international student activists, the Trump administration has frozen, withdrawn or threatened to withdraw over $6B in federal funding from several US universities, often citing alleged failures to protect Jewish students amid pro-Palestinian demonstrations or in an effort to convince university leaders to address other civil rights concerns.

These colleges include: Cornell ($1B), Northwestern ($790M), Columbia ($400M), Brown ($510M), UPenn ($175M), Johns Hopkins ($800M), and Harvard ($2.2B).

So far, these funding cuts have not impacted undergraduate admissions and primarily affect graduate research programs.

We anticipate that most universities will follow Columbia’s lead and bend to the Trump administration’s demands in order to retain anticipated funding or have threatened funding restored.

Recently, however, Harvard announced it will not comply with the Trump administration’s demands. This could put billions of dollars of research funding at risk for Harvard, which could seem alarming in terms of how such large cuts might reverberate across campus budgets, services, and programs.

However, Harvard has immense financial resources at its disposal, with a current endowment exceeding $50B. Endowments across the other seven Ivy League schools are also significant, ranging from roughly $6B (Brown) to $40B (Yale) — giving these institutions financial resources for weathering the current political climate.

Final Thoughts

In summary, we expect top US universities to continue to represent exceptional educational opportunities for international students. And, for now at least, we foresee no impact on financial aid, undergraduate experience, or on any F-1 visas for Crimson students.

All this said, we continue to track these events in the same way we keep a close eye on all university and admissions related trends and policies. So, we hope we’ve provided some crucial insights that allay concerns about student visas in the US, but we also encourage families to check back for future updates, especially if new events or policies arise on the admissions horizon.

If you’re not part of the Crimson network yet, and you’re wondering how your college journey might benefit from having a team of admissions experts and application mentors in your corner, there’s no reason to wonder further! Finding out more is as easy as scheduling a free consultation.

A friendly and experienced advisor will be excited to hear about your student’s goals and answer any questions you have about our teams and our personalized approach. Crimson students are 7x more likely to get into leading universities compared to other students, so why leave anything to chance?

Key Resources & Further Reading

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