Some of the country’s leading research universities are admitting fewer students to their doctoral programs amid widespread concerns about federal funding cuts and uncertainty.
The number of students admitted for fall 2026 fell 15 percent compared with last year, according to data drawn from 55 of the country’s 69 top public and private research universities by the Association of American Universities Data Exchange.
University leaders and others have been warning for more than a year policies under President Donald Trump’s administration such as abrupt terminations of research grants and funding delays could have an outsize impact on science in the United States, including by narrowing the pipeline of young researchers.
Liz Huston, a spokeswoman for the White House, said: “President Trump is committed to keeping America the world leader in scientific innovation, and that means funding real science, not left-wing ideology. For years, federal grant dollars were funneled into politicized research with little accountability to taxpayers or results to show for it. This administration is ending that waste.”
The survey also found a 21 percent drop in the number of international applicants to research doctoral programs, after months of uncertainty over visa delays and travel bans the U.S. placed on certain countries.
Applications from domestic students rose slightly, 3 percent this year.
Application numbers reflect interest from students, while admissions numbers reflect the schools’ ability to take on new graduate students.
The Association of American Universities Data Exchange is an independent organization that collects data from schools in the Association of American Universities, which represents the country’s leading research institutions. Schools were asked for counts of total and international research doctoral applications and admits for the fall 2025 group and the fall 2026 group.
In May, MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth, told the campus community that the number of graduate students would decline significantly in the wake of federal actions.
“To me, far and away the worst impact is that hundreds of exceptionally talented young people will not have the benefit of an MIT education — and we won’t have the benefit of their creative brilliance,” she said.
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