The U.S. B-Schools With The Most Indian & Chinese Students

The United States was still the leading destination for international students in 2024. Will it remain so in 2025?

Nearly 402,000 students from around the world began their studies at American institutions during fiscal year 2024, the 12-month period ending last September, according to U.S. State Department data. “While this figure marks a decline from the record highs of 446,000 in 2023 and 412,000 in 2022,” writes Sasha Ramani of MPOWER Financing, a leading international student loan lender, “it remains higher than any pre-pandemic year. This suggests that annual international student enrollment may be stabilizing at around 400,000, following the post-COVID surge.”

Ramani notes that the drop in enrollment was driven almost entirely by India, which saw a sharp decline from 131,000 students in 2023 to 86,000 in 2024. India now only narrowly surpasses China as the largest source of first-year international students in the U.S., with the latter also seeing a slight decline from 86,000 to 83,000 students.

According to a Poets&Quants analysis of data from U.S. News & World Report collected during the 2023-2024 admissions cycle, the international makeup of top B-schools continues to be strongly defined by students from South Asia. But Chinese students, once thought to be pulling back from U.S. schools in favor of domestic institutions, may gradually be returning.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT COMPOSITION IS DIVERSIFYING

The decline in Indian enrollment is not necessarily cause for alarm, says Ramani, senior director of corporate strategy at MPOWER. “Even at 86,000, the number of Indian students in 2024 remains double the pre-Covid figure of 43,000 in 2019. The decline is largely attributed to stricter visa policies, which have made it more difficult for Indian students to secure approvals, and the end of post-COVID catch-up enrollment.”

Stricter visa policies are likely to continue, if not intensify, in the next four years. Political uncertainties of the kind that proliferated during the first Trump term as president may have played a role in deterring some applicants in the last year, Ramani writes, responding to a request for an update to P&Q‘s 2023 story on Indian and Chinese immigration, and may continue to do so in the future.

“Amid these challenges, international education is still seeing strong growth from frontier markets,” he writes. “India’s neighbors, including Nepal, Pakistan, and Myanmar, all saw significant increases in student enrollment, with Nepal more than doubling its numbers. Meanwhile, Vietnam surpassed South Korea to become the third-largest sender of international students to the U.S.

“These trends suggest a notable shift in the composition of international students, moving beyond the traditional dominance of India and China to include students from a more diverse set of countries, particularly across South and Southeast Asia. Some fast-growing sources of students — such as Zimbabwe and Kyrgyzstan — may come as a surprise, but they highlight the evolving nature of global student mobility.”

U.S. B-SCHOOLS WITH THE MOST INDIAN STUDENTS 2023-2024

U.S. 2024 Rank	School	Indian Students – 2024 – All Programs	Indian Students – 2023	Chinese Students – 2024 – All Programs	Chinese Students – 2023
47T	Texas A&M (Mays)	91%	NA	1%	NA
38T	Texas-Dallas (Jindal)	86%	62%	3%	3%
50T	Arizona (Eller)	78.3%	NA	9%	NA
27T	Washington (Foster)	63%	66%	11%	13%
35	Minnesota (Carlson)	63%	61%	7%	11%
38T	Utah (Eccles)	63%	NA	5%	NA

INDIAN & CHINESE PERCENTAGES ARE PART OF SCHOOLS’ TOTAL INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENT POPULATION. Source: U.S. News & World Report 

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INDIAN POPULATION HOLDS STEADY AT U.S. NEWS TOP 50 B-SCHOOLS

Poets&Quants analyzed data from U.S. News & World Report’s Best Business Schools 2024 ranking and found that as part of schools’ total international population across all graduate programs, Indian and Chinese populations remained strong in the 2023-2024 admissions cycle. Among the top 50 schools, 31 of 46 had more than 20% Indian students among their total international population, compared with 27 schools out of 36 in the previous ranking; 16 of 46 had 40% or more, up from 12 of 36. The school with the highest percentage of Indian students was Texas A&M Mays Business School, with 91%.

None of the top 50 schools reported zero Indian students; 11 schools reported Indian populations below 10%. The lowest: Georgia Terry College of Business, at 2.5%. Of 34 schools for which comparisons are possible, the Indian population went down at 16 — including big drops at UCLA Anderson School of Management (33.2% to 7.7%), Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management (32% to 6%), Georgia Terry (39% to 2.5%), Southern Methodist Cox School of Business (37.3% to 8.49%), and UC-Irvine Merage School of Business (20% to 7%).

However, several schools reported big jumps in their Indian populations from the previous cycle: UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business from 13.1% to 38.8%, Texas-Dallas Jindal School of Management from 62% to 86%, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business from 44% to 59%, and Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business from 44.5% to 58%. Overall, the average Indian population at 46 schools in the U.S. News top 50 is 33.9%, up slightly from 33.7% in the top 40 of the previous ranking.

U.S. B-SCHOOLS WITH THE MOST CHINESE STUDENTS 2023-2024

U.S. 2024 Rank	School	Chinese Students – 2024 – All Programs	Chinese Students – 2023	Indian Students – 2024 – All Programs	Indian Students – 2023
26	Washington-St. Louis (Olin)	90%	93%	3%	2%
43	Wisconsin	45.7%	41%	26.7%	NA
46	Boston (Carroll)	45%	NA	23%
50T	Boston (Questrom)	40%	NA	32%	NA
7T	Yale SOM	33%	35%	18%	15%
15	Cornell (Johnson)	31.7%	33.2%	13.1%	13.1%
47T	Pittsburgh (Katz)	30%	NA	38%	NA
12T	Duke (Fuqua)	28.4%	23%	28.2%	31.3%

INDIAN & CHINESE PERCENTAGES ARE PART OF SCHOOLS’ TOTAL INTERNATIONAL STUDENT POPULATION. Source: U.S. News & World Report 

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AVERAGE CHINESE POPULATION RISES AT 39 TOP-50 B-SCHOOLS

Chinese students have trailed their Indian counterparts for several years at the top B-schools and that continued to be the case in 2024. Fewer schools reported 20% or more Chinese students: 12 of 46, up from 8 out of 36 schools in the previous ranking. Only four of 46 schools reported 40% or more Chinese students, led by Washington University of St. Louis Olin Business School at 90% of international non-resident students enrolled (down from 93% the previous year).

Seven schools in the top 50 reported no Chinese population, same as in the previous ranking. Four schools reported 1%: Texas A&M Mays, Vanderbilt Owen, Iowa State Ivy College of Business, and Brigham Young Marriott School of Business. Of 23 schools for which comparisons are possible, the Chinese population went down at 10, including a big drop at UCLA Anderson (10.2% to 3.6%) and SMU Cox (17.9% to 2.05%). There were, however, also two schools where Chinese students dramatically increased their numbers: Berkeley Haas (7.1% to 23.4%) and Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business (11% to 20%).

Indian students outnumber Chinese almost everywhere in U.S. B-schools — almost. But that’s not the case at some of the top schools. Yale School of Management, Duke Fuqua School of Business, Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management, and Emory Goizueta Business School all have most Chinese than Indian students — as do UC-Irvine Merage, Boston Carroll School of Management, Wisconsin School of Business, Boston Questrom School of Business, and of course, Washington Olin. And while the Indian population at the top schools is holding steady, the Chinese population appears to be growing after years of decline: to an average of 17.2% at 39 schools in the top 50, up from 13.9% in the previous ranking.

See below for the complete U.S. News top 50, minus six schools that don’t report international class compositions: Stanford GSB, Kellogg School of Management, Harvard Business School, Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, USC Marshall School of Business, and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. 

INDIAN, CHINESE & OTHER INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE POPULATIONS IN THE TOP 50 U.S. B-SCHOOLS IN 2024

2024 US News Rank	School	Total Student Enrollment (All Programs: MBA, EMBA, Master’s) 2024	Full-Time MBA Enrollment 2024	Indian Students – 2024	Chinese Students – 2024	Other Notable Populations – 2024	Full-Time MBA International Enrollment 2024
1T	Penn (Wharton)	2,264	1,754	31%	15%	Canada 9%, South Korea 3%, UK 3%	32.7%
3T	Chicago (Booth)	2,568	1,307	31%	17%	Mexico 9%, Canada 6%, Brazil 5%	36.4%
5	MIT (Sloan)	817	817	3.4%	3%	Brazil 2%, Japan 1.9%, Chile 1.9%	40.4%
7T	Yale SOM	842	718	18%	33%	Canada 5%, South Korea 4%, Germany 3%	39.4%
7T	NYU (Stern)	2,453	639	25.3%	25%	Canada 7.2%, Republic of Korea 3.9%, Brazil 3.9%	31.6%
7T	UC-Berkeley (Haas)	1,650	509	38.8%	23.4%	Canada 4.9%, Brazil 3.1%, South Korea 2.5%	43%
10T	Virginia (Darden)	1,096	700	34%	10%	Nigeria 12%, Brazil 5%, Peru/Mexico NA	NA
12T	Duke (Fuqua)	1,240	787	28.2%	28.4%	Peru 6.8%, Brazil 4.2%, South Korea 3.8%	42.4%
12T	Michigan (Ross)	1,168	734	44%	11%	Canada 4%, South Korea 4%, Brazil 4%	39.5%
12T	Columbia	2,073	1,512	14.31%	9.77%	Chile 7.43%, Canada 6.05%, Brazil 5.5%	NA
15	Cornell (Johnson)	705	577	13.1%	31.7%	Canada 4.5%, Mexico 3%, South Korea 2.6%	53.4%
16T	Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	359	359	58%	10.2%	South Korea 5.7%, Indonesia 3.8%, Canada 3.5%	55.2%
16T	Texas-Austin (McCombs)	966	454	51%	9%	Mexico 6%, Taiwan 5%, Canada 3%	28.2%
18T	Emory (Goizueta)	641	237	8.6%	9.5%	Rwanda 2%, Nigeria 1.3%	48.9%
20T	Indiana (Kelley)	394	219	39%	NA	Nigeria 13%, South Korea 7%, Ghana 7%, Indonesia 6%	51.1%
20T	UCLA (Anderson)	1,579	610	7.7%	3.6%	Canada 1.3%, Chile 1.3%, South Korea 1.1%	44.4%
20T	Vanderbilt (Owen)	394	306	6%	1%	Nigeria 2%, Pakistan 1%, Brazil 1%	24.2%
24	Georgetown (McDonough)	980	497	51.1%	10.2%	South Korea 5.3%, Columbia 3.8%, Peru 3.4%	49.5%
25	Georgia Tech (Scheller)	592	145	59%	NA	Nigeria 8%, Chile 5%, South Korea 5%, Brazil 3%	31%
26	Washington-St. Louis (Olin)	1,711	372	3%	90%	Nigeria 1%, Taiwan 1%, Ghana 0.4%	50%
27T	Georgia (Terry)	513	110	2.5%	NA	Nigeria 1.8%, Uzbekistan 0.4%, Canada 0.2%, Ghana 0.2%	24.5%
27T	Washington (Foster)	581	210	63%	11%	Canada 5%, Mexico 3%, Bangladesh 3%	49.5%
29	Rice (Jones)	802	307	45.5%	12.5%	Nigeria 7.4%, Mexico 7.4%, Canada 4.5%	44.6%
30T	Notre Dame (Mendoza)	398	238	35%	20%	Nigeria 9%, Mexico 4%, Zimbabwe 3%	29.8%
30T	Ohio State (Fisher)	626	98	36.6%	17%	Nigeria 8%, Taiwan 7.1%, Mexico 2.7%	40.8%
32T	Rochester (Simon)	348	196	40%	NA	Peru 6%, Bangladesh 5%, Brazil 4%, Nigeria 4%	47.4%
32T	Arizona State (Carey)	338	115	55%	12%	Taiwan 12%, South Korea 2%, Nigeria 2%	45.2%
34	SMU (Cox)	432	134	8.49%	2.05%	Korea 1.23%, Mexico 1.09%, Nigeria 0.54%	29.9%
35	Minnesota (Carlson)	668	154	63%	7%	Nigeria 5%, Ghana 3%, Vietnam 3%	35.1%
36	Florida (Warrington)	286	57	32%	NA	South Korea 12%, Peru 6%, Venezuela 6%, Brazil 6%	14%
37	Brigham Young (Marriott)	309	207	3%	1%	Brazil 3%, Peru 2%, Chile 1%	22.2%
38T	Utah (Eccles)	440	68	63%	5%	Nigeria 5%, Ghana 3%, Brazil 3%	27.9%
38T	Texas-Dallas (Jindal)	731	83	86%	3%	Taiwan 1%, Vietnam 1%, Pakistan 1%	34.9%
40	William & Mary (Mason)	322	190	34%	14%	Nigeria 9%, Japan 3%, Spain 2%	32.6%
41T	Michigan State (Broad)	354	126	48%	NA	Nigeria 9%, Taiwan 7%, Brazil 5%, Nepal 5%	30.2%
41T	Maryland (Smith)	650	89	60.09%	23.2%	Taiwan 5.04%, Nigeria 1.73%, South Korea 1.59%	56.2%
43	Wisconsin	306	141	26.67%	45.71%	Taiwan 6.67%, South Korea 6.19%, Vietnam 1.9%	34.8%
44T	UC-Irvine (Merage)	476	76	7%	17%	Taiwan 5%, South Korea 3%, Indonesia 1%	39.5%
44T	Texas Christian (Neeley)	283	66	17%	14%	Mexico 17%, Vietnam 10%, Spain 7%	27.3%
46	Boston College (Carroll)	688	161	23%	45%	Taiwan 7%, South Korea 3%, Greece 2%	26.7%
47T	Pittsburgh (Katz)	373	85	38%	30%	Taiwan 11%, Saudi Arabia 4%, Japan 2%	50.6%
47T	Texas A&M (Mays)	231	85	91%	1%	Nigeria 1.6%, Taiwan 1%, Republic of Korea 1%	36.5%
47T	Tennessee-Knoxville (Haslam)	400	86	3%	NA	Mexico 1%, Brazil 0.5%, Canada 0.5%, Comoros 0.5%	17.4%
50T	Boston (Questrom)	796	273	32%	40%	Taiwan 4%, Indonesia 2%, Pakistan 2%	61.2%
50T	Arizona (Eller)	176	54	78.3%	9%	Taiwan 5.9%, Canada 2.3%, Mexico 1.8%	40.7%
50T	Iowa State (Ivy)	169	83	5%	1%	Ghana 2%, Nepal 1%, Ukraine 1%	24.1%

INDIAN & CHINESE PERCENTAGES ARE PART OF SCHOOLS’ TOTAL INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENT POPULATION. Source: U.S. News & World Report 

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SOUTH KOREAN STUDENTS REPORTED AT 20 TOP-50 B-SCHOOLS

Some other interesting numbers from the U.S. News data:

• Highest percentage of international students in the MBA population: Boston Questrom, 61.2%
• Lowest: Florida Warrington College of Business, 14% (Tennessee Haslam College of Business, 17.4%)
• Schools with 50% or more internationals: 7 of 46
• Schools with 40% or more: 19 of 46 (last year: 10 of 36)
• Schools with 35% or more: 32 of 46 (last year: 24 of 36)
• NA: 2 (Virginia Darden School of Business and Columbia Business School)

Indian and Chinese students were not 1-2 at every school. At Virginia Darden, Indiana Kelley School of Business, Vanderbilt Owen, Georgia Tech Scheller, Georgia Terry, Rochester Simon Business School, Florida Warrington, BYU Marriott, Michigan State Broad College of Business, TCU Neeley School of Business, Texas A&M Mays, Tennessee Haslam, and Iowa State Ivy, other nationalities claimed the second spot.

Among the top countries listed besides India and China, Nigeria is listed at 19 top-50 B-schools, including 12% at Darden and 13% at Kelley; Canada is listed at 15 schools, including 9% at Wharton; South Korea is listed at 20 schools, including 12% at Florida; Taiwan is listed at 14 schools, including 12% at Arizona State Carey School of Business and 11% at Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business; Brazil is listed at 15 schools, including 6% at Florida; and Peru, Ghana, Chile, Indonesia, Vietnam make repeat appearances. Mexico, listed at 12 schools, claims the single highest percentage of any country outside India and China: 17% at TCU Neeley.

INDIA: STILL A TALENT EXPORT POWERHOUSE

Regardless of short-term economic and political undulations, India is, and will likely remain, the main source of international talent for U.S. B-schools and universities, writes MPOWER’s Sasha Ramani.

“India’s role in U.S. higher education is far from diminishing,” Ramani writes. “It remains the largest source of international students to the U.S., and is likely to retain that top spot. The recent opening of a U.S. consulate in Bengaluru, marking six across India, is expected to streamline visa processing and alleviate some of the burden on consulates in other cities. A forthcoming consulate in Ahmedabad will further expand access for students from India.”

But that doesn’t mean other countries won’t be urging their citizens to choose the U.S. for their studies.

“Canada and Australia have recently imposed caps on international student enrollments, while the United Kingdom has restricted dependents and increased visa fees. These changes have already had a significant impact on student enrollment in Canada, even at the graduate level — despite initial exemptions for graduate students under Canada’s study permit cap. As other destinations become more restrictive, the U.S. remains an attractive choice for students seeking to study abroad.

“As international student enrollment patterns continue to shift, the U.S. remains well-positioned to attract talent from across the globe, even as the landscape evolves. The United States’s enduring appeal — bolstered by a tradition of academic excellence, a thriving job market, and a vast network of alumni — ensures that international students will continue to see the U.S. as the premier place to pursue an education abroad. As global education patterns shift, the U.S. has the opportunity to strengthen its leadership role, foster cross-cultural collaboration, and shape the next generation of global leaders.”

DON’T MISS OUR EARLIER REPORTING ON INDIAN, CHINESE & OTHER INTERNATIONAL POPULATIONS IN U.S. B-SCHOOLS and THE TOP U.S. MBA PROGRAMS WITH THE MOST INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS