Drawing on LSAC data, Reuters reports that the number of LL.M. applicants to U.S. law schools fell by 14% in 2025–2026, driven by declines in applicants from China (by 21%) and India (by 23%). For specific schools, LL.M. applications to UC Berkeley and Michigan dropped by 20% and 30%, respectively. Columbia, NYU, Harvard, and Georgetown—law schools with substantial LL.M. enrollment—declined Reuters’s requests for comment.
The immediate implications are financial and potentially serious, given the marginal effects of revenue shortfalls and financial challenges across higher education. But the long-term stakes are broader and more consequential. For decades, students in NYU’s International Tax LL.M. program have enriched the experiences of students in the Tax LL.M. program. The same is true for LL.M. students in J.D. classes. For this reason, much rides on the underlying question of whether this decline in applications proves temporary or persistent.
The original article and related coverage, below the fold.
Karen Sloan, U.S. Law Schools See Sharp Drop In International Student Applications, Reuters (June 12, 2026):
Admission officers, professors and LL.M. admissions consultants attributed the declining numbers to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and anti-immigrant rhetoric, uncertainty over the availability of student and work visas, and stiffer competition from cheaper LL.M. programs outside the U.S.
Related TaxProf Blog coverage:
- Bipartisan House Bill Would Expand Professional Degrees Eligible for Maximum Federal Student Loans to Include Accounting, Business, Education, and Nursing, But Not Law (MLS or LLM) (Mar. 8, 2026)
- International Students — Home Countries (Dec. 19, 2025)
- Inside Higher Ed: International Student Enrollment Down Almost 20% (Nov. 27, 2025)
- TaxProf Op-Ed: Stephens on LL.M. Degrees and Student Loan Limits (Nov. 15, 2025)
- Trump’s International Student Ban Would Decimate Harvard Law School’s 1-Year LL.M. Program ($81,760 Tuition Generates $11 Million/Year) (June 2, 2025)
- LL.M. Students Are Not Mere Cash Cows—They Are An Integral Part Of Law School Communities (Jan. 26, 2020)
