International student applications to the University of California's nine campuses have dropped 37.5 percent from last year, largely because of tighter restrictions on entry into the United States, a UC spokesman said.

The drop from 3,860 foreign students in 2003 to 2,414 this year is reflected in a decrease in overall applications to the UC system, the first drop after several years of large increases . (Overall applications dropped 1. 3 percent, from 99,991 for 2003 to 98,658 for 2004, after climbing 5.2 percent the year before.)

UC is attributing the overall drop in applications to a variety of factors, including increased border security, less than 1 percent growth in the number of high school graduates and fee increases of 40 percent during the past year.