More than 90 percent of American colleges and universities have seen a drop in applications from international graduate students for the fall 2004 term, and the number of submissions has fallen 32 percent from last year, according to a survey released by the Council of Graduate Schools on Tuesday.

The findings support a similar survey released last week that found a sharp decline in the number of applications from graduate students from overseas, and a smaller drop in the number from undergraduates. That survey was jointly conducted by the graduate-schools council, the American Council on Education, the Association of American Universities, Nafsa: Association of International Educators, and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

The new study, which focuses on graduate students only, found the largest drop in applications from countries that usually send the most applications. Applications from students in China declined by 76 percent, those from India fell 58 percent. Students in the Middle East sent 31 percent fewer applications, and even Western Europe had a 30-percent decline. The drop crossed all fields of study as well, with an 80-percent plunge in applications to engineering programs and a 65-percent reduction in those to physical-sciences programs.

The results among the 32 research universities with the largest international enrollments were much worse. Thirty-one of those institutions (97 percent) saw declines, 90 percent reported fewer applications from China, and 72 percent reported fewer from India. More than 90 percent saw drops in engineering applications, and 80 percent saw fewer for physical sciences.

The survey's results are sobering but not surprising, said John H. Yopp, a senior scholar in residence at the Council of Graduate Schools and former associate vice president for academic affairs at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Populous countries and large universities, Mr. Yopp said, have the most scientists and engineers, who are more likely than graduate students in other fields to be reviewed by a visa-security system run by the U.S. Department of State called Visas Mantis. The program, a collaboration between the FBI and the State Department, performs security checks on foreign students and scholars who study any of roughly 200 different scientific fields that are on the government's Technology Alert List, which catalogs disciplines that could threaten U.S. national security if knowledge in certain subject areas were transported to another country.

A report issued last month by the General Accounting Office found that Visas Mantis was responsible for many delays in processing visa applications from international students.

Whether or not Visas Mantis or other visa-security systems are directly linked to the drop in applications, said Peter D. Syverson, the council's vice president for research, "the thinking abroad is that the U.S. is not as welcoming."

The decline in applications is a bad sign, Mr. Syverson said, because application figures tend to predict enrollment figures over time. Most institutions feel that a one-year drop in applications will be difficult but survivable, he said. Several years of declines, however, would be disastrous.

Not just graduate-school applications are down. Fewer international students are taking the Graduate Record Examinations, said David G. Payne, associate vice president for graduate, professional, and postsecondary programs at the Educational Testing Service. In India, the foreign country with the most students taking the test, the number is down 37 percent; in China, which has the second-largest number, participation has dropped by half. The two countries provide 50 percent the international students who take the test.