UPDATED: February 1, 2012, 11:54 p.m. EST 

CORRECTION: The final record of students that have submitted undergraduate applications for Fall 2012 was previously misstated in the headline and article. A final record has not yet been released. The Daily Orange regrets this error.  

Undergraduate applications to Syracuse University remain high for the third year in a row.

Approximately 25,870 first-year applications were submitted to the Office of Admissions for the 2011-12 academic year, said Steven O’Keefe, assistant dean of admissions, in an email. The numbers display a slight increase compared to last year, when 25,270 applications came in.

The admissions office set an enrollment goal of 3,350 first-year students for the fall 2011 semester, though this year’s incoming class was slightly higher. For next fall, the office hopes to enroll a class of at least 3,375 first-year students, O’Keefe said.

In the past few years, SU has consistently welcomed larger incoming classes because more students accepted admission than the university anticipated. There was an uncharacteristically large application increase of 13 percent in 2011 from 2010, according to a Jan. 25, 2011, article published in The Daily Orange.

In fall 2010, the university enrolled nearly 3,500 students, a 9 percent increase from 2009, when 21,000 applications came in and 3,250 students enrolled, according to the article.

Applications have been coming in from more varying demographics, O’Keefe said. Officials in the admissions office noticed increases in the number of students from the West Coast, the South and Southeastern United States. There has also been an increase in the number of international students applying to SU, he said.

Thirty-one percent of the applications came from ‘typically underrepresented’ minority groups. The number of minorities accepted, though, has dropped, O’Keefe said.

Of the applications sent to the university, O’Keefe said, 49 percent were accepted.

The Office of Financial Aid and Scholarship Programs also awarded more than $178 million this year, resulting in approximately 80 percent of the student body receiving some form of SU-funded financial aid, according to the university’s website. The average financial aid award is $16,737. The average loan debt is $22,000, according to the website.

The increasing applications are part of a decade-long trend at the university. There were about 12,900 applications for fall 2001, and they rose to 14,300 by 2005, according to a Jan. 24, 2011, SU News release. The numbers have almost doubled today and reach well over 25,000.

meltagou@syr.edu

Published on January 31, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Marwa: meltagou@syr.edu | @marwaeltagouri