Northwestern has accepted 4,700 high schoolers for the incoming class of 2007 — but admissions officials hope fewer students than last year will decide to call NU home for the next four years.

One hundred fewer students than last year were accepted in order to meet a target freshman class enrollment of 1,925 students, said Rebecca Dixon, associate provost for university enrollment. There are 2,005 students in the class of 2006.

The university received a total of 14,140 applications, according to Dixon, a decrease of 140 from last year’s total of 14,280.

Although she couldn’t give concrete figures, Dixon said the geographic regions and ethnic breakdowns of admitted students are similar to previous years.

“The profiles don’t look very different to us from last year,” she said.

Last year, a larger number of admitted students than anticipated decided to attend NU, causing headaches for administrators in areas such as housing.

Mark D’Arienzo, associate director of university housing, said a smaller class of 2007 would not greatly affect university housing.

“It will be easier to house the freshmen, but we still haven’t seen how many returning students are going to apply,” he said. “We’re still collecting data and seeing how things are working with the new priority-based system (initiated last year).”

All entering freshmen are guaranteed housing. Seniors, juniors and sophomores — in that order — have priority after freshman.

Some high school seniors who learned about their acceptances this week said they were excited about the opportunity to attend NU.

Admitted applicant David Wardrop of Scottsdale, Ariz., who participated in NU’s National High School Institute program in journalism last summer, said he is thrilled about his acceptance — especially as admissions become more selective each year.

“I don’t think anyone has a sure ‘in,'” he said. “It’s more of an honor to get into a more selective group.”