By Erin Dostal The Daily Northwestern

After months of anticipation, more than 20,000 high school seniors who applied to Northwestern will finally receive their admittance letters sometime this week.

Regular decisions were mailed out to students Friday, meaning that most Chicago area applicants have already received their letters, said Keith Todd, director of undergraduate admissions. Students from outside the area will probably be getting their decisions later this week, he said.

Of 20,649 regular decision applicants, NU accepted 4,852.

“There were certainly students who would’ve been easily admitted a few years ago who ended up on the wait list this year,” Todd said.

Lana Birbrair of New Milford, N.J., was among those accepted into the Medill School of Journalism class of 2011. She said she chose NU because of its size and location, among other things, and that she’s ready to be done with high school.

“I chose Northwestern because of journalism,” Birbrair said. “I’m excited to go to college.”

NU sent letters of acceptance to 24.7 percent of applicants for the class of 2011 – down from 29.6 percent last year.

“I suppose that’s a good thing,” said Emily Crockett, a Weinberg and Music fifth-year senior. “That shows that our school’s getting more notoriety.”

The Office of Undergraduate Admission hopes to enroll a total of 2,025 students in the class of 2011. NU already admitted 573 students through early decision.

Todd said NU hopes about 37 percent of accepted students will enroll at the university.

“We would much rather come in at the end and have room to admit a few students from the wait list than admit too many students and not have room for them all in the dormitories,” Todd said.

NU’s admissions office also tries to achieve an even number of enrolled men and women, with the standard in recent years being approximately 52 percent women and 48 percent men enrolled per class.

Standardized test scores and precise demographics of enrolled students will not be available until June when the class is complete, Todd said.

“We don’t necessarily know who will enroll here or at other top colleges – especially this year when we had almost 4,000 more applications than last year,” Todd said. “It makes it hard to predict who is going to enroll.”

The Office of Undergraduate Admission is expanding its reach throughout the U.S., and has seen a jump in the number of applicants from the East and West Coasts.

The state with the most enrolled students is Illinois, but California has been second for the past couple of years, Todd said.

“(Students) see that not all the colleges are out East, that one of the best colleges might be in the Midwest,” he said.

Reach Erin Dostal at [email protected].