Christopher Watson, the current director of admissions at Princeton University, has been named the new dean of undergraduate admission at Northwestern.

Michael Mills, the associate provost for university enrollment, said in a press release that Watson brought a lot of growth to Princeton’s student body.

“His efforts have enhanced Princeton’s reputation for enrolling some of the best students from around the world,” Mills said.

In recent years, NU has seen a jump in the number of applications it receives, making it more selective.

“We now compete for students against Ivy League and other high caliber schools to a greater degree than ever before,” Mills said in the release.

NU received 21,941 applications this year, up 19.3 percent from the 18,385 applications the university received for the current freshman class.

Watson joined the Princeton staff in 2000 after working at Boston University as associate director of international admissions. Watson has a master’s degree in education from Boston University.

At Princeton, Watson oversees the daily operations of the school’s undergraduate admissions office and its 53-person staff.

Watson said he’s excited to work at NU because its growing popularity will carry a lot of new challenges.

“The main challenge is to manage that popularity so that we can better track and identify students who are the best fit for Northwestern,” he said.

Watson will be replacing Carol Lunkenheimer, who became the dean of undergraduate admission in 2001 when the position was created to improve NU’s recruitment for its six undergraduate schools.

Lunkenheimer worked at NU for 26 years, and has worked in admissions for the past 37 years. She will officially retire on July 31.