Northwestern received a record number of applicants for next year’s freshman class, surpassing last year’s total, university officials announced Monday.
Applications jumped 54 percent over the past three years, growing at a rate that associate provost Michael Mills in a press release called “nearly unprecedented” among the country’s top universities.
More than 25,000 high school seniors have applied for admission, an increase of about 12 percent over last year’s class of applicants. The number of applicants could still increase as officials process the last wave of applications.
Nationwide, this year’s graduating class numbers 3.32 million students, making college admissions increasingly competitive and leading to ever-larger applicant pools.
But though other universities have reported increasing numbers of students applying for admission, NU’s growth is still unusual, Mills said.
Last year, 21,941 students applied for admission, a previous record number for NU. At the time, director of undergraduate admissions Keith Todd said that NU had been expanding recruitment for years.
NU also added the Common Application for the first time in 2006, making it easier for prospective freshmen to apply.
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