The University of Albany Sees Record Number of Applicants

The University at Albany has seen an increase in applicants this year, and had to limit the number of students accepted to fewer than 50 percent for the first time in over 10 years.

The university had to alter the amount of students accepted and enrolled, said Robert Andrea, UAlbany's director of admission and enrollment. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions also saw a 3 percent increase in applications.

"Our popularity is increasing," Andrea said.

With the boost in interest, the admissions office had to stop accepting applications a whole week earlier than last year.

Every year the popularity of the university grows. This year, UAlbany had over 22,000 applications, which has increased from the 21,892 that applied for the class of 2012.

The number for the class of 2013 has also attracted a much higher number of students interested in early action. Last year the number of students who applied early action was about 3,500. The class of 2013 had about 4,000 students applying early action. Early action allows applicants to apply to as many institutions as they wish and not finalize their enrollment decision until May 1, according to the UAlbany Web site.

UAlbany has also seen an increase in the academic quality of admitted students.

The average student for the class of 2013 has a high school GPA of 90.9 and an SAT score of 1178.

This has increased from the class of 2012, which had an average GPA of 90.6 and an average SAT score of 1170.

From the 4,000 students that applied early action, about one-third was wait listed, one-third was accepted, and the other one-third is denied.

"The students are not held to a higher standard. They must fit into the atmosphere," said Andrea, referring to students admitted by early action.

The class of 2013 and 2012 do have some similarities. Incoming freshman have been notorious for having "undecided" futures and a majority of them come in only with intended majors.

The intended majors among freshman has not changed either. Some of the most common majors are psychology, biology and the sciences, business and accounting, mathematics, communications and journalism, Andrea said.

The similarities don't end with intended majors.

The number of merit scholars and presidential scholarships has remained the same. The number of students receiving these awards is somewhere between 65 to 185 students.

The "target" number of students to be enrolled for the class of 2013 into the university is 2,250, Andrea said.

In previous years, enrolling more students was not a point to lose sleep over, he said. However, due to budget constraints this year has made it even more important to stay on the enrollment target.

"Last year we enrolled about 45 students over," Andrea said. "We are trying not to go over that much this year."

With the growing number of students wanted to apply to UAlbany, it seems that the student body, comprised of over 13,000 students, is not in jeopardy of seeing a decline any time soon.

By STEPHANIE WITKIN