Applicant numbers hit record high

By Winston Yu

With applications reaching a record high this year, the university has become more selective in enrollment.

Following several years of increasing enrollment for freshman classes, tentative figures indicate that the class of 2012 will be closer to the school's target numbers than in the past, said Sandra Hayes, dean of undergraduate admissions.

"Our target for freshmen students is 1,200, so we expect that we will enroll 1,200," she said. "But the current number of deposits is 1,250."

The 1,250 students enrolled is slightly larger than the class of 2011, which numbered 1,215 students at the beginning of the school year. This is far below the record levels set by the class of 2010, which had 1,386 students and forced administrators to take measures to combat overcrowding in classes and residence halls.

"We actually for the first time ever broke through the 10,000 application hurdle," Hayes said. She added that there were 10,123 applications this year compared to about 9,450 applicants last year.

While the number of applications has gone up, the number of admitted students has continued to decrease. This allows the university to remain as close as possible to its enrollment targets.

The admission rate of 57 percent this year is the lowest it has been in recent years, Hayes said. Of the 10,123 applicants, about 5,800 received letters of admission.

The incoming class is similar to the current freshman class academically. According to Hayes, the class of 2012's average GPA of 3.63 remains the same, but their average SAT scores have increased.

Several administrative changes are in store for the class of 2012 as well, such as the new application process for entry into the Leavey School of Business.

While Santa Clara is planning to add new core curriculum requirements within the coming years, the class of 2012 will be exempt from this change.

The most applicable policy to the incoming freshmen does not allow students to readily transfer from school to school.

"Once students are admitted into whichever academic division -- whether it's business, arts and sciences or engineering -- they are not permitted to change or transfer to another academic division until they've been here at least one year," Hayes said.

Before, admitted students who had originally been placed in one school could easily request a transfer at orientation or earlier.

Furthermore, next year's tuition will be $34,950, an increase of $1,950. Tuition levels have increased by about 17 percent over the last three years.

The university is a tuition-reliant, as opposed to endowment-reliant, school.

This means that tuition is the main source for Santa Clara's operating budget.

In addition to funding the school's operating budget, 25 percent of all tuition revenue is used to fund financial aid programs for all undergraduate students.

"The university restricts its contribution to student aid for undergraduates, not just for freshmen but all undergraduates, to a 25 percent tuition discount rate," said Richard Toomey, the associate vice provost for enrollment management.

Higher tuition levels translate to a larger budget for the Office of Financial Aid.

This larger budget has allowed for the school to offer a slightly larger amount of money to the incoming class of 2012.

The office of financial aid initially offered more than $44 million in institutional, or school-based funds, to the incoming freshmen.

Typically, the offered amount will significantly decrease as individuals decline aid.

"We'll have committed to them a little bit in excess of 10 million dollars in Santa Clara funds," Toomey said.

Of the 5,800 individuals who were accepted, the number of students who were admitted from Jesuit high schools had a significant increase, jumping to 639 students this year versus 603 last year.

These students make up about 11 percent of the total admitted students.

Forty three percent of those admitted -- about 2,500 students -- come from public high schools, and the remaining 46 percent of admitted students -- about 2,650 -- come from private non-Jesuit high schools.

Contact Winston Yu at (408) 554-4546 or wyu1@scu.edu.