Freshman application numbers hit record highs this year, more than making up for a slight dip in Early Decision applications, according to preliminary numbers released by Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg on Tuesday.
The Office of Admissions received over 12,500 applications, far exceeding the previous high of 11,855 applicants for the Class of 2007.
The quality of prospective students also improved this year, with average SAT scores reaching a College-high of 1395, according to Furstenberg, who called the applicant pool "impressive" and said it put Dartmouth among the top five or six schools in the country this year.
"I thought [the number of applications we received] was going to go up -- but not this much," Furstenberg said. "The size of the increase is a bit of a surprise. Twelve thousand applications was a watershed for us."
With a target class size of 1,070 students, the increase in applications should force the overall acceptance rate down to roughly 15 percent, Furstenberg said.
Although the increased applications will undoubtedly benefit the College, the size and talent of the applicant pool will make life difficult for high-school seniors awaiting their decisions.
While this year's Early Decision application numbers dropped, the number of acceptances increased. With just under 400 of the 1,070 spaces in the Class of 2009 already taken, competition will be stiff for the remaining spots.
Furstenberg predicted that regular decision applicants will face just a 12 percent acceptance rate.
Application numbers rose in virtually every statistical category this year. Applications from students of color were up significantly from recent years, and African-American and multiracial applications were at 4-year highs. Students of color also made up a larger percentage of the applicant pool than in the last three classes, comprising almost a quarter of prospective students.
The percentage of applicants from private schools, however, decreased significantly. Most of the drop in private school applicants was made up by an increase in public school applicants. The shift is likely due to larger graduating classes at public schools this year, which contributed to the overall rise in applications, Furstenberg said.
International student application numbers soared this year, hitting an all-time high of 1,881 applications, as did applications from Asian-American and Latino students. Furstenberg called these numbers a "great result" of the office's attempts to attract more Latino applicants.
"We will have to be careful in regular decision not to admit too many students," Furstenberg said.
Dartmouth plans to accept around 1,700 students, while around 1,000 will be waitlisted. Between 20 and 30 students are typically accepted from the waiting list.
Furstenberg attributed the rise in interest for Dartmouth this year to the Admissions Office's online efforts to reach out to high-school seniors.
