Only a small percentage of applicants to the Class of 2012 will clinch a spot at Stanford in the fall, but even those who are not admitted will hold a spot in the record books. As of Tuesday’s count, the 24,693 applicants from around the world constitute the largest application pool in University history.

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Though Stanford's 24,693 applicants to the Class of 2012 is the highest number in University history, the three percentage change from last year is lower than many of the University's peer institutions, like Harvard, which experienced a 19 percent jump in applications. #gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/8400
Alexander Naruhiko Chee

Though Stanford's 24,693 applicants to the Class of 2012 is the highest number in University history, the three percentage change from last year is lower than many of the University's peer institutions, like Harvard, which experienced a 19 percent jump in applications.

According to Director of Admission Shawn Abbott, the number of applicants represents a three percent increase from last year’s 23,958 Stanford hopefuls.

“It’s impossible to pinpoint a specific reason why we continue to experience an increase in applications,” Abbott said in an email to The Daily. “We’d like to think it’s because of our significantly beefed-up outreach efforts. But it may also be because more students file multiple applications than ever before.”

Outreach efforts have indeed increased, with University admission representatives visiting over 100 metropolitan areas in 2007, along with colleagues from Georgetown, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard.

While admission to Penn experienced a relatively small percentage increase like Stanford, Harvard saw a 19 percent rise in applications, receiving 27,278 as of Jan. 16, according to The New York Times. Other schools with double-digit increases included the University of Chicago, Amherst, Northwestern and Dartmouth.

According to admission officers from across the country, a number of factors have contributed to this increase in applications, including increasingly available online applications and outreach efforts from universities. Furthermore, the number of graduating high school seniors will peak in 2009 at 3.2 million.

Abbott said there are two reasons the three percent increase in Stanford applications does not compare to the surges at other schools — the first of which is Stanford’s inaugural use of the Common Application. In the past, a student would only have to submit a basic information form to be considered an applicant, but the Common Application requires both the information form and a supplement.

The second reason Abbott cited was the new deadline for applications, pushed back from mid-December to Jan. 1.

“Moving the deadline affected our application numbers this year, as we no longer have ‘phantom applicants’ in our pool — those who filed an application with Stanford but were admitted early decision elsewhere back in December,” Abbott said.

Currently, no major change in admission recruitment or policy is being planned. In fact, Abbott said he was pleased Stanford did not receive a double-digit increase in applications.

“Any increase in applications only impedes access to Stanford and increases the level of competition for admission that already necessitates that we deny more than 90 percent of those who apply,” Abbott said, referring to those who will be denied admission as “thousands and thousands of applicants who are more than qualified.”