Someone get an eraser.
Undergraduate applications for the Class of 2007 broke almost every record on the books this year as 16,656 high school seniors applied for admittance-eclipsing last year's record by more than 750.
Overall, the applicants set benchmarks in almost every category, including international applications, SAT scores, financial aid requests, individual minority applications and a host of others.
The high total comes in a year during which early decision numbers declined about 10 percent.
"The University has been very supportive of us," Director of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag said of the numbers. "They have given us the resources to do more recruitment both on campus and off campus, and I think we are seeing some of the dividends of that."
Guttentag added that the uptick in applicants can be partially attributed to continued progress in the recruitment of international students, who as of last year were able to apply for need-based financial aid.
"There is an entire slew of applicants now that we simply couldn't consider two years ago," he said. A total of 1,364 foreign students applied, up 164 over 1,200 in 2002. Two years ago, only 712 foreign students applied.
Also noteworthy was a decline in the number of applicants from the Carolinas, a group that witnessed a large upswing in 2002 in part due to Sept. 11.
"The fact that we could see the level of increase we saw this year in spite of the fact that we saw a decrease in one of the areas responsible for the increase last year is really a reflection of a much broader response to our recruitment efforts," he said.
Guttentag noted the easiest method of evaluation of overall applicants before actually reading the applications--SAT scores--suggests a significantly stronger pool than last year.
Duke received nearly double the number of applicants who scored a perfect 1600 on their SATs--199 this year, 103 last year; 2,405 applicants had SAT scores above 1500, compared to 2,015 last year and 1,867 the year before; 4,300 had board scores above 1450, compared with 3,900 in 2002 and 3,600 in 2001.
"I've been receiving feedback from the admissions officers as they were reading, and from what they've been saying, this seems to be a step up," Guttentag said.
Both undergraduate schools received a record number of applicants this year: 13,933 for Trinity College and 2,723 for the Pratt School of Engineering.
Minority applications also hit new highs, specifically Asian and Asian Americans at 3,251 and black applicants at 1,572.
"We've been working hard in a lot of venues and for a good while to increase minority representation at Duke," Guttentag said. "The progress that we've made in the last 15 years is real."
About 5,200 high school seniors applied online, and 66 percent of the applicants indicated that they are going to apply for financial aid.
University officials are targeting a class of between 1625 and 1630, but they said it could reach as high as 1640. Four-hundred seventy-five applicants have already been accepted via early decision, and to fill the remaining spots, Guttentag expects to accept about the same 3,700 regular decision applicants as last year.
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