The number of applicants to San Diego State is up again this year. The 74,458 applications blew past the record set last year when the campus received 69,225 undergraduate applications.
Freshman applications to San Diego State are up 7 percent this year over last and transfer applications rose 12 percent. System wide applications to California State universities rose about 12 percent this year.
Ethan Singer, the school’s associate vice president for academic affairs, said the rise surprised him after applications jumped 15 percent last year. He pointed to the school's increasing academic prestige and said increased competition for spaces can drive the number of applications up further.
“When high schoolers find out who got in and who didn't, that selectivity become part of the feedback cycle and the university’s reputation, in some ways, grows on that basis,” he said.
More applications doesn’t mean the school’s student body will necessarily grow next year though. That all depends on how Proposition 30 revenues are distributed.
“Right now we’re assuming the same enrollment target and we really won’t have much feel beyond that until at least when the governor’s budget is released in mid-January,” Singer said.
Singer said just over a quarter of students accepted to SDSU tend to enroll the following fall.
