The Applications Keep Coming

INSIDE HIGHER ED

Scott Jaschik

February 28, 2022

The University of California received 249,855 applications to at least one of its campuses this year, up 0.5 percent from last year’s record number of applicants. Among those from California seeking to enroll as first-year students, applications from underrepresented groups increased slightly as a proportion of the applicant pool, to 45.5 percent this year, compared to 45.1 percent last year. Latinx applications rose by 4.1 percent (1,989 more applicants), and applications from African American students rose by 2.8 percent (235 more applicants). Across the country at Florida State University, 74,000 students have applied to be freshmen in the fall, and the application deadline isn’t until March 1. Florida State is already ahead of last year’s record total of 66,033.

Florida State and the University of California are not the only campuses doing well in applications. The Common Application has released its data (nationally, not for individual colleges) through Feb. 15—and the numbers are very encouraging for colleges. The Common App is the largest application in the United States, with more than 900 members, and it releases a series of reports each year on application volume. The Common App excludes from its totals those colleges that joined in the last year, so the figures are comparable. In addition, Common App officials said that, while they will continue to provide updates, the trends in this data report will probably stand, given the timing of most application deadlines.

Through Feb. 15, 1,161,560 distinct first-year applicants had applied to 853 returning members of the Common App, an increase of 13.9 percent from 1,019,363 in 2019–20. (Due to the pandemic, many of these comparisons are from two years ago.)

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