A colorful array of magazines laid out on end tables in the Admissions Office provide visitors with a wide selection of reading material. The Admissions staff, however, will have little time for leisure reading over the next few months.
Instead, Admissions counselors will continue to spend their days scrutinizing a record number of prospective student applications.
Jim White, associate provost for enrollment management, said the office expects to see approximately 500 more new freshmen applications than Seattle U received last year.
Michael McKeon, dean of Admissions, said the number of students applying to Seattle U has increased consistently for more than a decade.
He said applications have gone up about 150 percent over the last 14 years. McKeon also said Early Action applications and Sullivan Scholar Applications were up from last year.
White said Seattle U hopes to enroll a freshmen class of 825 students, although they will offer admission to approximately 3,000 to 3,200 students.
"It's a realistic goal," said White, noting that students are often accepted by more than one university.
In 2008, Seattle U offered admission to 3,266 new freshmen students, 888 of whom enrolled.
McKeon said the university's enrollment numbers might demonstrate that Seattle U is developing into a more selective institution.
"If our applications increase or stay the same in years to come," he said, "we probably will admit a smaller percentage of those who apply."
McKeon also said Seattle U might be lowering its acceptance rates in years to come due to a shrinking pool of qualified applicants across the country.
"K-12 school systems have been starved for resources for quite some time," he said. "So there is an increase right now in the number of people graduating high school who will not be adequately prepared for college."
He added, however, that these trends are likely to impact many colleges across the nation.
"I don't think it will affect Seattle U any more than any other college or university," he said.
White said the number of transfer students applying to Seattle University for fall quarter 2009 has increased slightly from the number of students who applied by this time last year.
He added that Seattle U does not expect to encounter the same challenges the University of Washington has recently faced. UW announced last week that due to budget shortfalls, they will not admit any transfer students this spring.
"We don't have the same capacity constraints they do," White said. "The capacity challenges we see are more at the freshmen and sophomore level, but not in upper division programs."
White said it was too early to determine whether or not UW's decision would significantly impact the number of transfer students applying to Seattle U.
White also said given the economic hardship the nation is currently experiencing, paying for college will be one challenge both transfer students and new freshmen will face in the fall of 2009.
"I suspect we will see more students apply for financial aid in the fall than in years past and that will stretch the budget," he said.
Carol Cochran, the assistant dean of law school admissions, said the nationwide recession might decrease the number of students considering post-graduate education.
"It used to be that when there was a downturn in the economy, we could expect an increase in applications," Cochran said. "But education is so very expensive right now that people are reluctant to spend the extra money on school if they already have jobs."
Many undergraduates are leaving their universities already heavy in debt, Cochran said.
White said Seattle U is dedicated to providing accepted students with financial aid.
"The university is making a strong commitment to giving aide. I think it will be a high priority in the budget process," White said.
McKeon and White both feel Seattle U will continue to uphold a commitment to diversity in making enrollment decisions.
"Seattle University recognized the importance of diversity before it became in-vogue," McKeon said. "We established market share with diverse groups before other institutions did."
White added the university hopes to increase enrollment of international students in years to come.
University Provost Isaiah Crawford said he was confident in the enrollment decisions Admissions is making to select the freshmen class enrolling in 2009.
"The caliber of the students at Seattle University has been, and continues to be, quite strong," he said. "We look to continue our efforts to bring the best and brightest young people to our campus."
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