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Rutgers applications rise

Applications to Rutgers University surged this year, with school officials citing entrance into the Big Ten athletic conference - and the corresponding nationwide exposure - as the major driver for the 11 percent increase in first-year applications.

Applications to Rutgers University surged this year, with school officials citing entrance into the Big Ten athletic conference - and the corresponding nationwide exposure - as the major driver for the 11 percent increase in first-year applications.

Across the university, Rutgers had 37,459 freshman applications, up from 33,717 in 2014, 33,545 in 2013, and 31,842 in 2012.

The increases are spread across the New Brunswick, Newark, and Camden campuses, and mirror a rise officials expect to see in transfer applications by the end of summer.

New Brunswick, the largest campus, saw a 10.66 percent increase in first-year applications, while Newark had an 11.90 percent rise.

Camden, the smallest campus, had a 12.38 percent increase in freshmen applications.

The first-year application numbers are as of June 26, the most recent data available. Rutgers admissions officials said the first-year application numbers will likely change very little at this point in the summer; transfer applications, which operate on a later schedule, will continue to rise.

"The applications were very strong this year. We had significant increases in out-of-state interest and out-of-country applicants," said Courtney McAnuff, the university's vice president for enrollment management.

Across the university, first-year applications from international students increased 41.12 percent, to 4,245.

The increase in out-of-state interest, McAnuff said, is likely due not to more marketing but to exposure from the move to the powerhouse Big Ten. Sporting events include advertising for the university, and the increased name recognition particularly boosted interested in the Midwest, McAnuff said.

Before Rutgers entered the Big Ten, "I suspect that if you are from Michigan, you couldn't tell me specifically where Rutgers was, whether it's New Jersey or New York or Connecticut," he said.

The rise in interest in Rutgers means increases for all campuses and their academic schools. With one application (and fee), students applying to the university select up to three schools across the various campuses.

A vast majority of college-bound New Jerseyans - about 90 percent, McAnuff said - apply to Rutgers, but often not as a first-choice school. That has contributed to New Jersey's well-known "brain drain" reputation as the country's biggest exporter of students, sending a net total of about 30,000 students to colleges in other states each year.

For Rutgers, gauging genuine interest also was made more difficult by the ease of applying to multiple campuses.

That's beginning to change, McAnuff said.

"We're seeing a shift . . . to being more of a choice for many of those kids," he said. "People are realizing it's an affordable alternative. Many families, especially in South Jersey, and others who often consider leaving the state, are really thinking about it differently now."

Across the university, about 35.3 percent of admitted freshmen have committed to enrolling, up from 34.1 percent last year. All three geographic campuses have seen increases in that yield percentage.

That is particularly important for Rutgers-Camden, which is trying to increase its enrollment numbers over the next few years. Like other South Jersey schools - Stockton University in Galloway and Rowan University in Glassboro - Rutgers-Camden has been expanding its geographic footprint, adding graduate programs and increasing its undergraduate enrollment.

"We're trying to get about a 5 percent increase in enrollment each year," said Mary Beth Daisey, the campus' associate chancellor for student affairs. "We don't want to grow so fast that we can't accommodate them."

Last fall, Rutgers-Camden had about 4,900 undergraduate students, and 58.8 percent were transfer students. New Jerseyans made up 96.5 percent of all undergraduates at Rutgers-Camden.

While Rutgers-Camden will continue to serve transfer students - an important part of administrators' focus on affordability and access - it will seek to raise its number of undergraduate students who come in as freshmen, Daisey said.

"To get the full Rutgers-Camden experience, having all four years, we can do more with them. . . . It gives us that much more momentum with the students, more time with them," she said.

To continue the growth, Daisey said, Rutgers-Camden will look to social media and working more closely with high school counselors. And a new head of enrollment management will start soon at Rutgers-Camden, with a focus on raising application numbers.

"We've been working with New Brunswick and Newark to distinguish each campus," Daisey said, "trying to make a complex system a little simpler for the applicants, just trying to make it easier. And Rutgers is complicated."