Officials plan to admit fewer freshmen this year

Every year floods of applications from high school seniors around the country and the world pour in, but now more than ever, admission is getting tough.

With a 2008 freshman class of more than 7,600 students, the largest in IU’s history, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management Roger Thompson said IU will need to make some cuts.

Thompson said a big problem the University faced concerning the current freshman class was a shortage of room in the residence halls. The University wants to keep the fall’s incoming freshman class at about 7,000 students.

With the amount of freshmen being reduced by the hundreds, admission requirements are getting more strict.

Thompson said IU has received more than 32,000 applications this year, which is about 2,000 more than last year. As of right now, he said, 21,000 students have been accepted, meaning the number of rejected students is more than 10,000.

But IU is still accepting applications, Thompson said. Students can continue to apply to IU until the end of April. However, students must commit to attending the University by May 1.

The extended date gives students and their families another month to apply and ultimately decide if they want to spend the money to come to IU, Thompson said.

“We are trying to be considerate of families with the economy as it is,” Thompson said.

Along with the deadline extension, the admission standards have changed. According to the Office of Admissions Web site, incoming students are required to complete the Core 40 diploma requirements in high school.

Standards will change yet again for the incoming freshman class in 2011, adding the requirement of four semesters of a foreign language. The new requirements are causing problems for some students who are applying to IU.

“I actually got a rejection letter first,” said Megan Schwomeyer, a senior at Cloverdale High School.

Schwomeyer said she ended up taking the SATs again to improve her score. Now accepted to IU as an incoming freshman, she said this is where she wanted to come.

Thompson said the main criteria the University is considering are test scores and GPAs. Incoming freshmen will have higher test scores and GPAs than the previous freshman class. Some students said even with higher requirements, applying to IU was not as hard as other schools.

“I was applying to IU as a safety school,” said Laura Schmadel, a senior from West Morris Mendham High School in New Jersey.

Schmadel said she was confident she would get into IU, which is why she used it as a backup school. Although they need to cut down the number of admits, Thompson said the applications have never been better.

“The applicant pool is the best we have seen in years,” Thompson said. “Not only are we getting the most, we are getting the brightest.”