After only a week of accepting applications, the number of prospective California State University students has almost doubled since last year.
The official CSU application submission Web site, CSU Mentor, received 66,399 applications from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, while last year, only 35,020 students applied during the same first-week period, according to a CSU press release.
This isn’t the first time CSU Mentor saw a spike in the numbers of applications within the past week. When the CSU system began accepting applications Oct. 1, a record 25,000 applications were submitted within the first 24 hours, compared to last year’s 9,950 applications.
So far, upper-division transfer students comprise more than 33,000 of the applications, or more than half of the applications submitted. The second largest group of applications were submitted by first-time freshmen and the remaining applications from prospective graduate students.
CSU Media Relations Specialist Erik Fallis said the increase in applicants may have been the result of outreach efforts in past semesters.
“We have been working with community partners and the media,” he said. “Community colleges may have more students applying because they are more prepared. There are certain units they need to come into one of our schools and we have been working with these colleges to make sure these students are aware of how to transfer.”
Incoming enrollment for next school year will continue to be limited for at least 12 of the university’s 23 campuses.
“CSUs have been advising students to apply early and to have a backup plan that may include applying to multiple CSU campuses, as well as local community colleges and other university systems,” Fallis said.
On July 9, the CSU system announced that very few applications will be accepted for spring 2010. It encouraged students to apply in the fall during the priority application period — Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 — to gain a better chance of getting into the CSU of their choice for next school year.
After Nov. 30, impacted universities, including Cal State Long Beach, may require higher admission criteria or even stop accepting applications, depending on how impacted the CSU system is.
Students who submit applications to any CSU during the priority period will each have an equal opportunity.
“Applications completed before Nov. 30 will be reviewed for admission with no advantage given based on when the applications were submitted,” Fallis said.
However, priority admission will still take place within each campus, where prospective students who live in a certain radius around a CSU may have a greater chance of attending that university than a student from another city.
“Some students have work or have families and can’t leave their home to attend a CSU that’s far away, so our universities work with their local services to meet their enrollment target,” Fallis said.
CSULB’s local students would include those who attended high school in Long Beach, Long Beach City College or a college in the Coast Community College district.
CSULB Director of Admissions Marie Alford said, “Students in local [Long Beach] areas are not judged competitively. They simply need to meet the minimum requirements. However, this only applies to applications for non-impacted majors.”
Students who choose to apply to CSULB under an impacted major must meet stricter requirements.
“[CSULB] puts applications to impacted majors in a pool where GPA and test scores are considered in order to come to our university,” Alford said.
As of Monday, CSULB received 9,600 fall 2010 applications, compared to 6,510 applications submitted for fall 2009 during the first week.
Alford also encouraged students not to wait until the application deadline to apply.
“Due to high volume, students applying close to the deadline may experience delays on the CSU Mentor Web site,” she said.