A men's basketball Final Four appearance, campus beautification and the new core curriculum spurred a 15 percent increase in applications to the university this year.

Marquette has received 9,551 applications from students moving on from high school, according to the most recent figures. The number has steadily risen since the 1998 total of 5,843. In 1999 Marquette received 6,925 applications. The number then took a slight dip to 6,915 applications in 2000. The number has increased every year since, growing to 6,954 in 2001, 7,593 in 2002 and 8,232 in 2003 according to numbers provided by the office of the provost. The numbers also showed that Marquette increased the number of applicants accepted over the past three years.

Marquette has also seen its yield percentage, the number of students accepted to the university divided by the number of students who actually enroll at Marquette, steadily drop in the same seven-year span. The number is down almost 7 percent from 34.3 percent in 1998 to 27.7 percent last year.

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Robert Blust said there is a need to be more selective when looking at the applications.

"Our plan is to accept 6,000 of the students who apply," Blust said. "So far we have accepted around 5,800. Generally we have three people look over the applicant's file. There usually has to be a unanimous decision amongst the three — however, any serious debate will come to me and I would make the final call."

Blust said there are several things that are most important to him when looking over an applicants file.

"I look for three main things when looking over an applicant's file — leadership roles, diversity and academic quality," Blust said. "More specifically, when we talk about academic quality we mean the grades day in and day out, the strength of the classes the applicant is in and trends in grades. Are the grades going from good to bad or bad to good? That is a big question we ask and look at."

Another issue tied to the record number of applications is how to house all the new incoming students. Dean of Residence Life Jim McMahon does not anticipate a shortage of beds to sleep in any time soon.

"We will be adding 49 more living spaces over the summer and that should comfortably house the 1,800 students we expect to see next semester," McMahon said. "We will be converting some spaces in Mashuda and Cobeen over the summer. It will be minor construction and it will be done well before the students get back. But we should not have to take on any temporary housing for students as we have sometimes had to in the past."

It is expected that 1,800 students will actually choose to enroll at Marquette after they are accepted.

Associate Provost of Enrollment Management Anne Deahl attributed the record number of applications to the growing campus and community.

"There is a plethora of reasons for us receiving so many applications," Deahl said. "We have made a significant academic change with our core curriculum, we have a brand new dental facility, and the Raynor just opened this year. Of course, the men's basketball team gave us a lot of publicity with their trip to the Final Four last year, too. And although our men's team wouldn't be a deciding factor in most people's decisions to come to Marquette, it at least gets people investigating the school and what we have to offer.

"Overall there is just a very positive buzz about Marquette right now."

The potential cut off date for eligible applications was Monday, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, although it may be shifted to a later date.