By the Numbers:

12,919 applicants this year

70 percent acceptance rate

18,000 student enrollment target

21 percent yield rate

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Worried that Marquette will be overrun by record numbers of incoming freshmen this fall? Well, worry no more, because the number of freshmen enrolled at Marquette will remain the same as it has been for several years.

For the past seven years, Marquette has received record numbers of freshman applicants. Each year, there are more applicants than the last, with this year's total coming to 12,919. This is 16 percent higher than last year, according to Roby Blust, dean of undergraduate admissions.

The admissions office must then sift through the applications and decide how many freshmen to accept based on an expected "yield" of students.

Anne Deahl, associate provost for enrollment management, said the yield is the percentage of people accepted who actually enroll at Marquette, and that number has been decreasing in recent years.

"Many students apply to five or six schools, but can only go to one," said Deahl.

According to Deahl, because the yield decreased from 34 percent to 21 percent, the university must accept more students to achieve the same enrollment goal as in previous years.

Marquette's acceptance rate is about 70 percent, Blust said.

"The yield number that enroll has gone down the last couple of years, so we have to make adjustments to the number accepted," he said.

Jim McMahon, assistant vice president and dean of residence life, said the number of students in the residence halls has remained steady for the past few years.

"Before Abbotsford was converted into a freshman dorm, some students were placed in lounges and other temporary housing," McMahon said.

Currently, there are 3,350 students living in residence halls, he said, with 800 incoming freshmen listing Abbotsford as their first choices for housing.

According to Blust, Marquette has been consistent with enrollment, keeping classes of incoming freshmen near the enrollment target of 1,800 students.

The enrollment target is based on space in residence halls, classrooms, activities and clubs, events and other factors, Blust said.

According to George O'Loughlin of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, in 2005 Marquette enrolled 1,780 students. Other Jesuit universities of comparable size enrolled about the same number of freshmen, according to the association's data.

While the number of students applying to Marquette has increased, the number of students accepted changes from year to year in order to retain a consistent yield. But the number of students who enroll and attend Marquette as freshmen will remain the same, Blust said.

"Admissions is not an exact science," said Deahl. "We have to admit a lot of students and then guess how many will come here."

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