Undergraduate applications declined for the second consecutive year, according to new statistics released about the incoming class of 2008.

Applications received for fall 2004 admission decreased to 14,837, down by 4 percent from last year’s 15,404. The applicant pool still remains higher than the 14,236 applications received in 2000, and lower than 2002’s record high of 15,534.

While Georgetown may have received 600 fewer applications than last year, statistics indicate that selectivity remains high. The average SAT range reached 1320-1510 for the incoming class and the average high school ranking of the class is in the 96th percentile.

Georgetown admitted 3,226 students, or 21.7 percent, of the applicants for the class of 2008.

Applications decreased at every school except the School of Nursing and Health Studies, which has posted increases every year since 2000. The McDonough School of Business had 350 fewer applications than the record-high in 2001 and the College was down by 1,100 since 2001. The School of Foreign Service decreased by only 17 applications since last year’s record-high.

But Georgetown’s admissions officers said that the dip in applications for this year was much smaller than expected after changes to the early application process at other elite universities dropped Georgetown’s early action applicant pool by 25 percent.

“That is the big story this year,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon said. “The very few schools that use multi-choice early action were impacted heavily by Harvard and the decision by both Stanford and Yale to switch to early action.”

Harvard switched from a policy that allows early action applicants to apply only to Harvard while Stanford and Yale moved from a binding early decision format to the non-binding early action system.

Deacon said that the drop in early action applications from 5,200 last year to 3,800 this year led to a forecast of about 14,000 applications.

“Based on that drop, I’m surprised but pleased that we ended up closer to 15,000,” he said.

Deacon also said he expected that Georgetown would see a higher yield – or percentage of students who accept admission – because there were 1,400 more students admitted during the April notification period.

Now Georgetown will wait to hear how many students accept admissions, which will determine how many the university can pull off of the waitlist. Georgetown typically admits more students off of its waitlist, Deacon said, because an enrollment cap imposed by the District of Columbia allows Georgetown little margin for error if more than 1,700 accept admission.

“We can’t afford to be overenrolled,” he said. “We have to use the waitlist all the way.”

Deacon said in any year from 75-200 students can be admitted off of the waitlist.