Georgetown congratulated 19 percent of applicants on their acceptance to the Class of 2014 last week, according to statistics released by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

This year’s admit rate was close to last year’s more selective 18.7 percent acceptance rate. The number of applications experienced a small decline over the past year, from 18,610 to 18,070, with 6,100 of those applicants completing the early action cycle. While the size of Georgetown’s applicant pool peaked at 18,695 in 2008 and has since dropped to its current level, the number of applications remains considerably higher than in 2006, when 15,042 were received.

While application numbers for the School of Foreign Service and the School of Nursing and Health Studies fell only marginally, the most noticeable shift occurred in the College and the McDonough School of Business. The MSB experienced a 12.7 percent drop in applications this year, which translates to 366 fewer applicants.

“This year, the only major trend in undergraduate admissions was more people applying to the College and less to the MSB,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon said.

According to Deacon, the number of applicants to the College this year climbed by 10 percent. With an acceptance rate of 18.1 percent, Georgetown College had the lowest acceptance rate of the four schools. The SFS admitted 20.5 percent of applicants, the NHS 20.9 percent, and the MSB 22.3 percent. According to Deacon, the College has always had the lowest admit rate because of the breadth of its applicant pool.

Approximately 2,000 applicants were offered spots on the waitlist this year. Deacon could not anticipate the number of students the admissions office would take off the waitlist this year, but said the trend of unusually high numbers of waitlist admits could carry over from last year, when 250 students were accepted. In the three years prior to last year, the admissions office congratulated anywhere from 10 to 60 waitlisted students.

“The financial crisis was the main factor last year and that could continue to be a factor this year. Time will tell,” Deacon said.

The academic bar was set high once more for prospective students this year. Admitted students’ SAT scores averaged between a 1330 and a 1530 on the 1600 scale. Of applicants with perfect combined scores of 1600 in the math and critical reading sections, 74 percent were accepted. Of the 2,290 valedictorians who applied, 56 percent were offered a spot in the Class of 2014. Among the schools, the highest scores were from the applicants to the SFS; the average SAT score for the SFS was between 1360 and 1560. The College’s average score was between a 1330 and 1530, as compared to 1300 to 1510 for the MSB, and 1290 to 1490 for the NHS.

Deacon also emphasized the university’s commitment to recruiting higher numbers of international, minority, lower-income and first-generation students.

According to Deacon, 56 countries are represented in the admitted class, and at least three or more applicants were accepted from each of the 50 U.S. states. The state with the highest number of admitted students is California, home to 338 of those accepted to the Class of 2014.

Deacon noted a dramatic increase in the number of students applying from China this year, adding that the pool of international applicants is led by Chinese, Korean and British students.