Undergraduate applications have increased for the first time in three years, representing the strongest applicant pool ever to apply to Georgetown, according to new statistics released about the incoming class of 2009.

Applications received for fall 2005 admission increased to 15,274, up by 3 percent from last year’s 14,837. The applicant pool remained lower than the record 15,534 received in 2002 and the 15,404 received in 2003.

Statistics indicate that this year’s pool remained the most competitive ever. Average SAT scores ranged from 1340-1520 and the average high school ranking of the class was in the 96th percentile.

Georgetown admitted 3,199 students, or 20.9 percent, of the applicants for the class of 2009.

Applications increased at every individual school except the School of Nursing and Health Studies, which saw a slight decline in applications, but still topped 500. The School of Foreign Service, whose pool expanded 10 percent from last year to 2,860 applications, saw the most growth.

The growth continues a trend dating to 2001 of increasing interest in international education by young people, John Nagle, assistant director of admissions, said.

“With a greater student interest in helping the world, applicants continue to see the School of Foreign Service as a way to do that,” he said.

Applications to the College rebounded from a 5 percent decline last year, seeing a small increase in applications, with a marked increase in interest in the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics. The McDonough School of Business saw a 6 percent increase in applications after three consecutive years of slight decreases that were due to the state of the economy and the market, Nagle said.

Georgetown admissions officers said that admissions numbers are stabilizing after growth was halted when Harvard, Yale and Stanford University opted for single-choice Early Action programs in 2003, cutting into all of Georgetown’s applicant pools.

Single-choice early action policies require that student applicants apply to only one school during the fall semester, although they are not obligated to attend the school if they are accepted.

Georgetown operates a less restrictive early action policy, allowing applicants to apply early to Georgetown and to as many other early action schools as desired.

“There is definitely more stability from last year to this year,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon (C ’64) said in a January interview. “Things are sorting out in early action and early decision programs of all universities across the nation.”

The admissions office continues to be conservative about the number of applicants it has admitted, as it will utilize the wait list to its fullest extent, Nagle said. Admissions officers are responsive to last year’s unprecedented yield of 60 percent for Early Action applicants compared to a rate under 40 percent for previous years.

“We have cut back on the acceptances so that we can take off the wait list and ultimately improve overall yield, which we wouldn’t normally be able to do with our enrollment cap due to D.C. zoning requirements,” Deacon said.

A strict enrollment cap imposed by the District of Columbia allows Georgetown little margin for error if more than 1,700 accept admission, according to Deacon.

Nagle said that close to 10 percent, or approximately 1,500, of this year’s applicants have been offered the opportunity to be a part of the wait list.

Now Georgetown will wait to hear how many students accept offers of admission, which will determine how many the university can pull off the waitlist. Georgetown typically admits numerous students off its waitlist because of the enrollment cap.

“We are very concerned about over-enrollment, which is why the waitlist is so important,” Nagle said. “There were real concerns last year about over-enrollment and almost no room to go to the waiting list to round out the class.”