1,991 students apply for spring semester; acceptance rate not yet known
The university received 1,991 applications for next semester, up about 5 percent from last year, when 1,891 students applied, according to Connie Scrivens, Admissions' associate director for marketing and recruiting.
How many of those applicants will be admitted is not yet clear, said Scrivens, as the department awaits the receipt of its fall transcripts, but remaining decisions should be made in early January before classes begin.
The jump appears to follow in a trend of increases to college enrollment nationwide and to the number of applications to USC.
Scrivens also speculated that the late 2007 introduction of the Bridge Program, which allows students to transfer to USC after enrolling in one of the state's 16 technical colleges, has increased transfer applications.
"We've offered support through the Bridge Program to help students across the state understand what it takes to get into USC," Scrivens wrote in an email. "We believe this sustained effort has contributed to an overall increase in the number of transfer students who apply to Carolina and are able to enroll."
The increase doesn't necessarily predict comparable growth in freshman applications for next fall; the deadline for those applicants is Dec. 1.
"[The] two applicant pools for the two terms are really separate streams, separate pools of applicants with separate reasons for starting college," Scrivens said.
Transfer applications for this past spring increased by 15 percent, while the number of students who applied to be in the current freshman class grew by just 6 percent, according to university publications.
Freshman applications for the spring term did not see such an increase, as 314 students applied for spots next semester.
"Typically, on average, we have about 300 freshmen apply for the spring term," Scrivens said, "so this year's number of freshman applications is right in line with where it's been in recent years."