Undergraduate applications are up by 30 percent from 2009.

Loyola received a record-setting 4,380 applications in 2009. The university had an acceptance rate of about 60 percent while yielding about 30 to 35 percent of those accepted. This totaled 809 new students for 2009.

In 2010, Loyola plans to admit 800 first year students and 125 transfers.

The number of students the university plans to admit each year is determined by the university’s budget.

Sal Liberto, vice president for enrollment management and associate provost, said he believes Loyola has, ‘been selective in not only who we’ve selected for admission, but whom we’ve invited to apply.’

The average student admitted from last year’s class had a 26.5 ACT score, a 1200 SAT and a 3.7 GPA. Thirty percent were in the top 10 percent of their graduating class and 85 percent were in the top half.

‘We really only want students who are on the higher end of things,’ Liberto said.

‘There are a lot of positive stories coming out of New Orleans. It is kind of a hot place to be,’ he said. ‘ ‘ ‘

‘I think Loyola is telling a better story about its relationship to New Orleans. I think we have done a good job talking about how Uptown New Orleans is a section of the city that is helping to lead the other sections of the city back.’

‘I still very much believe New Orleans is like a learning laboratory,’ said university president the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J. said, ‘I think this is a truly unique moment.’

Loyola has not neglected perspective on local students, Liberto said.

‘Our local students bring so much culture and consistency to who we are,’ Liberto said.

‘We had to make sure that that was as strong as possible. Some schools have neglected the Louisiana population and we will never do that.’

On the international scale, Loyola saw a 47 percent increase in international applications from the previous year.

In order to engage prospective students, the university has scheduled more recruiting events.

‘We had a fall open house with a jazz brunch,’ Liberto said.

‘That has helped us because increasingly students are looking to submit applications earlier in the cycle and they want to be engaged earlier in the cycle so instead of just having one big event in the spring we have an event in the fall that captures what I call the early crowd.’

Another way the university has attempted to increase applications is through scholarships.

Loyola offered a $1,000 scholarship to prospective students who visited the university. This is still available.

Liberto said this was used as an incentive to increase campus visits.

‘Now that we are at the number of visits that we are happy with, I am not sure that will continue in the future,’ he said.

Liberto said he thinks Loyola is doing a better job articulating its Jesuit identity. Wildes agreed.

‘Knowing who you are and articulating who you are is helpful in terms of recruiting and admissions,’ Wildes said.

‘That way people know and they can say, ‘That is the kind of education I am looking for.’

Abbey Brandon can be reached at [email protected]

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