Of that number, 20,949 students applied for Early Decision/Early Action, a five percent increase from last year, which at the time was largest early applicant pool in University history, said John W. Buckley, associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment.

Buckley said the growth in the early pool included strong gains from students in California, where 1,477 applied this year, as compared to 1,271 last year, and Texas, where 588 applied, compared to 514 last year. Both are markets that the University has been actively cultivating in recent years.

The numbers also indicate that the shift toward more students filing early is continuing, he said.

“You’d like to believe that those who are applying early are more keenly interested in the university and, at the same time, they tend to be students who are also well prepared,” Buckley said.

“It’s nice to have the opportunity to work with these students earlier in the cycle. You can then strongly encourage them to visit campus and dive into the rich information we have on the website.”

The 11,289 early applicants who applied to Fordham and successfully passed through the selection process are academically talented. The mean GPA for the early admits is just shy of 3.8 (on a 4.0 scale) and their mean testing stands at 1405, a 13-point increase over last year.

As a sign of Fordham’s emergence as a truly global institution, for the third consecutive cycle, more than 6,000 international students have applied for admission to the Class of 2022.

Of that number, 19,859 students applied for Early Decision/Early Action, a two percent increase from last year and the largest early applicant pool in University history, said John W. Buckley, associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment.

The students who applied to Fordham and successfully passed through the selection process were strong academically. The mean GPA for the early admits is just shy of 3.8 (on a 4.0 scale) and their mean testing stands at 1392.

The University admitted applicants from 49 states and more than 50 countries.

International applications continued to climb for the Class of 2021. Almost 2,000 international students sought early admission. Just two years ago, that number was less than 1,500. Fordham experienced the most representative application activity from China, India, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Buckley said the high school students who applied to Fordham also tended to be leaders and have been actively involved in community service in their secondary years. For many of these applicants, the University’s impressive track record of service provides meaningful opportunities to make a difference, he said, adding that more than 4,000 Fordham undergraduates were involved in volunteer work last year.

“Students have often said that they feel like they can get the best of two worlds here,” he added. “The inherent strengths of the University are attractive to prospective students who are seeking a high quality collegiate experience coupled with all that New York has to offer.”

“Our applicants find it appealing that we have distinct campuses with their own personalities with remarkable facilities. We also provide amazing experiential learning opportunities through our extensive internship programs.”

The Office of Undergraduate Admission connects with more than 400,000 prospective students annually through various outreach campaigns. During fall travel season, admission counselors visit more than 500 secondary schools both across the country and around the globe.

The University has focused much of its recruitment efforts on encouraging students and their families to visit campus in order to get a firsthand experience and interact with faculty, staff and current students.  Last year, more than 47,000 admissions guests visited Fordham, according to Buckley.

“We manage a significant volume of visitors, but also do our best to provide guests with a personal Fordham experience,” said Buckley.

This year’s total of 44,343 applications, which came from all 50 states and more than 125 countries, is a 5 percent total increase from the previous year’s cycle and also represents the 25th consecutive cycle of application growth, said Associate Vice President for enrollment John W. Buckley.

International student applications in particular showed pronounced growth. Applications climbed to 4,332 from 3,690, a 17 percent increase from last year.

“In addition to the inherent strengths of the University, international students love our location in New York City,” Buckley said. “It’s a global city, and students from diverse backgrounds find it very appealing.”

Another milestone was the reintroduction of the early decision option for hopeful applicants. Students who apply in this category commit to enrolling at Fordham if they are accepted. Another early program category, early action, also allows students to apply before the regular deadline but without binding them to enroll.

Because of the success of the early action program, the Office of Admissions reinstated the early decision option for the first time in more than 15 years.

More than 19,000 students applied under the early action or early decision options, Buckley said, which marked another record for Fordham. Applications were due Nov. 1 and students were notified of acceptance decisions just prior to the winter holidays.

“We’ve built strong relationships with guidance counselors nationally and abroad. I think we do a very strong job of encouraging students to visit campus, and when they visit campus we provide them with a good experience,” Buckley said.

“Our number of visitors this year was record volume. We had lots of people coming through on tours, information sessions, and open houses, which I think is critically important as part of the college search process, because it allows students and families to have a firsthand experience [of Fordham].”

Buckley said that the admissions department is currently aiming for a total of 2,135 students to enroll in the Class of 2020.

Regular decision applications were due Jan. 1. Students will be notified of the decision by April 1.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, laid out the challenges that face Fordham, and the University’s plans to confront them, at the 16th Annual Faculty Convocation.

“The state of the University is pretty good, but the environment in which we operate is more and more challenging every year,” he told faculty and administrators on Sept. 15 at the McGinley Ballroom.

“We could not achieve greatness with out your vision, creativity, and generosity of heart.”

For this year’s report, Father McShane concentrated his remarks on the University’s admissions, finances, and physical plant, with specific attention given to the dramatic transformation of the Lincoln Center campus.

On the former, the University’s Graduate School of Business has seen robust gains in enrollment, while enrollment at the Graduate School of Social Service has been steady. Other graduate schools, such as Law, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Graduate School of Education, have seen an erosion of enrollment, however.

Undergraduate admissions have been a bright spot at the Lincoln Center campus, where a brand new residence hall and law school building opened this fall. Fueled by greater-than-expected interest in the Gabelli School of Business’ inaugural cohort at Lincoln Center, the University increased the size of its incoming class by 250 students, he said.

In addition to noting the Class of 2018 features more students from the top 10 percent of their high school class, Father McShane said it has a higher percentage of African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians than in previous years. Continuing the University’s trend toward becoming a global institution, the Class of 2018 also saw a 21 percent increase in its international student enrollment.

On finances, Father McShane reported on the success of Excelsior | Ever Upward | The Campaign for Fordham, which closed in March at $540 million. The successful campaign had a significant effect on the University’s ability to expand its physical plant, offer financial aid, and shore up its endowment, which currently stands at $702 million—up from $621 million last year and $548 million the year before that.

The additions of McKeon Hall and the new law school building at the Lincoln Center campus, and the renovation of Hughes Hall at the Rose Hill campus are the most obvious examples of the University’s drive to add sorely needed academic space. Prior to their construction, he said, it had been 40 years since new academic space had been built. When the University renovates the old law school building and takes control of the former College Board building across the street at 45 Columbus Ave. that it bought last year, it will have added 570,000 square feet to the campus.

To pay for the new construction and operations at Lincoln Center, the University relied on $200 million from the sale of two properties on Amsterdam Avenue and funds raised in the capital campaign.

The $250 million price tag of the building is worth it, he said, because such a structure can help attract students from far afield.

“McKeon Hall has 430 beds. Those 430 beds will enable Fordham College at Lincoln Center and a small cohort at Gabelli to attract students from distant markets, and thereby lessen our dependence on the market in the Northeast, where the numbers are shrinking,” he said.

“We saw this as a strategic move that will enable us to stabilize ourselves as we move into the future.”

With the old law school building now open to other schools and departments, a reallocation of space can happen at the Lowenstein Center, where Father McShane joked, “Life was lived on elevators.”

Going forward, he announced the creation of a rolling University Planning Committee that eschews the traditional “once-and-for-all 10-year plan.” Ten years ago, he noted, few would have predicted the exponential rise of massive open online courses (MOOC’s), the pressure on colleges from state and federal governments, or the various emergent fields in technology and medicine.

“Strategic planning in an ongoing way will give us the agility that we need not only to stay even, but to move ahead in terms of quality and in terms of programming,” he said.

Other University achievements include:

-Several schools rose or retained places in this year’s U.S. News and World Report rankings. The Graduate School of Social Service is ranked No. 11 in the country, while Fordham Law rose two places, to No. 36., and received high marks for its intellectual property, clinical training, dispute resolution, and part-time programs. Bloomberg Businessweek named the Gabelli School of Business the 38th-best undergraduate school in the country, up from 40.

-Last year, students won 13 Fulbrights for a total of 101 in the last decade (making Fordham one of the top Fulbright producers in the nation), one Boren award, a Gates-Cambridge scholarship, a Truman Fellowship, and a Beinecke Scholarship.

-Fordham faculty carry $53.1 million in multiyear grant funding, and this year, 78 of the faculty received faculty fellowships and 45 received research grants, representing total University support of $4,848,000. Across the schools, faculty members published 261 books and 454 scholarly articles.

Early action applications to the Gabelli School of Business (GSB) for the 2012-2013 academic year increased by 30 percent over the previous year’s total.

The jump from 2,004 to 2,616 was caused largely by Gabelli’s rising profile and innovative programming, as well as the tendency of some students to seek a business education during uncertain economic times, said John W. Buckley, associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment.

“The recent, substantive donations to Gabelli went a long way toward people realizing that GSB is going to have resources,” Buckley said. “Also, visitors have seen the tangible changes happening at Hughes Hall. It’s clear that there will be an outstanding business facility in the heart of the campus.”

Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., dean of Gabelli, said the jump in early applications is an indication that the school is quickly becoming a business school of choice—thanks to the strength of its programs, faculty and alumni network.

“People are discovering the innovations we have added to our curriculum over the last several years,” Rapaccioli said. “Those advances in business education—combined with our location in New York and the opportunities we offer for internships and hands-on learning—are making us an ever-more attractive destination.”

On the whole, the University experienced 12 percent growth in early action requests, from 10,111 applications in 2011-2012 to 11,309 this year.

Overall, applications have increased by 8 percent at the undergraduate colleges—from 30,438 last year to 32,752 for this year as of Jan. 17. This represents the 21st consecutive cycle of application growth at Fordham.

“The volume and strength of the Fordham’s undergraduate pool are signs of the University’s growing reputation in both domestic and international markets,” Buckley said.