Freshman applications to the University of Connecticut for the fall 2011 semester have increased by an extraordinary 23 percent over last year, with 28,100 prospective students applying. This most recent dramatic jump continues a nearly unbroken trend of rising application rates for UConn over the last decade; in 2001, the University received about 13,600 applications.

Lee Melvin, UConn’s vice president for enrollment management and planning, attributes the jump to more aggressive outreach to potential students and the fact that the University switched to the common application this past year, which makes it easier for students to apply to the universities that use it.

“We expected an increase of about 10 percent or so over last year, thanks to the common application,” says Melvin. “We’ve also been very active in expanding our recruitment efforts, so I expected we could do even better than that. But 23 percent is an astonishingly big jump that I certainly didn’t anticipate. It speaks very well of us.”

The academic programs that saw the largest increases in applications over last year include the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (25 percent), the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (38 percent), the School of Business (40 percent), Engineering (27 percent), Fine Arts (31 percent), Nursing (25 percent), and the ACES pre-pharmacy program (21 percent).

The bulk of the increase for 2011 came from out-of-state applications, which increased by nearly 39 percent while the in-state rate increased by 6.5 percent for the Storrs campus.

“UConn is known as being among the best public universities in nation and, just as importantly, it is also seen as being a great value in terms of cost, particularly when compared to private institutions in the region,” says Melvin.

Earlier this year, UConn was named by Kiplinger’s magazine as one of the “best value” public schools in the nation.