By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Four of Greater Cincinnati's six major colleges and universities are reporting a record year for freshman applications. More students applying has some schools reducing acceptance rates and others getting creative with class schedules and space on campus.

The numbers are in line with national projections that say enrollment in U.S. colleges will increase 19 percent, to 18.2 million, by 2013.

"More students are applying than ever," said Marc Camille, dean of admission at Xavier University, which has received a record 4,610 applications for fall. "They're more diverse. They're coming from a wider geographic area and they're higher-achieving students."

Other Tristate schools reporting record application numbers are Northern Kentucky University (2,749), the College of Mount St. Joseph (741) and Miami University (14,865).

The University of Cincinnati welcomed its largest freshman class (4,553) in a decade last fall. This year's rate of applications is running 8 percent ahead of last year, but school officials couldn't say whether it's a record.

Several factors are contributing to the increase in applications:

• An increase in the number of high school graduates. While Ohio's numbers are projected to decline through 2013, they are expected to increase nationwide, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

• More students are submitting applications to multiple schools, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. High school counselors polled by the association in 2003 said the majority of students - 72 percent - submitted between four and nine applications for admission last year, many via the Internet.

• Colleges are getting more aggressive with tailored recruitment programs to catch the eye of prospective students. They're reaching potential applicants as early as their sophomore year of high school with glossy, highly personalized brochures and through on-demand access to student-specific information via the Internet.

"All of the schools are starting to work with students who are younger," said Peggy Minnich, director of admission at the College of Mount St. Joseph. "Each year our goals go up, but we've done a lot of strategic changes."

The Mount, which has seen a record number of applications since 2002-03, is using more technology to accommodate students who want information quickly. In addition, the school created a packet about how to afford a private education and includes scholarship information with students' acceptance letter.

Katie Cammerer, 17, a senior at Mercy High School, has been accepted to the Mount. She was attracted by small class sizes. With a student-teacher ratio of 14-1, she knew she could get the personal attention she wants.

Miami and Xavier universities will turn more students away. To keep the average class size to 22, the number of freshmen accepted at Xavier needs to be about 800, Camille said. Miami can accommodate a freshman class of 3,300 to 3,500.

As of Thursday, Miami had 14,865 applicants for 3,450 openings, a 7 percent increase over last year's record of 13,895 applications.

The school anticipated a downturn from Ohio residents because of a new tuition structure that charges every student the same rate, but then offers scholarships to in-state students to offset the cost; but they were slightly up, officials said. Out-of-state applications were up 17 percent.

"I think our recruiting strategies are responsible for the record number of applications received in each of the last two years," said Mike Mills, admission director. "We're getting better at targeting prospective students around the country of extremely high academic ability, and engaging them in dialogue about the wonderful attributes of Miami.'"

"If the applicant pool were to continue to grow, our acceptance rates would continue to fall, out of necessity," Mills said.

Xavier has also seen a record number of applications for a second straight year. School officials say 4,610 freshmen have applied to the private Jesuit school compared with 4,168 this time last year.

Camille attributes the boost to an overhaul of Xavier's recruiting methods four years ago. Like other schools, Xavier is recruiting students earlier in high school, from a broader geographic area and with more personalized material.

Omari Aarons, a freshman from Washington, D.C., chose Xavier because of the way he was recruited.

"I felt like I was wanted and that Xavier provided lots of personal attention," said the public relations and history double major.

But the strategies that brought Aarons to campus have also forced Xavier to become more selective.

"Five years ago, we were accepting 90 percent of our applicants, and this year it'll probably be 75 percent," Camille said.

South of the Ohio River, NKU has posted records at this point in the application cycle every year since 2001-02, said Joel Robinson, director of admissions. So far, NKU has received 2,749 freshman applications - 47 percent more than the 1,872 the school received at the same time in 2001. School officials say they hope at least 4,000 freshmen apply by the Aug. 1 deadline, an even greater number than last year's final tally of 3,900.

Jerry Smith, assistant vice president for enrollment management, said the school's challenge will be to put as many students qualified in the space that NKU has. What that may mean is an expansion of the classes offered on weekends or expanded use of the school's Covington campus.

"There's definitely momentum here," Robinson added. "People in new regions are starting to know who we are and the quality that NKU represents."

E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com