St. John’s accepted over 18,000 new freshmen students for this upcoming semester after receiving more than 40,000 applications for the 2008-2009 school year.

The Office of Admissions reports the number is an increase over the initial 30,000 students they calculated applied to St. John’s during a February survey.

The influx of applicants has marked St. John’s as having the largest increase in freshmen applications among colleges and universities in New York City this year, according to a University release.

“This year we accepted 18,508 new students and of that number 2,413 are international students and about 30 percent are from out of state.

In all we received 40,633 applications, not a lot of schools can say they have that kind of interest,” said Karen Vahey, director of the Office of Admissions.

The number of accepted students is an increase compared to the over 15,000 students who were accepted for the 2007-2008 school year.

Despite the number of applicants, only about 3,000 students enrolled for Fall 2007 and the number is expected to stay about the same this semester, according to Vahey.

“I don’t see class sizes changing too much this year and if there is a change it won’t be exuberantly large,” Vahey said.

She also added that the number of accepted students for this year is evenly split between resident students and commuter students, with no group being larger than the other.
This is an issue that has raised many concerns with commuter students who feel forgotten amidst all the events and activities provided for the growing population of resident students.

“Sometimes I feel there are differences between resident students and commuter students,” said senior Lexi Torres. “For example, a few months ago there was an event for students and it started at 10 p.m., which was easy for dorm students to attend but for me, a commuter, it was difficult because I take transportation to go home and it’s not safe to go home at 12 a.m. or 1 a.m.”

The increase of applicants has also raised questions over housing space but Resident Life is confident there will be
no problems.

“We’ve added 180 new beds this year in St. Vincent’s Hall for freshmen alone and the new Townhouses by Gate 1 will provide accommodations for upperclassmen only,” said Dominic Petruzzelli, director of Residence Life.

Petruzellis also said that Resident Life will incorporate both resident students and commuter students in its annual Move-In Weekend with the goal of fostering a sense of unity between new students.

“This year all freshmen are invited to take part in Move-In Weekend activities and events. We’ve planned an activities fair, a shopping mall trip, a movie night, a day of service, and a few other activities we hope everyone will take part of,” Petruzelli said.

Although the exact number of students enrolled for the new school year is still unknown, it is expected that the number of freshmen applicants could rise. St. John’s follows a rolling admissions policy and is still accepting enrollment and housing deposits.

According to Vahey, the final number of students enrolled will be known in the fall but with over 18,000 students accepted, the number enrolling may
also rise.