Emory received 15,549 applications for its undergraduate program this year, down 51 from last year. The accepted students, 0.2 percent fewer than last year, maintain the same academic standards exhibited by previous classes, admissions officials say.

4,444 students — or 28.6 percent of applicants — were officially admitted on April 1, compared to the 28.8 percent accepted last year. The 4,444 students accepted were out of a pool of 15,549 applicants, down 51 from the year before.

Although the decrease is not as severe as last year’s 10.5 percent decrease in number of applicants from 17,448 to 15,600, the drop comes at a time when other elite universities around the nation, including Harvard University, Stanford University, Duke University and Brown University, are gaining hundreds and even thousands of additional applicants.

The 2010 pool of accepted students is also less diverse than those from previous years.

A difference of 51, Dean of Admissions Jean Jordan wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel, is “hardly something that we will spend a lot of time worrying about.”

“We had an exceptional applicant pool this year and judging by the number of registrants for our on-campus programming thus far, a very interested group of students,” Jordan said. “We would certainly rather celebrate that than having more applications from students who are not truly interested in all Emory has to offer.”

Admissions officers look for students who are both willing to give to and take from the Emory community, Jordan wrote. In addition to looking for students who will excel academically, she wrote, the University looks for those who will add to the community through extracurricular involvement on and off campus.

“Certainly, we are looking for students who are academically excellent and will contribute to our community of scholars... but we are also looking for students who will add to our community outside the classroom,” she explained.

Fifty-six percent of admitted applicants applied for financial aid, according to Director of the Office of Financial Aid Dean Bentley, a rate comparable to last year’s percentage.

“As we approached this year’s freshman season, [University President James W. Wagner] reaffirmed Emory’s commitment to need-blind admission and commitment to meet 100 percent of demonstrated financial need for domestic undergraduate students attending traditional programs,” Bentley wrote.

Financial aid packages include a combination of institutional, federal and state grants, scholarships, work-study and loans, according to Bentley.

The prospective class of 2014 yields an average unweighted GPA of 3.84, the same average as last year’s class and an average SAT score of 1399, surpassing last year’s average score of 1394. ACT score average remained the same at 31.

46 percent of last year’s class was non-white, while 40.6 percent of this year’s class are minority and international students. Women make up 58.4 percent of the accepted class.

The top five states represented in next year’s pool are Georgia, Florida, New York, California and Texas.

— Contact Alice Chen.