Around 2,840 new freshmen are expected to arrive on campus this fall, making Binghamton University’s class of 2022 its largest to date.

The class is more than 100 students larger than the class of 2021, and represents a 200-student increase from the class of 2020. The growing class sizes at the University were underscored by a 16 percent increase in applications, with the Admissions Center receiving 38,700 applications for the 2018-19 academic school year.

Cory Bremer/Design Manager
According to Krista Medionte-Phillips, the director of undergraduate admissions, the class is also one of the University’s most academically inclined.

“The incoming freshmen cohort is very strong academically and we anticipate that they will have similar or slightly higher GPA and standardized test scores when compared to last year’s freshmen,” Medionte-Phillips wrote in an email.

Medionte-Phillips said there are various reasons for the increases.

“The increase in applications is most likely due to a variety of factors and is difficult to pin down at this point,” Medionte-Phillips wrote. “Nationwide, applications were up at many selective universities. In New York, applications were up at virtually every [bachelor-granting] SUNY institution.”

Medionte-Phillips also noted that initiatives like the Excelsior Scholarship could be driving the rush of applications.

“It’s hard at this point to know how much of this may be linked to things like the growing awareness of the Excelsior Scholarship or to SUNY’s effort to make it easier for students applying through the Educational Opportunity Program, but we will probably know more in the coming months,” she wrote.

According to the communications office of the Higher Education Services Corporation of New York, the Excelsior Scholarship received 95,000 applications for the 2017-2018 academic year and an additional 8,427 for the spring 2018 semester.

The 2018-19 Excelsior Scholarship application will remain open until July 23. At the start of the initiative, students were only eligible for the scholarship if their household income was less than $100,000. However, the cap was raised to $110,000 for the 2018-19 academic year and will rise to $125,000 in 2019.

According to Medionte-Phillips, the expected freshman class is still subject to change as some incoming students may decide not to attend BU. The number will not become official until enrollment is certified after the fall semester begins.