Jan. 1 was the final deadline for most college applications to schools in the United States. While the current class of high school seniors anxiously waits for envelopes in the mail or emails in their inboxes about their future educational options, some are already receiving answers from institutions that they applied to Early Action (EA) or Early Decision (ED).

Students who applied EA or ED to Fordham received an answer on Dec. 19. The Observer recently obtained the demographic data for students accepted through these programs. The information follows a recent trend: Fordham continues to accept higher-achieving and more diverse students every year, indicating Fordham is becoming a more competitive institution in terms of admissions.

Overall, Fordham has accepted 3 percent more students than at this time last year, up nearly 600 students across Fordham College and the Gabelli School of Business at both the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses.

Breaking it down by campus, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) only saw a 1 percent increase in acceptances while the Gabelli School of Business (GSB) at Rose Hill saw a 2 percent decrease. The majority of growth in acceptances occurred at Lincoln Center, where Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) saw an 11 percent hike in acceptances and GSB at Lincoln Center an even steeper 15 percent rise.

However, those fearing more competition for dorm space shouldn’t be particularly worried — the growth is due mostly to the acceptance of new commuting students. EA and ED acceptances for residents only saw a 2 percent increase across all campuses, while commuter acceptances saw a notable 20 percent increase from last year.

The Lincoln Center campus’s growth was higher across the board, but kept with this general pattern. At FCLC in particular, resident acceptances are up 10 percent from last year and up 31 percent for commuting students. However, since these are only the ED and EA numbers, there is still a lot of room for the dorming conversation to change moving forward.

Ethnic and national diversity across both campuses will likely grow as well.

At both campuses, the university saw a prominent 19 percent increase in students of two or more races compared to last year, keeping with the growing trend of more racially-mixed students at Fordham (150 more acceptances than last year and nearly 250 more acceptances than two years ago). These students were fairly well distributed across all undergraduate colleges. Asian students were accepted as the next largest overall increase — 12 percent across both campuses, but were much more focused at Lincoln Center than Rose Hill (up 4 percent at FCRH and 9 percent at GSB at Rose Hill versus a 24 percent increase at FCLC and 33 percent at GSB at Lincoln Center).

Hispanic students represented the third largest increase — 9 percent across all reported programs — primarily due to increased acceptances at FCLC (up 16 percent) and GSB at Rose Hill (up 19 percent). FCRH Hispanic acceptances only grew 3 percent, while GSB at Lincoln Center went up 8 percent, more in line with the overall growth average.

The next largest population increases were both 7 percent, for nonresident/international students, as well as students of unknown races. Again, Lincoln Center saw a higher concentration of growth compared to Rose Hill. In fact, GSB at Rose Hill even saw a slight decrease in both groups.

Acceptances for black students only saw an overall 2 percent increase, but surprisingly were down in all programs besides FCLC. FCRH saw a 1 percent drop, GSB at Rose Hill was down 4 percent and GSB at Lincoln Center was down 2 percent, while FCLC saw a 15 percent rise in accepted black students. Overall, white students saw a 2 percent decrease, falling 3 percent at FCRH and 7 percent at GSB at Rose Hill. Acceptances for white students grew 8 percent at GSB at Lincoln Center and 4 percent at FCLC.

Both the American Indian/Alaska Native and Pacific Islander ethnic groups saw no overall change across all programs from last year.

In looking at the data, a distinction between campuses arises. Fordham Lincoln Center, for the most part, has only seen more diversity in its accepted students. FCLC saw increased acceptances for students of every ethnicity besides American Indian/Alaska Native (which saw no change) and Pacific Islander, which decreased by only one student. GSB at Lincoln Center only saw a decrease in the acceptance of black students (seven fewer students than last year). Meanwhile, both FCRH and GSB at Rose Hill saw a wide variety of gains and losses for every ethnicity — not always following the same trends between both programs either.

Keeping with trends from previous years, GPA and test scores among accepted students saw increases, albeit marginal, across all programs. The median SAT score for the ED and EA accepted Class of 2022 was 1319, up to 1326 for the Class of 2023. The median ACT score rose from 29 to 30, and median GPA saw a minor increase from 3.61 to 3.62 out of 4.0.

These increases in diversity and academic achievement coincide with increased acceptance of female students. Overall, male acceptances saw no change while female acceptances saw a 4 percent rise. Fordham did not report any other gender identities.

As for what the numbers could mean in terms of the composition of the Class of ’23, it is difficult to determine. Regular Decision acceptances still have not been decided, and if Fordham is worried about too much growth, they may simply see a decline. In addition, because many of these students are particularly high-achieving, they could have compelling offers at other schools.

The Observer has no details about financial aid packages offered to students, which could have a sizable impact on wealth and ethnic diversity on campus.

What these numbers do say is that more students are becoming attracted to the idea of attending Fordham University every year, and that, especially at the Lincoln Center campus, admissions may only continue to become more competitive. For prospective students hoping to attend Fordham Lincoln Center, choosing to apply EA or ED is becoming increasingly more important.

However, despite the uncertainty of these preliminary numbers, one pattern is already beginning to emerge. During their orientation week last fall, the Class of 2022 was told it was “the most diverse, most high-achieving class in Fordham’s history.” Based on the numbers reported for EA and ED this year, it is entirely likely the Class of 2023 will hear the same message come August.