The Office of Undergraduate Admission announced yesterday that 2,412 high school seniors have been offered a place in the class of 2009. Today, the 1,545 students who applied to Stanford through the regular-decision review process will receive their acceptance letters, and the other 867 students who applied early action and were admitted in December will receive follow-up letters.

Admitted students must decide whether or not attend Stanford by May 2 and are invited to attend Admit Weekend 2005 on April 29 to 30.

For the first time in the University’s history, more than 20,000 students applied for admission, a dramatic increase over last year. The admission rate, falling below12 percent, was also the lowest it has ever been.

Admission Director Anna Marie Porras said the rise in application numbers came as a surprise to admission officers.

“While we are still studying possible causes, I believe we can attribute this increase in large part to Stanford’s broad-based appeal and its excellences across academic disciplines,” she said. “Moreover, we have seen a significant level of interest expressed in Stanford’s interdisciplinary programs such as International Relations and Human Biology, which represent a particular strength of Stanford’s undergraduate program.”

While the admission office no longer releases the percentages of ethnic or racial minorities who applied or who were accepted, Porras said that “this year’s admission decisions again reflect Stanford’s strong commitment to admitting and enrolling a student body that is both highly-qualified and diverse.”

More than 90 percent of the admitted students whose class ranking was reported fall within the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class, and 80 percent earned a grade point average of 4.0 or above.