The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has offered admission to 7,571 first-year applicants for the fall of 2012.

The University expects to enroll 3,960 students this fall, 3,247 from North Carolina and 713 from the around the country and the world.

The number of applicants this year shows a 24 percent increase in applicants over the last year with a record number of 29,486 people applying. That’s an increase of 47 percent from the number of people who applied five years ago.

Applications from out-of-state students increased 35 percent over last year, from 14,324 to 19,392. Applications from North Carolina students also increased 7 percent, from 9,429 last year to 10,009 this year. Nearly half of the North Carolinians who applied were offered admission, compared with 14 percent of those from outside the state.

"We had some very tough decisions to make this year, and we regret that we have to turn away so many strong students who we know would be successful at Carolina," said Stephen Farmer, vice provost for enrollment and undergraduate admissions.

Of the admitted students who reported a rank in class, 83.7 percent are in the top 10 percent of their high school class, compared to 83.5 percent last year. Nearly 20 percent are ranked either first or second, compared to just 16 percent last year.

For students reporting a score on the SAT, the average was a combined 2019 (671 Critical Reading, 685 Math and 663 Writing) and the average ACT was 31.3. Last year, the average SAT was a combined 2001 (664 Critical Reading, 679 Math, and 658 Writing). The average ACT score was 31.

Fifteen percent admitted will be the first generation of their family to attend college.