Miami University has received a record number of applications for the fall 2013 semester.

The deadline for applications was Friday, so those have yet to be counted, said Michael Kabbaz, associate vice president for enrollment management, but through Jan. 31, his office has processed 21,593 applications.

That beats the previous reocord of 20,314 applications received in 2012, then the highest in school history.

“We’re on our third year of hiring regionally-based recruiters,” Kabbaz said, “so we now have full-time recruiters in California and Connecticut. Last year we added Chicago, and we also have recruters in Atlanta and the D.C.”

He said the university has increased its high school visits by 40 percent this year and are seeing large increases in the number of campus visits they receive.

The university has also made an effort to increase the quality of applicants, he said.

“We made a significant change in our Merit Scholarship awards this year to be a place where high-ability students see Miami as an option,” Kabbaz said. “As a result, the quality and the diversity of applicants is significantly larger than than last year.”

Of those 21,593 applicants, the university has a goal of accepting 3,600.

“The deadline for us to respond is March 15, so until then, we’ll be going through the applications and reviewing them,” Kabbaz said. “Once we start doing that, we’ll know more about what the applicant pool looks like.

“Our students achieve great success on campus and after graduation as a result of the personal education they receive at Miami. This continues to be widely recognized by not only prospective students and families, but also by employers and professional schools,” he said.

With an emphasis on attracting, retaining and developing talented student leaders through personalized experiences, Miami’s efforts led to 81 percent of students graduating in six years and a median time to graduation of 3.7 years, which lowers students’ net cost of attendance.