With an applicant pool of 8,250, the University has admitted 2,242 students for the prospective class of 2012.

“We were looking for students who will use this opportunity well, and who will have the capacity to study across the curriculum,” said Senior Associate Dean of Admission Greg Pyke.

This year’s 27 percent acceptance rate is slightly higher than it was last year, when 26 percent of the applicants to the class of 2011 were admitted. Both the number of applicants and the number of students offered a place at the University increased.

According to Pyke, he and his colleagues in the Admission Office were impressed by the academic achievements of the applicants.

“I think all of us reading applications were really struck by the academic strength in the applicant pool,” he said.

Pyke explained that this was expected to some extent, as highly selective colleges such as Harvard and Princeton no longer have binding early decision programs, allowing students to be offered acceptance at those schools and also keep their applications active at others.

Though the University is waiting to hear back from the majority of admitted students, 269 have already committed through the early decision program. Nearly 46 percent of the early decision applicants were accepted.

More than one-third of the students offered admission are students of color from the U.S. and abroad. Ten percent speak English as a second language and 14 percent are the first generation of their family to attend college. The University also admitted more students from outside of New England and international students this year.

Eighty percent of admitted students ranked in the top ten percent of their high school class. The median SAT scores for admitted students were a 720 on the critical reading and writing sections, and a 710 on the math portion of the exam.

With just several days before admitted students have to accept or reject offers, Pyke reflected on last weekend’s WesFest attendance. Five hundred and thirty admitted students attended WesFest activities, up 14 percent from last year.

He also said that more students arrived on Thursday, the first day of WesFest, which he thought might indicate that more prospectives wanted to sit in on classes and get a feel for the academic environment at the University.

“Maybe they also wanted to come here first,” Pyke added, “before they went to admitted student programs at other schools.”

He considered this year’s WesFest a success.

“The attendance figures, number of students here on Thursday and the positive comments and feedback we received—all of that has to mean it was a successful event,” he said.