The University saw one of the smallest jumps in application numbers within its market basket, a discrepancy a University administrator attributes to rising selectivity at the school.

GW received 21,400 regular-decision applications this year, an applicant pool about 200 students larger than last year. The 1-percent increase stands in stark contrast to double-digit increases seen at market basket universities, such as the 11 percent jump at New York University and the 13 percent spike at Syracuse University.

“While our growth may not be as high as some competing institutions, we were able to maintain and surpass the significant increase in applications we achieved last year,” Executive Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Kathryn Napper said.

GW’s slowed growth in the last year comes after an 8 percent jump in applications from 2009 to 2011.

With more applications to choose from, admissions officers are faced with the challenge of whittling applicants down to a manageable admissions pool.

“This past year at GW, we became even more selective than any year in our history when we reduced the acceptance rate fairly significantly,” Napper said.

The drop in the University’s acceptance rate from 36.5 percent in 2009 to 31.5 percent in 2010 may have led “potential applicants to believe that GW is out of their reach,” Napper said.

As application rates rise nationwide, higher education analysts are noting the effect of application inflation: The more applicants a college receives, the more it must reject and thus the more impressive it seems.

Scott Jaschik, an editor at Inside Higher Ed said more applications aren’t always a good thing.

For universities, the seriousness of the applicants, Jaschik said, is more important than the quantity in determining enrollments.

“If you’re a GW admissions officer, you know that students with a certain profile, if you admit them, they are very likely to enroll. Others might not enroll. So they’re paying attention to not just the total but who’s in the total,” Jaschik said.

A sudden flux in applications also does not automatically indicate increased demand, but may just mean more students are trying their luck at the school.

“You can’t always tell whether the rise in the volume of applications for a given cycle corresponds to an actual increase in real demand, or is it a bunch of people window shopping,” said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.