Last Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting yielded little major news compared to most Board meetings, at least publicly (a friend of mine described it as “obfuscation through complexity, boredom”). But there was one piece of good news that came out of President Rodney Erickson’s remarks at the beginning of the meeting: Penn State applications are up, and up big. Overall baccalaureate applications are up 19 percent from last year, and every major demographic has seen an increase.

“Another sign of stability and strength at Penn State can be found in our latest admissions cycle report,” Erickson said. “After last year’s dip in the overall number of applications, from all indications, this admissions cycle could well produce a new high.”

Here are some statistics Erickson laid out:

• University-wide, 7,600 more applications have been received this year.
• Branch campus applications are up 7 percent.
• Pennsylvania applications at all campuses are up 8 percent.
• Out-of-state applications are up 26 percent.
• International applications are up 18 percent.
• African-American applications are up 14 percent.
• Hispanic-Latino applications are up 18 percent.
• Graduate applications are up 10 percent.
• Schreyer applications are up 29 percent (3,277 students are competing for 300 spots).

Penn State saw a roughly 11 percent decrease in applications for the cycle 2012-2013, a gray fact that it blamed on nationwide trends.

Word to the wise: