Enrollment at UMass up more than 2 percent; has risen 30 percent in a decade

Enrollment at the five-campus University of Massachusetts system has reached a record high, while the academic profile of students is also on the rise, President Robert Caret announced Wednesday.

Enrollment this fall is projected to reach 73,614 students, 2.3 percent more than last fall and a full 30 percent higher than a decade ago.

The number of applications received at the undergraduate campuses in Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth and Lowell rose 1.5 percent over 2013.

Average SAT scores and high school grade point averages are also rising, he said as the UMass Board of Trustees Committee on Academic and Student Affairs met in Boston.

"The number of applications and the quality of our students is rising throughout our campuses as more and more students and parents recognize the excellence and affordability of UMass and the value of their public university," Caret said.

Although SAT and GPA scores of entering freshman continued to rise on all campuses, only the flagship Amherst campus had final numbers available for the class of 2018, which has an average SAT score of 1,218, up about 10 points from the year before. The average GPA rose from 3.73 to 3.78.

The system also has a medical school in Worcester, which does not admit undergraduates.

Roughly one out of every seven public high school graduates in Massachusetts enrolls at the University of Massachusetts, according to data from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.