UCLA Sets College Application Record

It sounds like UCLA is this year's hottest ticket. The school has received a record 99,559 undergraduate applications for Fall 2013, up 8.8% over the year prior. For comparison's sake, the New York Times points out that's greater than the population of Santa Monica. And, according to the school, that's the biggest number to apply to any US four-year university. (Note: 19,087 of those applications came from transfer students.)

The news comes as the Times releases a chart of more than 100 schools' application rates this year, which reveals that "the competitive nature of college admissions has yet to reach a tipping point," Tanya Abrams writes. Many of the colleges surveyed have seen a boost in early admissions and international applications. Another interesting first: The University of California this year got more freshman applications from Latinos than from any other ethnic group. (More UCLA stories.)