ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University is getting more selective. This year, the university received an all-time record of 24,444 applications for undergraduate admissions. Of them, 26.1 percent of the applicants were admitted -- that's down from 29 percent last year and 31 percent two years ago.

With a more than 17 percent increase in applications this year, Cornell had the second highest application increase in the Ivy League, just behind Princeton's jump of about 20 percent; Harvard's increase was about 15 percent.

"We attribute the increase in applications to three factors," says Doris Davis, associate provost for admissions and enrollment. "Cornell joining the common application group; a redesign of the university admissions viewbook; and ongoing enhancement of our admission communication to prospective students, especially our communication to students interested in the liberal arts."

The common application group is a consortium of more than 250 colleges and universities that agree to use a single (common) admissions application. "Since there are now five of the eight Ivy schools that use the common application, we believe that this accounts for some of the increase," Davis adds. "It is no coincidence that the Ivy schools that had the most significant increase in applications this year -- Cornell, Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth -- are all members of the common application group."

She said that the new admissions viewbook, which is sent to all prospective students, "is a huge improvement over our old viewbook, and we believe that the new brochure presents a much more compelling story about Cornell."

The new figures, reported this month by the Cornell Office of Admissions and Enrollment, also show an increase in early decision applicants; this year less than 42 percent of the 2,572 early decision applicants were admitted, compared with 44 percent of the 2,547 applicants last year.

In all, 26.2 percent of admissions for fall 2005 are from New York state, 10.5 percent are from New England and 21 percent are from the mid-Atlantic states. By race and ethnicity, 42.1 percent are Caucasian, 17.5 percent are Asian American, 6.7 percent are Hispanic and 6.3 percent are African American. However, 21.9 percent of the admitted applicants did not report their ethnicity.