The university welcomed 36,208 students for fall 2008, 762 more than last year.

"The campus is becoming the campus of choice in the Los Angeles and Southern California region," said Harold Hellenbrand, provost and vice president for academic affairs.

He attributed the growth to students taking more credits and a shortage of jobs for people between 18 and 25 years of age. "Many folk in that age precinct are taking advantage of going to school," Hellenbrand said.

The provost said he also was pleased that enrollment of new freshmen from disadvantaged minority backgrounds grew disproportionately. Their enrollment increased 20.5 percent from 2,105 in fall 2007 to 2,536 this fall. This includes African American, American Indian and Latina/o students.

"The minority student numbers in the freshmen class the last couple of years have been showing positive signs of going up," Hellenbrand said. However, he hopes an effort to limit the growing number of applicants to CSUN does not "discourage" students from applying.

Cynthia Rawitch, associate vice president for undergraduate studies, said the university struggled in summer 2008 to accommodate the more than 4,600 first time freshmen who enrolled at CSUN for this fall, about 500 more than were expected.

Particularly hard-pressed to find enough faculty and classrooms were the departments that teach mathematics, developmental mathematics, freshman composition and developmental writing. However, she said, all of the students were accommodated.

One way to control the number of freshmen applications is early closure of the application period, which starts Oct. 1, 2008 for fall 2009 freshmen. Coupling this approach with an earlier deadline for taking the mathematics and English placement exams next spring should better manage the numbers of first-time freshmen.

"We're telling high school counselors now that the application period will close early," Rawitch said.