One hundred and twenty-five years after Russell H. Conwell taught his first class of seven students, the university he founded is welcoming nearly 7,000 new undergraduates — more than 4,100 freshmen and about 2,800 transfers — for the 2009-10 academic year.

Temple's Class of 2013 is the most highly qualified cohort in the university's history. The freshman class's estimated average SAT score of 1109 is two points higher than last year's all-time high, an estimated 93 points higher than the national average and 115 points higher than the Pennsylvania average. The class's high school grade-point average, 3.40, is also a Temple record, as is the number of freshman enrolled in the Honors Program, 435. The Honors Program freshman average GPA (3.85) and SAT score (1333) are also new highs.

About 40 percent of new freshmen and transfers identified themselves as either students of color or "other."

The conclusion of another extraordinarily busy enrollment cycle confirmed that, in the world of undergraduate admissions, Temple is still as hot as August. The university received 18,573 completed freshman applications, a shade less than last year's record high and 50 percent more than the university received as recently as 2000. More than 32,500 prospective students and their families visited Temple's Main Campus in 2008, another all-time high.

Although the combination of an ongoing recession and Temple's value for the dollar contributed to a slight increase in in-state freshman enrollment (an estimated 75 percent of freshmen and transfers are Pennsylvania residents, up 1 percent from last year), most first-year students chose Temple for other reasons — usually after making a visit.

"My original plan for college visits was to see where I was accepted and then decide after visiting the campuses," said Naveed Khoshnood, a freshman from New Haven, Conn., enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts. "By luck of the draw, I went to Temple's Accepted Students Day first, and its combination of a beautiful campus along with such a lively city hooked me in. Upon returning home I paid my deposits immediately,I knew I wanted to be an Owl."

For Angel Santiago, a freshman from Morrisville, Pa., in the Fox School of Business, brand-new, state-of-the-art facilities and advanced technology were a major draw.

"I didn't know what to expect when I visited Temple on Experience Temple Day in the spring, but I remember seeing the new Fox School of Business building, Alter Hall," Santiago said. "It was amazing to see the big stock ticker the high-tech classrooms where they can stream every class."

Temple's and Philadelphia's strengths in the arts were critical factors for Owen Pelesh, a freshman from Media, Pa.

"I was targeting schools in cities that had a lot of exciting things going on in the arts," said Pelesh, who has already successfully auditioned for the first Temple Theatres production of the season, Sweet Charity. "Because I'm a theater major, I wanted to be somewhere where I could make connections. Temple's professors, such as Peter Reynolds, are all professionally connected in Philadelphia theater. After graduating, having connections may give me a leg up. In theater, half of it is who you know."