The Office of Undergraduate Admission announced Monday that 753 restrictive early action applicants, or 13.5 percent of the 5,566 early applicants, were accepted to Stanford. Almost as many early applicants were deferred to the regular decision cycle as accepted via early action.

“We deferred just over 700 students to regular decision,” Director of Undergraduate Admission Shawn Abbott wrote in an e-mail to The Daily. “Approximately 87 percent of students who applied for admission, however, received a final (admit or deny) admission decision.”

The 13.5 percent admit rate for early action applications represents an increase from the early action cycle in 2008, when Stanford accepted 12.8 percent of early action applications, or 689 early applicants from a pool of 5,363 applications.

This year’s total of 5,566 early action applications is the highest in the University’s history and represents an increase of almost 3.8 percent from last year’s previous record of 5,363 early applications.

While the date for announcement of early action admission results is Dec. 15, the admission office this year notified applicants of their admission statuses at 3 p.m. on Dec. 11, four days ahead of schedule.

“The admission committee finalized its selection process earlier than anticipated, and in an effort to quell anxiety among applicants, parents, counselors and alumni, [Admission and Financial Aid] Dean [Richard] Shaw made the executive decision to release decisions today, December 11,” the office announced on its Web site.

“Well over 90 percent of students opened their e-mail decisions within 72 hours, even though they were not expecting to receive their decision e-mails until December 15,” Abbott said.

In November, The Daily reported that 5,583 students had applied early action to Stanford. The discrepancy in the final tally results from the fact that the admission office allowed some students to change their application statuses from restrictive early action to regular decision.

Because restrictive early action is a non-binding option, admitted students will have until May 1 to respond to the University’s offer of admission.