About 34,200 students applied for undergraduate admission to Stanford this year, increasing 7 percent from last year’s 32,022 applications.

Bob Patterson, director of undergraduate admission, said the increase in applications was not unexpected, noting the role that sharing student and faculty stories with prospective applicants has played in generating interest in the University.

“We took an approach of sharing student stories and faculty stories,” Patterson said. “I think those stories resonated with a lot of prospective students.”

Stanford admitted 754 applicants in December under the University’s early-action program. The pool of 5,929 early applicants was also the largest in the University’s history.

Last year, Harvard received 30,489 applications, Yale received 25,869 and Princeton received 26,247.

Students who applied under the regular-decision program will receive their admission decisions by the end of March.

–Joshua Falk