Applications for Arts Intensive, one of four September Studies seminar-based programs offered in the weeks leading into autumn quarter, have risen for the coming academic year, according to Stanford Introductory Studies (SIS) administrators. The number of students who applied for Sophomore College, another September Studies program, has remained stable.

More than 500 of the 1,709 freshmen in the Class of 2015 applied to at least one Sophomore College seminar for the coming academic year, resulting in 1,100 submitted applications by the April 9 deadline, according to Lee West, associate director of SIS. With 240 interested students, next year’s Arts Intensive program received 371 applications, 64 more than last year.

“Slightly more than a third of all freshmen applied to at least one Sophomore College or Arts Intensive seminar (with some students applying to both programs),” wrote West in an email to The Daily. “While only freshmen can apply to Sophomore College, freshmen, sophomores and juniors can apply to the Arts Intensive program.”

Of the Sophomore College applicants, 212 were accepted into their first choice seminars, and 266 were rejected from all of their choices as of May 8, according to West.

For admitted students, this September may provide the chance to conduct evolutionary biology research in the Galapagos, explore a character in musical theater or experience an intensive Spanish immersion course.

Arts Intensive received a range of applications this year, with nearly 50 percent coming from freshmen and the other 50 percent distributed equally among the other classes, according to Gina Hernandez, director of arts in undergraduate education.

“Most courses have two or three times the number of applications in comparison to the number of spots available,” West wrote, noting that the reason for such an influx of applications may be that students apply to multiple seminars.

Some seminars, however, receive more than the usual average of around 40 applications, according to West. Particularly, “Darwin, Evolution, and Galapagos” received the most interest this year, garnering 153 applications, according to West. In comparison, one Sophomore College seminar received 14 applications this year.

“We enrolled 121 students in [Arts Intensive] 2011 and expect that this will remain roughly the same this year,” Hernandez wrote in an email to The Daily.

“Occasionally a course is not filled through the initial application period,” West wrote, adding that at least one course has not been filled this year. “In those cases we invite any student who applied to Sophomore College or Arts Intensive (freshmen only) and was either waitlisted or not chosen for a seminar to apply for the open course. We fill spaces on a rolling basis; we are committed to filling every space in the programs.”

According to West, the number of Sophomore College courses offered will not change in the foreseeable future, but students can expect an increase in Arts Intensive options next year

Over the next few months, 212 students will remain on waitlists. Those already enrolled, however, can look forward to preliminary class meetings over the last few weeks of spring quarter.

“We’re going to about 10 different shows at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,” said Jessia Hoffman ‘15, who was accepted into the “Learning Theater” Sophomore College seminar after applying to two Arts Intensive seminars as well. “We’re going to get to talk to actors and go backstage.”

“I’m going to be doing the ‘Face of Battle’ sophomore college with Scott Sagan,” said Ariella Axler ‘15, a staff writer for The Daily who was admitted to her first choice seminar. “We get to go to Washington, D.C., Gettysburg and Montana and learn about Civil War battles by going to the sites, and at the same time we’re also going to undertake our own research topics…I’m excited to meet a lot of students that are also interested in the topic, because I think those will be people that I’ll be studying with in the future.”