Newsflash: Duke is popular.

The university reports today that more than 29,500 high school seniors have applied this year, eclipsing the previous record by 10 percent.

Best of luck to them. They're vying for a seat in a class of about 1,700 new students this fall.

The previous record was set a year ago. In fact, this marks the fourth straight year in which the total applications number has set a record. In the last three years, Duke's total number of applicants has swelled 54 percent.

“We’re gratified by the interest we’re seeing nationwide and worldwide in Duke,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag said in a news release. “We’re also humbled; these are exceptional young women and men, and our challenge will be to understand which ones, individually and as a group, will represent the best match for Duke."

More than 60 percent of applicants are seeking need-based financial aid, Guttentag added.

From the news release:

The current number of high school seniors applying to be part of Duke’s Class of 2015 is 29,526. Of that number, 24,307 have applied to the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences (a 10.8 percent increase over last year), while 5,219 have applied to the Pratt School of Engineering (a 7.7 percent increase). The final number of applicants is expected to increase slightly as applications submitted by mail are received.

California again provided the largest number of applicants, with New York second and North Carolina a close third.The greatest growth among applicants in recent years has been among students from the West Coast and from overseas.

The applicant pool is fairly evenly divided between males and females.

Among students of color, the greatest increases were among Latino students and students of Asian descent. Admissions decisions will be made available to applicants online in early April.

The Duke Chronicle has an interesting series this week examining the university's admissions process, which is in danger of being overwhelmed.

In the first installment, the paper examines the growth in applications to Duke and the ramifications for the system intended to give each applicant a thorough examination.

Part 2 looks at all the different things admissions officials weigh in determining whether a student gets in or not.

Part 3 looks at the demographics of a class of Duke students with the headline "Duke Draws 'Rich Kids of all Colors.' "

Applicants to UNC's law school recently got some good luck - prematurely and, in many cases, incorrectly.

Thanks to a computer glitch, the law school's admissions office recently e-mailed about 250 people, inviting them to events for newly-admitted students.

Problem was, that invitation was sent to the wrong e-mail list. The 250 applicants who received the invitation on March 18 had not yet heard whether they had been admitted, because their files were still under review.

The e-mail was supposed to have gone to another group, also of about 250 students, who had already been admitted.

The mistake was discovered within 15 minutes and a follow-up message was quickly sent out, said Michael States, the law school's assistant dean for admissions.

States said most folks who received the mistaken email weren't bothered by it. Some figured it was a mistake because they had not yet received an admissions decision. 

"Most of the people were wonderful about it," States said. "One person said it was the second time it happened to him that day. I didn't ask what the other school was."

But it did cause some rumblings on at least one law school message board where some applicants wrote about their confusion.

Wrote one: "Way to ruin my day, UNC."

On the bright side, UNC-CH didn't do what the University of California-San Diego just did by mistake. UCSD this week accidentally offered admission to all 46,000 of its applicants.

That's 29,000 more students than it wants to enroll.