It's crunch time for admissions staffers at Emory College and Oxford College, who are now evaluating thousands of applications for entry into the fall 2013 freshman class.

Regular decision applications were due Jan. 15. Trends in application numbers and the academic excellence and diversity of the pool look positive, say admissions officials. More than 17,000 students applied for regular decision admission last year.

For Emory's two rounds of Early Decision admission (ED1 and ED2), applications were up for both colleges.

ED1 applications to Emory College were up 10 percent and stood at a record high of 959 as of Nov. 19, compared to 871 at the same time last year. ED1 applications to Oxford College were up 67 percent, from 159 in 2011 to 266 this year. Last year was the first time Oxford College offered the ED1 option. Acceptance decisions for ED1 were released Dec. 15, and 489 students were admitted for Emory College and 130 were admitted at Oxford.

As of Jan. 9, there were 1,037 ED2 applications for Oxford and Emory College, which were due Jan. 1, up 8 percent from last year's 960 ED2 applications. Admissions decisions are to be released Feb. 15 for ED2. Last year, about 46 percent of the freshman class was admitted and enrolled through early decision.