As of the March 1 deadline, 19,073 applications have been received by the UNH Office of Admissions from prospective students for the fall 2017 semester. Of that total, 4,319 applicants were in-state residents and 14,754 were out-of-state residents. In-state students that applied through the early action program were not subjected to an application fee. Compared to last year, there was an increase of 7.8 percent of in-state residents who applied to UNH this year
Admissions Associate Director John Larsen said that there was a slight increase in accepted in-state students from last year. Larsen said that admissions’ goal is to have approximately 3,000 freshman students enrolled for the upcoming fall semester.
He said that admission had the sense that some of the applications were “weak” because of Granite State residents being able to apply for free through the early action process.
“We aren’t entirely certain that every applicant is truly interested in UNH,” Larsen said. “Did they apply because of genuine interest or because the application fee was waived?”
Last year, the application fee was $50 for in-state residents. UNH admissions will have to wait until after the May 1 enrollment deadline before they can truly determine the effects of the application fee waiver.
Robert McGann, director of admissions, stated that the fee waiver for New Hampshire residents was done with three purposes in mind. The first is to encourage in-state residents who might be thinking about applying to do so, the second is to create an interesting way to highlight UNH’s 150th anniversary and provide a tangible benefit to New Hampshire residents celebrating this milestone, and lastly, to allow for easier participation by such residents in the ‘I am college bound’ initiative designed to encourage a greater percentage of in-state residents to enroll in college following high school.
McGann stated that last year’s admissions’ enrollment rate was about 75 percent; slightly higher for New Hampshire residents and slightly lower for non-residents.
“We’re not trying to get more people to come, but to improve academic excellence,” Larsen said.
Larsen also said that admissions office typically has the idea that one in three in-state residents would accept enrollment while one in six out-of-state students will accept enrollment.
Larsen said that UNH administration does take tuition rates into account when setting enrollment targets. Once an enrollment target is set for each incoming class of new students (first-year, transfer, grad, etc.), the UNH admissions office works to meet those goals.
According to Larsen, the UNH Foundation is an entity that coordinates the acquisition of private support to help build endowment funds to benefit UNH in numerous ways. He said that UNH is in the top 20 percent in research funding from private corporations and government agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA).
“The cost of providing quality higher education at a research intensive, flagship university is significant,” Larsen said. “The university works tirelessly to mitigate rising tuition costs.”

Correction: March 17, 2017-An earlier version of this article did not include information provided by McGann. This updated version also includes more information regarding the UNH Foundation and how UNH tuition rates are decided.