The School of Public Health and Health Services was the most selective undergraduate school within the University this year, according to data given to The Hatchet.

Only 9.4 percent of first-time applicants to SPHHS were admitted in 2010, 20 percent less than the School of Business, which had the second-lowest admit rate at 29.4 percent, according to data given to The Hatchet by Associate Vice President and Dean for Undergraduate Admissions Kathryn Napper.

“The application numbers are small in the School of Public Health allowing for a smaller number of students being admitted,” Napper said in an e-mail, explaining why the admittance rate was so low for SPHHS.

While SPHHS was the most selective for first-time students at the University, the School of Engineering and Applied Science was the least selective, admitting 41.7 percent of applicants. The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences admitted 31 percent and the Elliott School of International Affairs admitted 32.2 percent of first-time applicants.

All the undergraduate admittance rates for all the undergraduate schools within GW were the lowest in University history.

Admittance rates to all of the undergraduate schools within the University have dropped drastically over the past 10 years, with the Elliott School experiencing the largest drop at 26.6 percent. SPHHS saw the second-largest drop in the admissions rate over the past 10 years at 24.85 percent, followed by CCAS at 17.5 percent, and the GWSB at 16.05 percent.

SEAS again falls in last place in the drop in selectivity over the past 10 years, only seeing a 7.02 percent drop since 2000.

Napper said SEAS consistently has the highest acceptance rate of all the schools within GW due to the fact that the school’s applicants “self-select themselves” out of the pool of admissible students, allowing the University to accept a “greater percentage of admissible students.”

The University has plans to create a new $275 million Science and Engineering Complex in order to bolster research at GW and attract more students to SEAS.

Overall, Napper said the University received 21,200 applications and admitted 31.5 percent, compared to 36.5 percent last year. She called both figures “[U]niversity records.”

“As you can imagine, we are very pleased with the application process this year,” Napper said.