Virginia Tech will likely enroll its largest freshman class ever in August, based on figures released by the school Monday.

The university received deposits from 5,601 freshmen by the May 1 deadline, an increase of nearly 400 from last year. The incoming freshmen come from Tech's largest-ever applicant pool. Tech will not admit any of the 1,500 students on its wait list. The school has not admitted any wait-listed students since 2006.

Tech has a target of 5,000 students for its freshmen class. The class will experience some "summer melt" -- a term used by admissions professionals to account for students who cancel plans to attend a school at the last minute. But summer melt at Tech typically accounts for a decrease of only 100 or 200 students by early September.

With few exceptions, Tech freshmen are required to live on campus. But overcrowding last year forced the university to offer incentives for students to live off campus. The school's undergraduate enrollment is usually about 22,000, and campus residence halls can accommodate about 9,000 of them.

Amy Widner, spokeswoman for undergraduate admissions, said she was surprised at the number of students who accepted offers of admission. Still, Tech plans to find enough beds and seats for everyone, she said.

"It does create work for some of our colleagues," she said, referring to last-minute plans to accommodate such a large class. "It's always going to be an inexact science. We can look at past years, but when it comes to individual decisions of attending a school ... there's a lot of room for variance there."

According to a recent report from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, the number of high school graduates nationwide is expected to peak this year, then decline each year until 2015. Demographic projections indicate the number of graduating high school seniors in Virginia is expected to peak next year and decline until 2017. Tech's strategic plan calls for growth in graduate student enrollment, but not undergraduate enrollment, in the next several years.

About 66 percent of next year's freshman class will be from Virginia, slightly lower than last year. In-state students usually account for about 70 percent of the population at Tech.

Out-of-state students, who pay more than double the in-state rate to attend Tech, usually number about 1,500 to 1,600, Widner said. That number will be closer to 1,900 this year. Out-of-state freshmen will hail from 40 states and 28 countries, with Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey leading the way among non-Virginia residencies.

While the numbers indicate Tech is a popular choice for students inside and out of Virginia, overall black enrollment has declined steadily from 5.8 percent in 2003 to 4.6 percent last year. About 3.7 percent of Tech's incoming freshmen categorize themselves as black, up from 3.5 percent last year. Asian students will make up 9.4 percent of the class; about 3.5 percent of incoming freshmen, are Hispanic.

The percentage of students offered admission to Tech declined this year, and the average SAT scores went up slightly. But the increased selectivity was not enough to off-set the demand. When asked about how Tech's role as a public land-grant university meshes with its need to be more selective, Widner said it's a difficult balance to achieve, but "we have to take the higher-achieving students."

"It's always a tough choice when we're in the enviable -- and unenviable -- position of having to deny admission to people who can excel here," she said.