Roanoke College has more students this year than ever before in its 167-year history, but the school didn't exactly go rushing after the record.

Rather, enrolling 2,044 students this year is the result of slow, deliberate growth of about 1 percent per year over several years, school officials said.

And it was reached despite hard economic times, which, one might suppose, wouldn't favor a college with a $39,789 annual price tag.

The Salem liberal-arts college saw both an increase in the number of students needing financial aid this year and a decrease in the estimated contribution that families could make toward the cost of college, said Brenda Poggendorf, vice president for enrollment.

President Mike Maxey said he was pleased both that enrollment grew during tough times and that Roanoke College was able to help students get to college with financial aid.

"That's a high priority to make sure we're accessible to families economically," he said. He added that he's "big believer" in economic diversity.

The school is achieving other kinds of diversity, too. This year's student body includes a record 193 minority students and 39 international students from 25 countries.

Yet the overall goal is not to expand the college so much that it changes, administrators said.

"It's because we've grown slowly ... that it still looks and feels like the same old Roanoke," Poggendorf said.

Increasing enrollment by 1 percent a year allows Roanoke to grow in an "orderly" way, Maxey said. "That's about the size of one class, so you can plan better."

That means administrators can plan better for class offerings, faculty needs and demands on the college's facilities. They don't suddenly need a new dormitory, though the college did recently open a new one with 150 beds.

While growing, the college hasn't lowered standards or become less selective about who gets invited in, officials said.

Roanoke accepted 68 percent of its applicants, compared with 69 percent last year, Poggendorf said. This year's freshman class boasts an average SAT score of 1100 and an average high school grade-point average of 3.42.

The school's growth has in fact "helped us ratchet up our standards for students," Maxey said. "A slightly larger size seems to be more appealing to students."

Indeed, Poggendorf documented a 16 percent increase in the number of applications for this year compared with 3 percent to 5 percent increases on average in the past.

But officials don't assume that keeping up their growth pattern will be easy going forward.

"These next few years I think are going to be especially challenging," Maxey said. In lean economic times, he expects that families will change the way in which they shop for higher education.

Money is likely to become the first consideration for many, he said.

"I'm sure people will shop for the aid as much as they consider the educational options."