For Jena Merl, a senior at Ransom Everglades School in Miami, Northwestern University was a back-up. She applied early to Columbia University in the fall after falling in love with the Manhattan campus. And when she was deferred in December, she “didn’t take it personally.”

She regrouped and applied to five other schools, which, in order of preference, were Brown, Georgetown, Barnard, Northwestern and the University of Pennsylvania.

“I was told these were schools I was qualified enough for,” says Merl, who is near the top of her class and a member of her school’s Cum Laude Society and the National Honor Society, as well as a varsity athlete and the president of her service club. “I have what they say they want.”

But after being rejected by her top three, Merl is deciding between Barnard and NU. Going by the rates, Merl was banking on acceptance from at least one of them.

“Northwestern was kind of a school my counselors told me I would likely get in to,” she says. “I put it on there as a school that I’d never been to but knew that I would like. It was at the bottom of the list because I didn’t know that much about it.”

Now, to decide between schools that weren’t her first, second, or even third choices, Merl is making “pro” and “con” lists and looking at the internship programs each school has before sending in a deposit in the coming weeks.

In 2006, the number of freshmen attending their first-choice school was at an all-time low since 1988, at 67.3 percent, according to The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 2006, an annual report by the University of California, Los Angeles.

Traditionally, NU’s student body has included people like Merl who really wanted to go to college elsewhere. While nearly seven out of 10 freshmen across the nation are still at their top pick according to the survey, that may not be true here.

“For the kids applying to Northwestern, I’m sure that statistic is lower,” says Michael Mills, associate provost for undergraduate admission. “We’re still more of a safety school for certain types of kids, the nation’s best high school kids.”

As the baby boomers’ children, recent high school classes form a giant of a generation. And unlike their parents, they’ve grown up thinking that going to college is a given.

This year’s high school graduating class is the country’s largest ever, and with heightened competition and the increased used of the Common Application, NU received a record 25,027 applications this year - 14 percent more than last year. Over the last three years, applications have increased 54 percent.

With so many more applicants, it’s difficult for admissions offices to gauge whether students will accept their offer. In response, universities across the country are waitlisting more students. This way, institutions are able to increase the rate of accepted students who take their spot in a given class, and hopefully, increase their ranking in the vaunted U.S. News and World Report rankings. …