The acceptance letters have finally been sent and the “intent to register” period has begun for incoming college students, but it’s their younger siblings who may have an easier time getting into universities across the country in the coming years.

The number of high school graduates in the United States will peak at 2.9 million in the next year or two before declining until 2015, according to a New York Times article published last month. Assuming this translates into fewer students applying to college, many universities say the selection process will be less competitive.

Tysha Caitano, an SF State freshman, was rejected from her first-choice college in Southern California. Although she has no younger siblings who would benefit from the graduation decline, Caitano said she has several high school friends who might.

“If they get [into that school] when I didn’t, I’ll be annoyed,” Caitano, 19, said.

Due to budget cuts and uncertainty about next year’s funding, the California State University system’s administrators have been asked to lower their enrollment numbers for the fall. SF State is expecting to have 200 fewer freshmen, said Jo Volkert, associate vice president of enrollment management at SF State.

“We project for the future, but we’re mostly living in the short term,” Volkert said. “We’re waiting to see what the budget’s going to be next year.”

At an on-campus town hall meeting held on March 17, University President Robert A. Corrigan said SF State’s budget will suffer a $25 million hit in the coming year.

For the upcoming fall semester, SF State received more than 41,000 applications, with hopeful freshmen accounting for 75 percent of the total. Last fall, more new freshmen (3,400) than new transfer students (3,200) enrolled at SF State—a trend that started in fall 2005, Volkert said.

“In the past, we were predominantly perceived as a transfer institution,” she said. “But we’ve transitioned into a more freshman-oriented university also.”

Volkert attributes the boost in freshman interest partly to the increase in on-campus housing for underclassmen. Besides the two 410-person dormitories, SF State also offers the 15-story Towers at Centennial Square and 100-person Science and Technology themed building.

New marketing strategies around San Francisco have helped bring more freshmen student to the university, as well as the receptions in Southern California that allow students to learn about the campus without physically visiting. Caitano, who grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii, said several of her friends at SF State are from California’s southern counties.

In 1992, 80 percent of SF State’s students were from the Bay Area. Now, the breakdown of students from Northern and Southern California is 50-50, according to the Office of University and Budget Planning.

“People in other parts of the state started asking, ‘What else is out there?’” Volkert said.

Volkert added she doesn’t believe the national decline will affect schools in the Western United States as much as the East.

Volkert’s statement is concordant with The New York Times’s findings—the number of high school graduates is expected to continue increasing in the south and southwestern regions, while falling in the northeast and midwest.

“Historically, when the population goes down and [the state of] the economy worsens, college enrollments goes up—it’s counterintuitive,” Volkert said, adding that this is often the case when budget crises strike. “It does play out over time.”