Editor’s Note: The following post is by Temple University communications writer Hillel Hoffman:

An estimated all-time-high 525 freshmen have enrolled in the Honors Program, 183 more than last year. The projected average SAT score of Honors freshmen — 1371, another record — is up 37 points compared to 2012. The projected high school GPA of Honors freshmen, 3.85, has never been higher.

Temple Honors — a program that offers small classes, unique courses and one-on-one advising to a tightly knit community of academically talented students — is on a roll. Honors students are attending the nation’s top graduate schools and are being recognized with prestigious national scholarships, including well over a dozen awards such as Fulbrights, Marshalls, Trumans and Udalls in the last decade. In recent years, Honors has expanded its course offerings, established a peer mentoring program for recruits, added small-group research opportunities, launched a new cultural and service immersion program that has sent students to Appalachia, New Orleans and more.

For many freshmen, the allure of Honors is its scale; it offers an intimate community within a large research university. “I liked the smaller classes, living in the Honors Living Learning Community in 1300 and the individual attention,” said Samantha Rogers, a freshman in the College of Liberal Arts from Tulsa, Okla.

While proud of the high numbers of incoming freshmen and their glittering transcripts, Honors Director Ruth Ost is more interested in the Class of 2017’s character. “There’s an exuberance about this class,” Ost said. “This group is excited about thinking and ideas. We’ve had students who come up to us and say ‘I want to take all the hardest classes I can.’ That’s what we like to see.”