The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism will be hopping with activity at the end of August as more than 80 new students join the 59 returning from summer internships to complete their third and final semester.

In a clear sign of CUNY’s growing stature among graduate journalism programs, the most recent applicant pool jumped by 50% this year. The incoming Class of 2010 is up from about 50 students in the J-School’s first two years and 60 this past year.

This growth was accompanied by an increase in both quality and diversity over previous years. The new students have stronger college records, higher GRE scores, and better results on the J-School’s own admissions tests. About 31% come from out-of-state, a big increase. About 20% are graduates of a CUNY or SUNY school. The rest come from a wide array of colleges, many of them “elite” schools – Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Berkeley, UCLA, Swarthmore, Vassar, Tufts, Smith, NYU, Virginia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and McGill.

“We managed to increase size and quality while also increasing diversity – an unusual trifecta,” Dean Stephen B. Shepard said. “About 45% of our students are from underrepresented minority groups. As far as we can tell, no other top graduate program does nearly as well.”

The vast majority of the enrollees applied to at least one other graduate school of journalism and many chose CUNY over competing programs.

“I think that’s a remarkable showing,” said Stephen Dougherty, director of admissions & student affairs. “We have clearly connected with journalists from all backgrounds.”

Dougherty attributed the CUNY J-School’s steadily increasing enrollment to its burgeoning reputation as a top-notch program offering both traditional and cutting-edge journalistic training. He also credited the efforts of the entire J-School community during the recruitment period. “Faculty spoke individually to prospective students and allowed them to sit in on classes; current students were immensely generous in sharing their experiences; and alumni invited them to their places of employment,” he said. “These are the things that make a big difference when someone is considering whether to join the School.”