Despite an article in The Wall Street Journal that said Penn State is receiving an increase in applications this fall, interest from prospective students has not significantly increased, Penn State officials say.

Two weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal ran an article about how the Sept. 11 attacks are affecting the college application and admissions process. According to the article, relatively inexpensive state schools in rural locations such as Indiana University and the University of Iowa are seeing a rise in applications due to student and parental fears about future attacks in big cities.

The article cited Penn State as one of this fall's hot schools because of its rural location and relatively low cost and said the number of applications to Penn State is up 14 percent from last year.

This figure, however, is misleading, Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig said.

Kendig said that overall interest in Penn State has not specifically increased.

"I know The Wall Street Journal cited an admissions spike (of) 14 percent," Kendig said. "The problem with that is we can only take a one-day snapshot" when comparing the number of applications between this year and last year, Kendig said. The 14 percent increase, he said, was probably "a one-day snapshot over the previous year."

Kendig said that while applications may be up on one day from that same day last year, they could be down on another day.

Steve Mostert, spokesman for undergraduate admissions, said he has yet to see any significant rise in the number of applications.

"This week, we're almost exactly where we were last year," he said.

If there was any short-term rise in applications after the attacks, he said, "it has really leveled out."

But Mostert said it is still too early to tell whether the number of overall applications will rise or fall compared to last year's figures.

"The first time we can get a snap shot is right before the holiday break" after the recommended application deadline of Nov. 30, he said.

Although the number of applications to Penn State does not appear to be significantly rising from last year, "there are more people getting tours of Penn State this fall than last fall," said Jonathan Calpas (senior-accounting), tour director for the Lion Ambassadors.

But Calpas also said fear of last month's attacks does not necessarily explain why more people are touring Penn State.

"You can't really get a good handle on it," he said.