The University of Montana Council revealed the top two reasons people chose UM: academics and scenery. Now, after years of declining enrollment, UM looks to be among the top choices on students go-to list once again.

In the weeks since announcing enrollment was at historic lows, things are looking much better for UM. The new V.P. for Enrollment and Student Affairs Thomas Crady acknowledged the downward enrollment trend is a concern, but is confident that with new recruitment strategies, numbers will improve quickly.

Crady says there are at least 10 new recruitment strategies, many already in full swing, with more to be rolled out in coming weeks.

Last week, and for the first time ever, UM sent out 30,000 invitations to apply to the school. Students get a password and username for a referred website that has an application all ready to be filled out. Another new recruitment technique is a micro-scholarship program where high schoolers are promised money for each letter grade they receive. They are awarded that money if they chose to attend UM. 3,800 students are already signed up.

"U of M is hot right now. It's the place to be. There's no question about that. When you come here, you're going to have a great experience, a 16.5 faculty to student ration. So what we find is we will not overcrowd students in any way, shape or form. You're part of a very strong campus community and you will feel like your part of a community here," says Crady.

Crady says it's now the beginning of college application season for high school seniors and UM is getting a lot of applications back already.

For students who do apply to UM, their chances of getting in are pretty high at a 92 percent acceptance rate, but enrollment officials say that doesn't mean their standards are lower than other schools.

Right now there are around 12,000 students on campus. That number's taken a big hit after several reported sexual assaults, but Crady says that's something in UM's past.

The big hurdle now is increasing the applicant pool. There were around 5,000 applicants this year. Crady wants to double that.

"In the past, we've had too few undergraduate traditional applications so what we're trying to do is focus on increasing that number so we can admit as many people as we can," says Crady. "I'm not worried about our standards at all. I think they're very high and you know its not different than any other university or state college."

Crady says they're looking for students who are passionate about learning, and want to be challenged. For students who are applying to UM, they can expect to find out if they'll be a future Griz within 24 hours after their whole application is turned in.