The Naval Academy is on pace this year to draw its highest number of applications since the end of the Cold War.

Officials at the military college say applications are running 17 percent higher than last year, a trend they attribute to a burst of patriotism and to demographic and economic factors fueling a national surge in college applications.

"The 9/11 attacks made me want to serve more," said Ryan D. Wilson, 18, a high school senior from Bend, Ore., who applied because he wants to be a Navy SEAL. The 15,000 applications the military college expects by its Jan. 31 admissions deadline would erase a long decline in interest that began in the late 1980s, when the fall of the Soviet Union dimmed the glamour of military careers. The numbers started to rebound in 1999, but the jump this year is expected to net the largest number of applicants since 1988.

"There's a renewed sense of patriotism and a willingness and desire to serve," David A. Vetter, the dean of admissions, said during a break in a meeting yesterday of the school's oversight board, where the figures were unveiled. "The personal statements from applicants have many references to September 11 and how that has impacted their lives."

U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said that the number of Marylanders asking her for nominations to military academies climbed to 278 this year, from 218 a year ago. The steepest increase -- some 70 percent over last year -- was among those with designs on the Naval Academy.

"My office has really been flooded," she said at yesterday's meeting in Annapolis. "I mean, this is stunning -- absolutely stunning."

The economy is another likely factor in the bump in interest in military academies: Students get free tuition and, along with their diploma, guaranteed jobs.

"You got parents' college funds taking a hit, and we all of a sudden become very attractive," says Rollie Stoneman, the associate admissions director at the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Col., where applications are pouring in at their highest rate in more than a decade.

At the Naval Academy, one in three candidates already offered admission have so far accepted -- up from one in five at this time last year.

In many ways, the service academies are benefiting from the same forces yielding record-size freshman classes at civilian campuses. The large mass of children born to baby boomers has been reaching college age. And in a slack economy, young people are hunting for degrees they think will make them more attractive to employers. Guidance counselors say that the competitive pressures are also propelling high schools students to submit applications to more colleges than they had in years past.

Over the 1990s, as the population of high school graduates soared, the military academies were left behind. From 1988 to 1998, applications to the Naval Academy plummeted from 15,057 to about 10,000 a year.

The college reacted with marketing pushes that tracked prospective candidates as early as junior high. This fall, the school held forums to recruit minorities and sponsored what it termed "admissions road shows" in four cities where midshipmen had just played varsity football games. Some 2,000 high school students and parents turned out.

As of this week, 12,926 people have applied to the academy, up from 11,039 over the same period last year. The sharpest jumps were among minorities and women, though the school appears to continue to struggle to attract blacks.

All are vying for one of the 1,180 coveted spots in the Class of 2007. Academy officials said yesterday that the larger pool would help admissions officers add more racial diversity to the brigade and choose from a wider spectrum of high-caliber students.

Congress passed legislation this year to raise the size of the student body from 4,000 to 4,400. But school officials say it could take several years to win the public funds to hire the staff and faculty to actually accommodate a larger class.

Sam Scalzi, a longtime guidance counselor at Severna Park High School, which sends one or two students to the academy each year, says that the country's war footing has not altered the fundamental appeal of the academy. "It's the idea of a really terrific education that doesn't cost anything," he said.

That was part of the draw for Sean M. Mazorol, 17, a classmate of Wilson's at Bend High School in Oregon who has a 3.7 GPA, is captain of the swim team and is executive officer of the school's Naval Junior ROTC program.

"The $250,000" -- the value of an academy education -- "yeah, that was a big factor," he said.