WEST POINT, N.Y. — Applications to West Point are edging up after a multiyear, wartime dip, the academy's superintendent said.

Calling the increase a "pleasant surprise," Superintendent Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck said recently that he has so far been impressed with West Point.

The general, who has fought al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, took charge of the U.S. Military Academy in June.

"The academy is very, very healthy," he said.

As of August, the academy received 7,870 applicants for the class that will report in June 2007 — a 14 percent increase from the same time last year. Applications at West Point had dipped for several years following a spike generally attributed to post-Sept. 11 patriotism. The decreases, mirrored at other service academies, also played out amid mounting death tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan.

West Point's application deadline is six months away, but officials said the numbers so far exceed those posted before the Sept. 11 attacks.