Colleges and universities in New Orleans saw a surge in applications and enrollment numbers for the upcoming school year, beyond the expectations of campus administrators who had seen substantial drops in the aftermath of Katrina.

Perhaps heeding a calling to make a difference in a rebuilding city, students flooded Tulane University with a record number of applications, causing the school to shut down its online application form and stop taking applications in January after numbers exceeded an unprecedented 34,000.

Tulane has received deposits from 1,601 students reflecting their intent to enroll. The numbers are nearly twice that of the 882 students who enrolled in the fall of 2006 and about 20 percent higher than last year’s incoming class of 1,324.

“I honestly thought we wouldn’t not be seeing numbers like this until 2010 at the earliest,” said Tulane University President Dr. Scott Cowen. “Students are attracted to being part of something larger than themselves, the resurrection of a great American city.”

In addition to quantity, Tulane is also boasting quality, as Cowen touted the incoming class as its most accomplished ever based on SAT/ACT scores and class rankings.

But Tulane is far from the only New Orleans school receiving renewed interest from students.

Loyola University said its number of applications was 20 percent higher than a year ago and the incoming class will be 40 percent larger.

"It's symbolic I think for the university to start to see these gains," said Salvadore Liberto, Vice President of Enrollment at Loyola. "Part of it's tied to the recovery of the city, great stories everyday, new things happening in the city that are energizing people."

The number of freshmen at Xavier University, a predominately black, Catholic University that was awash in floodwaters after Katrina is up 20 percent, while the University of New Orleans, a public university in the LSU system that was spared much of the worst of Katrina’s flooding, had its enrollment up substantially. The school said out of state applicants more than doubled.

And Our Lady of Holy Cross College, tucked into the Algiers section of New Orleans, which received none of Katrina’s floodwaters, but plenty of wind damage, reports that fall enrollment is just 35 students shy of pre-Katrina numbers.  

Tulane officials say they've had to overcome a national negative image of the city.

Faye Tydlaska, who works with Tulane’s enrollment office says, "We still get a lot of questions about crime and about the levees and about Katrina, but we are able to talk to them and tell them that you know we are a big city like any other city and you have to exercise common sense."

Officials at both Tulane and Loyola said they're getting plenty of interest from high school students from around the country who come to help rebuild the city, then decide to stay.

"We're seeing perceptions of the city change. People understand that it's a place where you want to be," said Tydlaska.