As of Monday, 7,177 students had registered to attend Nicholls. Of those students, only 6,177 had paid their fees and activated them. Although registration numbers are down from last year, the number of paid and activated students is up.

Enrollment for the fall semester was kicked off with early registration in April.

“Early registration is beneficial for any semester because it gives the University a basic idea of what courses are needed and which classes will fill up,” Kelly Rodrigue, director of enrollment services and registrar, said.

Early registration also helps with financial aid services.

“If we did not have early registration, we would not register until August. Virtually everything would be semi-processed,” Rodrigue said.

For first time freshmen, not only did the admission standards change, but the registration process changed as well.

“1,683 first time freshmen came to orientation from April to August to enroll,” Courtney Cassard, assistant director of enrollment services, said.

Cassard also said that the average ACT score through July for first-time freshmen was a 19.61 which is up from last year’s 19.22.

Freshmen, on their first day of orientation, completed their schedule requests to register, and turned them in. These requests were processed that night and the problems were fixed without the student present.

“On the second day, those students who had problems with classes were able to talk to someone to get it straightened out,” Rodrigue said.

“We just started it this year and it worked wonderful,” he said.

Doing registration for first-time freshmen this way, allowed for problems like filled up sections to be handled with out the student.

“Regular registration and drop-and-add went no differently than normal this year,” he said.

“The only problem we had was when the electricity went out Monday,” Rodrigue said.

The new admission standards, however, may have had some effect on enrollment and registration this semester.

“As of Monday, at 8 a.m., from last fall to this fall, Nicholls was down 214 registered students, but up 165 paid and activated,” he said.

Based on these preliminary numbers, Rodrigue said it looks like the University is going to be down for several reasons.

“The graduation numbers in the parish feeder area are down slightly this year from last year, so there is physically less number of freshmen available to go into college after graduating high school,” he said.

Registration is easier for students now than it had been in past years.

“You used to have to fill out a scantron and put it through a slot. They scanned it, processed it, and it either spat out on the good side or the bad side,” Rodrigue said.

“Students now have the option of going to the ballroom, using the touch tone services or going to their advisors’ offices to register and have problems taken care of right away,” he said.

“Hopefully, next year we will have the Ballroom, office, touch tone and the web if everything goes well,” Rodrigue said.

As far as admissions is concerned, the admissions office is unsure whether the new standards had a huge effect on enrollment or registration at this time. The final statistics will not be available until after the 14th class day, Cassard said.

The University does know that the admission standards seem to be beneficial.

“What we have seen from early on, especially with first time freshmen, through the July orientation, is that we had a pretty significant rise in the composite ACT score,” she said.

Cassard also said that through July, more developmental classes were available than in previous years.

“(This led us) to believe that not as many people needed developmental courses. Therefore, the ACT scores were up. Students are becoming more prepared for college level work,” she said.

“The state wide standards seem to be motivating students to do well and take college prep courses in high school to begin preparation for college.

“Some early indications do suggest that a few more students tried to go through community college systems,” she said.

“However, our two year degree program is still open admissions, so everybody is still welcomed at Nicholls,” Cassard said.