Loyola is ahead of where it was last year in its number of prospective students.

In the coming year, Loyola will welcome at least 700 freshman and 125 re-admit and transfer students.

“This year, the number of applicants is closer to that of record-breaking 2005 (991 incoming freshman) before Katrina,” said chemistry junior Danielle Bourgeois, a Loyola Ambassador.

This year, the admissions decided to alter its recruiting approach. Loyola increased the emphasis on online applications for prospective students and made postcards to increase publicity of the city, said Debbie Stieffel, Dean of Admissions.

Despite these efforts, the number of incoming students is still lower than in recent years.

“Everything is dependent on the city,” said Debbie Stieffel, Dean of Admissions. And right now, she said, the publicity of the city is bad.

To counter this negative view of New Orleans, Stieffel said the admissions department decided to send postcards to incoming students highlighting things going on around the city. These recruiting postcards, called “The Adventures of Michelle and Stephen,” are mailed every month to incoming freshmen. They feature two Loyola students going around the city, doing things like eating crawfish and going to Mardi Gras.

Along with the new postcards, Admissions is getting help from alumni and current undergraduates. They are meeting with high school seniors in an effort to recruit them, Steiffel said.

Stieffel says this process of “spreading the word” is working, because this year Loyola had in approximately 700-800 tours of prospective students coming to check out the school and New Orleans.

“If they come to look at the school, they will see that New Orleans is not bad,” said Stieffel.

This coming year, the admissions department plans to continue its changes to the recruitment process, with the hope that the image of New Orleans will improve. “[Parents] are very aware of the time in New Orleans, and they believe that the safety of the students is not what it was before Katrina” Bourgeois said.

As for Admissions, “We are taking things from month to month, and putting our best guess on the coming years,” Stieffel said.

Stieffel recently accepted a position in the Admissions department at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, citing unhappiness with New Orleans as a primary motivating factor. However, she said her decision should not affect the size of the incoming class.

Rachel Funel can be reached at [email protected].