Applications to New Orleans colleges are soaring this spring, The Times-Picayune reports.

Many of the students who are applying came to the city as volunteers to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.

Applications have jumped nearly 100 percent at Tulane University compared with this time last year, the paper reports. They’re up 85 percent at the University of New Orleans, 43 percent at Our Lady of Holy Cross College, 28 percent at Xavier University of Louisiana, and 24 percent at Loyola University New Orleans.

After receiving nearly 34,000 applications, Tulane decided not to accept any more. “We have too many students to deal with, and there’s no use accepting a student we can’t accommodate,” said Earl Retif, registrar and vice president for enrollment management.

No one knows how many of these students will end up attending college in the Big Easy, but higher-education officials are nonetheless heartened about the colleges’ recovery.

“They’ve got a ways to go, but they’re making significant improvement,” said E. Joseph Savoie, the state’s commissioner of higher education. —Katherine Mangan