By Maggie Downs
Enquirer staff writer

Meeting new people. Getting along with a new roommate. Unpacking so, so many boxes of stuff. That's what Lindsey Romes, 18, of Loveland was concerned with when she moved into Miami University on Friday.

At most Tristate campuses, many students have already started moving into dorms. Classes begin in the next few days.

Sissy Allen and her daughter Kristin try to figure out how they got stuck carrying Chelsea Allen's personal effects to her dorm room during Miami University's move in day. Chelsea, an incoming freshman from Lancaster, Ohio, stayed in her room to start unpacking. (Enquirer photo/THOMAS E. WITTE)

Here's what Romes wasn't thinking about - new low-carb options at the dining hall, a parking garage that will open in 2005, an ice arena planned for the next year.

The more than 81,000 area college students who will be hitting the books this year will find all kinds of new things on campus this year. But while schools are trying to woo new students, some students are looking at the old-school aspects of a university. They want a comfortable campus size. They want decent sports programs. They want a good academic reputation.

"Miami was the only school I applied to in Ohio," said Romes, who will be a business major. "I liked how I felt when I was on the campus."

While Northern Kentucky University boasts a high-tech classroom with a domed room and Imax-like projections that will open in spring, Kristy Hils, 18, of Fort Thomas is simply looking for a solid education in public relations.

"I looked at a couple other colleges," she said. "But they have a really great communications department. The whole campus just seemed right."

New at Xavier University is basketball coach Sean Miller, who many hope will bring the school to another Elite Eight appearance in the NCAA tournament.

But Katie Pontius, 18, of Loveland, cares more about the school's Jesuit foundation.

"I want to be developing spiritually as well as academically," she said.

Recent tuition increases haven't deterred students, as record enrollments at Xavier University, the College of Mount St. Joseph and Northern Kentucky University can attest.

Xavier University's freshman class will be made up of 886 students, up from786 last year.

The College of Mount St. Joseph is bringing in the largest freshman class in 15 years - 317 students, an 18.7 percent increase over last year.

Northern Kentucky University will have their largest enrollment ever with more then 2,000 freshman, with total enrollment jumping approximately 2 percent.

Miami will see a record in minority enrollment, with 356 minority students among the first-year class of 3,540. Last fall, minority students totaled 227, about 6.7 percent of the entering class.

Many schools will see expansions of their facilities, new academic programs and more, like the following:

• Northern Kentucky University starts Monday for about 14,500 students.

What's new: Parking garage will triple parking spaces to 680 by the end of the school year. More "smart" classrooms feature high-speed Internet access, digital cameras and other technology.

A "digital classroom" opens in spring, a domed room like a planetarium, but with Imax-like projections on walls and ceiling. The draining and remaking of "Lake Inferior" in center campus begins.

"I have to admit, the new parking will be nice," Hils said.

• College of Mount St. Joseph starts Monday for about 2,200 students.

What's new: Sports complex opens Sept. 4 for football, soccer, and track and field. New majors include criminology/sociology and dual majors involving aging services. A new master's degree in nursing program starts.

• Miami University opens Tuesday for about 16,300 students.

What's new: More and expanded food selections. There's a new engineering major. Incoming students plan their dorm rooms online, getting measurements for windows, closets and layout with the move of a mouse. WiFi wireless services will stretch throughout the campus this year.

"The campus-wide Internet is attractive to me because I have a laptop, and I know a lot of other colleges have it," Romes said.

• Xavier University starts Wednesday for about 6,600 students.

What's new: The Patriot Club is a new nonpartisan student group promoting student voter registration and participation in politics. Cathy McDaniels Wilson, a psychology professor, will oversee the Dialogue Zone and Healing through History programs at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center downtown.

• Thomas More College starts Wednesday for about 800 full-time students.

What's new: New bachelor's degree in political science. Men's and women's cross-country running adds to its athletics. Faculty put syllabuses on a Web site. The library added new classrooms, services and an elevator for students with disabilities, more small-group study space and a teachers' resource room.

Classes at the University of Cincinnati, the region's largest university, don't begin until Sept. 22.

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Enquirer staff writer Denise Amos contributed. E-mail mdowns@enquirer.com