Like many Twin Ports-area colleges, the College of St. Scholastica is seeing a record enrollment this year.

"This is really a monumental class for us," said Brian Dalton, St. Scholastica vice president of enrollment management. "It is the largest in our history. Overall enrollment should be pushing 2,500. Last year, we enrolled 2,200 -- which was then the largest we had ever been."

Like many colleges, St. Scholastica won't have official attendance numbers until later this month.

With growth, however, can come growing pains. Not only are more students attending St. Scholastica, more students are also living on campus.

The college pressed every lounge and meeting room in Somers Hall into service as dorm rooms to house an overflow of 41 students.

Eight women share a fourth-floor lounge/classroom aptly called the Penthouse. The large room has windows in all four walls, offering expansive views of the campus and beyond.

"When it's not foggy, we can see the lake," said Heather Peterson, a freshman from Cambridge, Minn.

"I really like it," said Sandra Sandstrom, a freshman from Sturgeon Lake. "I like how big it is."

The one drawback, she said, is the lack of privacy.

"We can't have any alone time," she said.

St. Scholastica's record enrollment, and those of other area colleges, mirror what's happening nationwide, where college enrollment is expected to set a record for the fifth year running.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 15.6 million students are expected to attend colleges and universities this year, a 1.3 percent increase over last year.

And the department expects the growth to continue. As the number of Americans in the traditional college-age range increases, college enrollment is expected to set records annually for the next several years before reaching 17.7 million in 2012.

A growing population, however, is likely only one reason college enrollments are up this year.

"We've found that when the economy is strong, our enrollment drops as more people enter the work force instead of going to school," Minnesota State Colleges and Universities spokeswoman Linda Kohl said. " And when the economy is bad, our enrollments generally increase."

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities has 34 institutions across the state. Early indications are that its numbers are up from last year. And last year set an attendance record.

The University of Minnesota Duluth is also setting record enrollments. It's projecting an enrollment of 9,700, up from 9,380 last fall.

The University of Wisconsin-Superior also saw a growth in enrollment, much to the surprise of campus officials.

"We increased admission standards this year, and we had the admission freeze that regents put in place in the spring" while state lawmakers debated the budget, said Jim Miller, UWS director of enrollment services.

Despite the tougher standards and the several-week-long admission freeze, Miller expects UWS will end up with between 2,850 and 2,900 students. Last year, UWS had just more than 2,800 students.

UWS is trying to hold its enrollment right around the current -- and manageable -- level, Miller said.

The area's technical and community colleges also saw their enrollments increase. Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College-Superior has the equivalent of 284 full-time students this fall -- a 19.8 percent increase over last year.

Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College had 1,129 students Thursday -- a 12.1 percent increase over last fall.

"That is an all-time record," college spokesman Tom Urbanski said.

The number of full-time equivalent enrollments increased even more, growing 18.3 percent to 775.

Full-time equivalent enrollments are determined by dividing the number of credit hours students are registered for by 15.

"We're pretty happy with the growth," Urbanski said. "We've had three years of double-digit increases" in full-time equivalent enrollments.

Lake Superior College also set an enrollment record this year. It has 3,528 students and 2,569 full-time equivalent enrollments. That's a 6.2 percent increase over last year.

"All of our growth is in online instruction," college spokesman Gary Kruchowski said.

The number of online credits Lake Superior College students registered for nearly doubled between last fall and this year. Online classes now account for about 12 percent of all the credit hours taken at the school.

The appeal of attending college at home vie e-mail and the Internet will likely increase. The college recently received a $227,000 grant from Minnesota State Colleges and Universities to increase its online offering of courses that transfer between the system's schools.