Long Lines, Computer Punchcards Were Hallmarks of Registration

Registration workers help students pick classes for coming semester
11/21/2011

Registration workers in 1977 helped 1,800 students fill out all the necessary forms in two days rather than the three days of past years, according to information from the ESF College Archives. According to then-Admissions Director Robert L. Friedman, more than 1,900 people applied for admission as freshmen.

"Most of the freshman class comes from New York state," he said, "and the overall academic credentials of the freshmen are exemplary: the mean high school average is 91.3 and the math/science average is 92.1."

Today students register online from the comfort and convenience of their dorm room or wherever they're sitting with their laptops, smartphones, or iPads. Today's freshmen class is 56 percent female, putting women in the class majority for only the second time in the College's 100-year history (the first was in 2009). Twenty-five percent of the class is from outside New York state.

The freshmen enter ESF with the highest high school grades and college entrance examination scores (SAT/ACT) of any class on record.

However, you might be hardpressed to find a freshman who knows what a punchcard is.