TAMPA Michael Halstead never thought he would start college at the University of South Florida.

But the Tulane University freshman had to make new plans after Hurricane Katrina sliced through New Orleans, causing his school to shut down and displacing Halstead, 18, and thousands of other students.

About 100 students from universities and colleges in Louisiana and Mississippi left their books and laptop computers behind, landing at USF in the wake of the killer storm. On Friday, the school held a luncheon to welcome them and give them a crash course in life at USF.

Halstead is one of 29 undergraduates from Tulane. That is the largest contingent of displaced undergraduates, followed by 16 from the University of New Orleans and 10 each from Xavier University of Louisiana and Loyola University New Orleans.

Halstead, who is from Melbourne, plans to return to Tulane -- students were told it would reopen in January. He never considered staying out of school until then.

"It will just be a minor hurdle," Halstead said. "In the overall scheme of things, I don't think it will affect my education."

USF has deferred the students' tuition and fees, so they could register without having to pay at this point, said Glen Besterfield, assistant dean for undergraduate studies.

USF took in students without transcripts, and professors willingly opened additional seats in their classes.

"We broke every rule in the book," Besterfield said.

Raynea Warren, a sophomore at Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans, is happy to be at USF, even though she doesn't know the condition of her home in New Orleans. Her school's campus is being used to house National Guard troops and police.

Warren, 18, an elementary education major and student body president, came from New Orleans with her grandmother to stay with relatives in Temple Terrace.

After Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, Warren and her grandmother went to University Hospital, where her grandmother works. They spent six days there, where there was no electricity, the toilets didn't work and evacuees didn't have enough food.

"I don't want to experience anything like that again," she said.

For Lauren Bridges, a Tulane freshman from Tampa, winding up at USF means an unexpected return to her hometown. The 2005 Plant High School graduate had expected to start her college life in a new city.

"I was looking forward to going away for school, and now I'm back," she said.