Please start using PDO.
mysql_* is deprecated as of PHP 5.5.0 and will be removed entirely in 7. Let's make it easier to upgrade and start using it now.
$dbh = new \PDO($dsn, $user, $password);
$sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT count(*) as total from Students');
$sth->execute();
print_r($sth->fetchColumn());