Families: College Prep Starts Early

At Dolores Huerta Elementary School in Norwalk, Calif., Juan Carlos Ledezma's third-grade class was visited by Amanda Donohue and Antonio Garcia, two Whittier College students who had come to tell the roomful of 10-year-olds all about their college. The Whittier pair also invited the kids to visit the campus and to stay in touch with them and other Whittier undergrads who could answer questions ranging from what the food is like to how easy it is to make friends at college. It was, plain and simple, a recruiting mission. "By letting current students tell their stories," says Donald Bremme, associate professor of education and faculty coordinator of Whittier's program, "we hope to catch younger kids before the alternative attractions show up."

At such a young age? Because of a growing recognition that colleges need to reach out if they are to attract the best and brightest applicants from an increasingly diverse population, and because parents are more anxious than ever about their children's prospects for higher education, "tracking"--or predetermining kids' educational and career paths--has become the latest strategy in the college-admissions game. "Kids need to hear the message that anyone can go to college and need to know how to make that possible," says Diana Phillips, director of the U.S. Department of Education's middle school initiative, Think College Early. "In many households, the idea of talking about college doesn't exist," says Phillips, whose program's goal is to let all kids, regardless of family income or their parents' educational level, know they have a chance to earn a college degree.

"All kinds of initiatives are springing up all over the country," says Ann Coles, executive director of the Higher Education Information Center and founder of Kids to College, a program that each year gives 2,000 Massachusetts grade school youngsters a chance to learn about and see colleges. In 1991, when Kids to College began, there were about 20 such programs in the country. Today, she says, there are more than 1,000, including ones sponsored by Exxon and the AFL-CIO.

It may seem premature to expose third-graders to an ordeal that will be hard enough when they are 17-year-old high school seniors. But since it is probably inevitable and possibly even helpful, here are some tips from admissions officers and college counselors on how to get a healthy jump on college:

--Visit colleges early. You don't have to decide which one your child will attend, but introducing him to campus life makes it easier to set personal goals.

--Build strong language, math and critical-thinking skills early by playing educational games at home. Encourage your child to take the most challenging courses offered in school. Stanford boasts that its freshman class usually comprises students who have taken the toughest classes offered--and earned A's.

--Encourage her to play a sport or engage in some other extracurricular activity. Even the most highly selective colleges seek students who can do more than press their nose to the books.

As your child moves into high school, the search becomes more precise:

--Investigate prerequisites at schools your child may consider. As more colleges begin to require proficiency exams, many students are assigned to remedial courses regardless of their high school transcript.