Jenna Miller, a junior at Albert Lea High School, is narrowing her college choices.

She already has a “short list” of colleges and universities that she is looking at as options.

“I think I’d like to go to a smaller school,” Miller said. “I want to be able to have that one-on-one interaction with my teachers.”

Miller, like many high school juniors, has been thinking about her college choice early, something that has become more common place in the past few years.

Mark Anderson, the dean of admissions at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., says his school has altered their recruiting techniques because of that, sending out information to younger students.

“I do see students starting their college search earlier,” Anderson said. “We get a lot of sophomores looking at our school.”

Last Wednesday night, Albert Lea High School hosted a college fair for juniors to attend with their parents.

Not too surprised, ALHS college counselor Rod Johnson said many sophomores and even a few freshmen – who were getting class credit to do so- attended the event.

Johnson said by sophomore year, students are usually beginning to think about the next step.

That step may be a stretch from the college recruiting and application experiences anyone older than age 21 has had. With the availability, high usership, and convenience of communications technology, recruiting now uses a wide variety of the tools available to them.

Johnson says that schools are now using e-mail and web pages as a way to reach students quickly and in the fashion of that generation.

He pulled up an e-mail from California Polytechnic State University. It looked a little like a Super Bowl half-time show, complete with sound, flashing pictures, and video.

“They really use a multi-media effort,” he said.

According to Dr. Wayne Sigler, the director of admissions for the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, the university’s recruiting techniques have followed suit.

“We try to help students discover our educational opportunities in as personalized way as possible,” Sigler said. This means that students who show interest on-line, will likely get most of the university’s recruiting information by e-mail, whereas others may prefer to get the information by mail.

“We definitely want to work with students in the format they prefer,” Sigler said.

Jenna Miller said she has, since taking her Practice SAT during her sophomore year, received a great amount of information from schools in both the “snail mail” fashion as well as through e-mail.

“I’d say it’s about half and half,” she said.

Johnson, who has served as a counselor at ALHS for 21 years, said the changes he has seen in the past four to five years have been dramatic.

Recruiting by colleges is starting to target younger students each year, and on top of the use of technology, he has seen an increase in other techniques used such as calls from students, alumni and staff from colleges. He also said that students are getting more personalized recruiting, with professors from departments of interest sending e-mails and making phone calls.

The recruitment game starting earlier, combined with a higher number of applicants to schools nationwide has had an effect on students.

Miller said she hasn’t felt too much stress over grades or test scores, but said she has many friends who are feeling that burden.

&uot;Some kids are feeling like they need to get their grades up,&uot; she said.

Her eyes already set on a few schools, and her grade performance good enough to get into them, she isn’t too worried.

Johnson said this is not the case for everyone. He said ALHS tries to impress on students how grades can make a large difference, but, as with many things, the students don’t believe it until they hear it from the colleges themselves.

It can be a stressful time for students, Johnson said, but if students are on top of things, the process can be done without too much of it.

Saturday, Miller, along with many of her college bound classmates, took the ACT, a college aptitude test.

Thursday, during her student work period at the college counseling office, she was studying for the test, calmly. She didn’t seem too overwhelmed.