A number of colleges present college freshmen with an orientation kit. At some schools, the kit consists of pamphlets and booklets. Others are more generous, or more imaginative:

     Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles—A beeper.
     Reed College—A copy of Homer's The Iliad, which they are expected to read at once.
     Oberlin College—A CD-ROM of the college's art museum; a 10-minute long distance phone card; a coupon for a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.
     Hampshire College—Packets on good eating, healthy living and safe sex, with a condom.
     Loyola University, Chicago—An invitation to buy for $5 a goldfish, tank, food and gravel. "It's nice for them to have something to take care of," says an administrator.