CAMPUS & CAREERS GUIDE : Computers Help Redefine Search for the Right College : Technology: Students can scan databases for institutions that fit their needs best, and hone their skills on sample admissions exams.

Rachel Rosenberg clicked her way through the computer program, checking out the college scene.

She was looking for an East Coast school that had a women’s soccer program, a large student body and a campus in or near a large city. She answered several questions posed by the computer to further refine her interests, then pushed a button. Up popped the names of two schools--the State University of New York at Albany and the University of Virginia--that matched her needs.

Rosenberg, a sophomore at Los Angeles’ Westchester High School, was being guided by College View, one of dozens of new high-tech devices that have redefined the college search process.

Going, and quickly, are the days when high school seniors would pick out a few schools, write off for their catalogues, then spend weeks filling out applications in longhand.

Today, there are computer programs that perform all manner of tasks, from helping students compare colleges to providing a floppy disk that replaces paper as the application form. They are quickly finding their way into guidance counselors’ offices and home computers nationwide. At Westchester, there is even a computer with a college entrance exam program in the gym, so the school’s athletes can practice their test-taking skills and improve their chances of being accepted by the colleges of their choice.

Rosenberg was able to find pertinent facts about the New York school and printed out four single-spaced pages of information, including admissions and financial aid data, the university’s ethnic breakdown, costs and student body size.

Next on the computer was senior DeQuincy Lezine, who pulled up the form letter to the admissions director at Brown University. Lezine punched a button and his personal profile--including grade-point average, class ranking and college entrance scores--were placed on the appropriate lines.

He typed in his request for an application and computer science course information. From there, it was only a matter of printing out the form and sending it to the address at the top of the page.

“We have four search programs and the computers are being used constantly,” Westchester college counselor Ester Hugo said. “It gives (students) access to information they wouldn’t have.”

Not to mention just being fun. As a measure of how popular the programs have become, Hugo said, she often allows students from nearby private schools that lack such computer wizardry to use the college search software.

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The benefit of the computer search programs, she said, is that they widen the college choices for students, many of whom have little if any idea of which schools might be a good match for them.

“They might have had only one or two institutions in mind when there are 25 or 30 schools out there that would be a fit,” Hugo said.

And, she said, they make the application process so easy that students who might have shied away from higher education because they were intimidated by the protracted pencil and paper process are using the computer to test the college waters.

High school counselors and college admissions officials say the number of students using computer technology is rising rapidly. And the price of the software ranges from free to cheap.

“When we heard what it was capable of doing for our students, we were really jazzed about it,” said Sister Beatrice Garcia of San Gabriel Mission High School. “The price was just great and waived (for us) if there was a need.”

The world of technology and the process of getting into college--from boning up for admissions tests to the application process--is still a very recent marriage, one in which there are occasionally problems.

Late last year, a controversy developed over whether it was possible to break the security on the computer version of the Graduate Record Exam. Still, there has been a great leap forward in terms of what is available to high school students who are college-bound.

“It’s a whole new ball game,” said Tom Curtin, a Massachusetts high school counselor. “Most people now are far more comfortable with the computers. No one has typewriters anymore.”

Curtin said he would not be surprised if half of his graduating seniors applied to college using a floppy disk, a far cry from two years ago when only a handful trusted the computer to complete their applications.

Nica Ganley, who heads the nonprofit College Board’s ExPan computer project, said the beauty of such programs is that they demystify the college application process. In the case of ExPan, students begin compiling their portfolios when they are high school freshmen.

“It gives the kids information earlier in their academic careers,” she said. “The application process becomes much friendlier.”

One side benefit is that applying via computer tends to alleviate the parent-child conflicts that begin to build as application deadlines approach. Filling out and mailing applications is often something students put off until the last moment, much to the chagrin of their parents.

“Sometimes, getting an application in is like giving birth,” guidance counselor Linda Shapiro said.

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The use of computers in the college application process begins early. There are diagnostic exams that let students take full-length college entrance tests at home on their computers and have them scored immediately--giving them an instant analysis of their test-taking skills.

Other programs allow students to fill out a questionnaire using a computer that can be used to apply to hundreds of colleges and universities at minimal cost, saving money as well as time.

At Washington University in St. Louis, the school is giving out free application software because it has become the preferred method of seeking admission there.

“We are concerned about the application process and the way it affects students in their senior year” of high school, said Harold Wingood, dean of admissions.

“The hoops through which we make students jump are too burdensome and don’t add to the academic experience. This helps them have a better senior year and gives us better data and cleaner applications more quickly,” he said.

In California, there is a wide range in how a student can apply for admission to college. The California State system will send a floppy disk that can be filled in on computer and mailed to the university, which then transfers application information into a main computer.

The University of California plans to be on-line within the next couple of years with a system that would allow students to bypass disks altogether and access the school’s computer system early in the admissions process. That way, the university could compile a profile of a prospective student while the student is getting requested information from the school.

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“What we are trying to do is eliminate the disk and go right to a fully electronic approach so students can sit down at a computer at school and, bingo, the information they want is sent directly from the university,” UCLA admissions Director Rae Lee Siporin said.

This year, UC Riverside is sending out a CD-ROM that gives students a walking tour of the school.

And USC is offering a $15 discount for those who fill out their application via floppy disk.

“We wanted to encourage students to use the disk because it makes a much better copy for us and it allows us to skip a whole step where we have to keyboard the application into the system,” admissions Director Joe Allen said. “It is, in fact, less costly for us to process the application.”

Allen estimates that a third of the school’s applicants will apply by floppy disk this year, up from 20% a year ago. And he said the school is in the process of devising a way for foreign students to use the Internet to submit an application by dialing up a local number and downloading the form.

Back at Westchester High School, Hugo, the counselor, was getting ready for yet another lesson in how to use the computers. She said the students were adapting to the process, but that parents were very much in the dark about the new way of doing things.

“They are shocked every time I mention it,” she said.