By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

For families planning to see a child off to college in the next year or so, here are a couple of products that could help:

1. Two New Jersey high school guidance counselors are about to become friends to every Hawai'i family with a student contemplating college far from home.

Over the past few years, Cliff and Sami Kramon have filmed one-hour guided tours of 350 colleges across the country and abroad. For $15 plus postage they'll sell you a video of the college that intrigues you — far less than what it would cost for airfare, rental car and hotel accommodations necessary to visit that college.

"The good news is that we are guidance counselors, so we make sure our guides touch on all the topics we think important," Cliff Kramon said. "The bad news is we are guidance counselors and not Dreamworks. So our videos look like something your own guidance counselor might have produced. No background music. No mood shots. No carefully edited script read by a professional narrator. Just an average of one hour per college of reality footage."

How would you go about visiting Harvard, Duke, Dartmouth, Stanford, Rice, Northwestern, Wesleyan, University of Michigan, George Washington and Amherst, Kramon asked.

Or if your child's a "techie," how would you be able to swing visits to MIT, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Georgia Tech, Carnegie-Mellon, Lehigh, Rose-Hulman and Case Western, and also consider the math and engineering departments of the state universities, he said.

"We promise you will literally see and hear everything you would have experienced had you visited the college the day we did," he said.

The couple also suggest families use the videos to narrow down their school choices to focus on those they want to visit.

Visit their Web site at www.collegiatechoice.com for a list of the colleges or to order. Prices are $15 per video plus $8 shipping for up to four videos or $12 for shipping for five or more.

2. A new publication called "Countdown to College: 21 'To do' Lists for High School," is "guaranteed to get you where you want to go." Written by Valerie Pierce with Cheryl Rilly, it's a four-year guide.

Beginning with ninth grade, it makes suggestions on how to prepare for college, how to get on the "freshman fast track" and how to gain the maximum benefit from extracurricular activities. For instance, ninth-graders are told to begin volunteering to start building interests and expertise, not to mention a well-rounded résumé.

"Want a scholarship?" it asks. "Then use your summers to improve your skills in a sport ... the least you'll get out of it is being healthy."

It also suggests that students get in the habit of looking for upcoming programs — important for any college student trying to land a summer internship or that first job after college.

By the time the guide touches on junior and senior years in high school, it gets specific about financing college with lists of financial aid programs, how to write essays, how to improve SAT scores, even why there are advantages to starting your college career at a community college, including a financial break and no scrutiny of SATs.

With hundreds of tips for the four years of high school, this is the pre-college bible. It costs $9.95 and is available from Front Porch Press, 1724 Vassar Drive, Lansing, MI, 48912. Or call (888) 484-1997.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.