Majoring in Plastic

Still, in recent months, federal and state lawmakers have taken credit card companies to task for their marketing techniques.

Last month, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) introduced a bill that would, among other things, require credit card issuers to receive "opt-in" approval from consumers younger than 21 before mailing solicitations to them.

Also last month, the Maryland House of Delegates approved a bill that would ban companies from offering college students gifts to sign up for credit cards on campus or at school sporting events. The bill also would prohibit colleges from sharing student e-mail or postal addresses with card companies.

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann recently sued Citibank for allegedly handing out coupons for free sandwiches at Ohio State University without making it clear that the students would have to fill out credit card applications to redeem them. Citibank has said it used an outside marketing company and did not authorize the campaign.

According to the U.S. PIRG study, 76 percent of students reported stopping at tables on campus to apply for credit cards, and nearly one-third were offered a free gift to sign up.

Increasingly, however, college campuses are banning such practices. Locally, card issuers are not allowed to market on several campuses, including Georgetown University, the University of Maryland and Howard University.

Coleman suggested that students first think about whether they need a card or have the income to sustain one. If they decide they do, she said, they should research several offers rather than take one from a company giving out free food. Interest rates on cards geared toward college students vary wildly but tend to be higher because young people pose more of a risk.

"College students are bombarded with credit card applications," she said. "They have the tendency to think it's free money when really it isn't. Look at the interest rate, terms of payments, fees, penalties."

For those who get into serious debt, financial advisers said there are ways out.

Brent Neiser, director of strategic programs and alliances at the National Endowment for Financial Education, said students can turn to credit counselors and, most important, to their parents. Mom and Dad might not pay off the debt, but they could have some good ideas for dealing with it. Students should then cut their spending and think about getting second jobs.

Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com, which reviews credit cards, said students should also consider transferring their balances to cards with lower rates. And if they are deeply in debt, they should cut up the card, several advisers said.

Ramchandani, a junior at the University of Maryland, has a plan for paying off her debt. She and her mother researched several credit cards and found an American Express card that charges no interest for the first 14 months and has a $2,000 limit.

Eager to pay her own way through college, she charged whatever her student loans could not cover of this semester's tuition. She is working part time at the campus television station and does not spend much money on things she does not need.

"It's not the greatest idea in the world. It's risky," she acknowledged. "I know I can be one of those college students who falls into debt. That's one of my greatest fears."

Still, she plans to pay off her card by June, then charge next semester's tuition.