TURLOCK -- Some people call these the lazy days of summer, but it feels more like boot camp for a group of 17- and 18-year-olds preparing for college.

They are out of bed at 7 a.m., and then attend lectures and study groups, with meals in between, until 9:30 p.m. at California State University, Stanislaus.

"It's exhausting, but I like it," said Raquel Maldonado, an 18-year-old from Keyes. "You have to be up and out of your dorm for, like, 14 hours."

It is the Summer Bridge Program for low-income students whose educational backgrounds indicate that the students might struggle in college.

Some of the 46 people in this summer's program have been accepted to Stanislaus State. Others are working to get in.

The three-week Bridge program has one more week to go. The students study math and English, learn time management and study skills, and get a firsthand taste of what college students experience.

Come fall, all of them should be better prepared for placement exams and tough college courses, Fernandon Beltran said. He coordinates Bridge, run through the Educational Opportunity Program and financed by a state grant.

Students stay in Stanislaus State dorm rooms during the Bridge program, though they do not spend much time in them. It is lights out at 10:30 p.m.

A key objective of the program is to get students used to depending on one another for help, Beltran said. In their first couple of years in college, many will be in the same classes.

"We find students, these in particular, don't get through university without a pretty solid support system," he said.

Roslynn Noble, a 21-year-old Stanislaus State psychology major and a Bridge employee, said the program "helps them make friends, and it helps them be more comfortable when they are here."

Noble sits in with Bridge participants during lectures and study groups. Later, she conducts hourlong Peer Assistant Learning sessions to answer questions.

Her PAL group includes Andrew McCrimon, 18, of Gilroy, who said he is leaning toward a business degree. Bridge is "helping us know where to go if you need help," he said.

Beltran said he is proud of the program's success. Often the speakers he brings in have gone through the program themselves.

"They're actually dotted all over the place," he said of Bridge "success stories."

One of them involves a married couple: Pat and Aracele Villapudua. They attended the Bridge program in the early 1990s. He is now a counselor at Turlock Junior High School and she is an academic adviser at Stanislaus State.

"I begged to get in," Aracele Villapudua said. She said she had good grades, but wanted to make friends and familiarize herself with the campus.

"If you know a little bit about the program, it targets low-income, first-generation incoming students, and that's me."