For Charlie Eckman, summer school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville means a chance to meet professors, hang out in the library and bone up on cognitive psychology. But the best part may be the dorms. "In Cub Scout camp, we had to sleep in tents," says Charlie, an 11-year-old whose parents enrolled him in the college's booming kids' camp. "This is pretty cool."

In the latest twist on summer school, universities are offering an ever-younger group of kids an early shot at college life. Really early, in fact. At the University of Richmond in Virginia, five year olds can take a storytelling class -- PowerPoint instruction included -- and teens at Penn State are offered forensic science, "CSI" style. There's even a combination science-and-dance program ("Moving Inventors") at Arizona State. And while colleges say grooming future students and extra revenue are two of the main motives, few are passing up a chance to do a little early recruiting. One activity for kids at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.? Learning the college fight song.

"Students make their first list of colleges in eighth grade," says Tina Gilliland, of Indiana University's new children's science camp, where kids will learn to identify chemical compounds -- and go home with an Indiana bandana. "Every time I get a chance to tag the school's name onto anything, I do it."

But will it get your kids into a better college? University officials insist these kids won't get any special treatment years down the road, and Duke even prints a disclaimer in its brochure. Still, Ruth Crespo, a stay-at-home mom in New York, thinks it's worth paying $3,000 to send her 11-year-old son to Bryn Mawr's co-ed summer school to study algebra and public speaking in hopes of impressing future Ivy league schools. "Every little bit helps," she says.

This isn't the first time, of course, that colleges have opened up their halls in the summer. Harvard, for example, has a program dating to the '70s that lets high-school juniors and seniors warm up for college with summer-school courses in a variety of areas including economics and Japanese. And schools like Duke and Johns Hopkins have built prestigious programs in math, science and humanities costing $1,100 or more. But most of these programs have been aimed at gifted older students, requiring high test scores and recommendations to get in.

Now, a growing number of schools, including more elite ones, are giving the class of 2020 a shot, with some decent money at stake. George Washington's "Summer Tour" class costs $715 for a two-week day program, sprinkling things such as badminton and candy-making in with classes on robotic medical equipment and courtroom procedure. (Kids also get a free group photo, T-shirt and water bottle.) They've already filled 600 slots for this summer, and school officials expect to clear a profit within a few years.

High Intensity

Depending on the school, programs can vary a great deal. At the low end, one-day seminars can cost several hundred dollars (or for $100, the University of Delaware will mail math quizzes home to middle-schoolers). And even with some of the fancier programs, teachers often aren't college instructors, but instead come from high schools or grade schools (colleges say these folks are better trained to handle young kids). Then there's the burnout factor: Experts like Pam Abrams, who oversees family and parenting magazines at publishing house Scholastic, say hanging out on a college campus may simply be too intense for little kids. "They need downtime to recharge," she adds.

Still, 13-year-old James Deitz says he's ready to "expand my mind" at a college writing program this summer (he'll also study what happens if a giant asteroid hits the earth). The seventh-grader from Holland, Pa., says one of his teachers suggested summer college based on his grades. "My friends think I'm going to nerd camp," he says.

Making the Soft Sell

In fact, most schools say they're working on how to make the programs seem more fun for kids while keeping the brain appeal for parents. In the evenings, students work on homework they didn't finish in class, then often head out to an activity like a talent show or casino night. Many times, the biggest hit comes on the weekends, when kids take field trips to museums and amusement parks. "It's a softer sell," says Jim Narduzzi, a dean at the University of Richmond, which teaches Web design to five year olds.

Now more schools are getting into the game. In the Ivies, Brown will launch a program next summer catering to seventh and eighth graders, including engineering and planetary science. Pepperdine, meanwhile, has just added a middle-school science camp alongside its seminars for high-school juniors, while Johns Hopkins and Stanford are expanding existing programs. And even kindergartners can sample MIT, thanks to a new class about holograms at the university museum (no SAT scores required).

But for Charlie Eckman, the 11-year-old heading off to the University of Virginia, the summer will be about pizza, friends and getting the hang of abstract art. He figures he's got to work hard to be able to get into college someday, probably to MIT. "I heard it's the top tech school in the country.