"What we're trying to do is to get everybody on a level playing field. College students come in with varying degrees of knowledge about alcohol," said Leslie Haxby-McNeill, Miami University's prevention coordinator.

Although Miami University doesn't impose any penalties on freshmen who don't complete the course, Ohio University freshmen who fail to finish the program by midway through the school's first quarter are not allowed to register for the following semester.

The AlcoholEdu program, which is two to three hours in length, provides students with individualized feedback based on their drinking history. "The course isn't just about facts. It's about taking that and applying it to your individual decision making," said Brandon Busteed, founder and chief executive of Outside the Classroom, the Newton, Mass.-based group that produces AlcoholEdu.

Currently, 300 colleges and universities countrywide use the program for part of their student bodies, with 100 institutions using it for their entire freshman class.

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