The University of Iowa graduate student knew she placed most of her long distance calls in the evening. So she studied the long distance rates her undergraduate college offered and quickly realized Stetson University's plan cost more than she needed to spend.

She saved a lot of money — she approximates 50 percent — by circumventing the long distance service her school set up and using Sprint's student plan instead. But since she lived in a dorm, her only relief from unbearable rates came in the form of a calling card. Still, she said, "the savings were enough to make it well worth dialing a few extra numbers."

Communications consultant Mahlan Houghton says too few students are as motivated as Preuss — they don't bother to look beyond the service their schools provide, and they often don't get the best rates.

Universities choose one long distance carrier for all their dorms because the buildings are difficult to wire, especially if rooms were to change carriers every year. "A university is similar to a hotel and is different than an apartment complex," said Houghton, of Global Net Communications. In an apartment your wiring is your own problem; in a dorm the university maintains it, Houghton explained.

So when colleges choose services, they often pick the ones that are simplest to install and administer. They lean toward services that offer students individual security codes, to prevent finger-pointing at bill time and to allow students flexibility in choosing where on-campus to settle in for private conversations. Student Telephone Services and AT&T College and University Solutions are popular among colleges that outsource billing.

Colleges aren't supposed to be swayed by kickback-type incentives long distance carriers use for bait, but Houghton concedes "some universities are just more considerate about their students than others."

Stetson senior Anthony Thompson was disgusted with his school's former AT&T rate plan and disorganized billing system, so he switched to a Sprint calling card. "[Stetson's plan] seemed satisfactory on paper, but the customer service and billing resulted in total dissatisfaction in how it was run," he said.

Meanwhile, St. Lawrence University in upstate New York manages its own system, providing students with free voice mail and school-issued phones. The school also sets its rates at 10 percent below AT&T's, says Fred Brousseau, the school's director of telecommunications. It also offers free rate comparison computations based on individual students' calling patterns. "Nine times out of 10, [our rates are] lower," he said.

RELATED STORY: Beat The (Phone) System It won't solve all your phone problems, but 10 free minutes of calls are better than nothing.

But since few schools are blessed with student-friendly phone services, Houghton recommends that students — and, perhaps more importantly, their parents — consider setting up personal toll-free numbers. Toll-free lines are "the greatest solution in the world, but people don't know about it," he said. At 10 or 11 cents a minute, toll-free lines usually beat even the best traditional long distance rates, and they're much cheaper than collect calls.

Students should also research Internet phone services — by dialing from one computer to another you can save big, especially on international calls. For example, the Internet Phone Company charges 50 cents a minute for a call from anywhere in the United States to Hong Kong. AT&T charges 61 cents a minute for the same call. AT&T is, however, offering 100 free minutes to callers who sign up for its trial Internet phone service, and Sprint lets you play in its Internet Conference Center for 10 minutes free.

AT&T, Sprint and MCI all offer student-oriented calling cards. They promise respectable domestic rates of 10 to 15 cents a minute. But Houghton warns students to watch out for hidden restrictions and unadvertised surcharges. "The marketing has gotten so good and the industry so complex that the user is left confused," he said. "It takes a rocket scientist to figure it out."