BRETT PRAGER:HEAD OF THE CLASS Available to Purchase

With colleges under constant pressure to keep tuition down, it's not surprising that many are looking for a prescription for cutting costs in their student health programs. For the past three years, Collegiate Health Care has offered them just such an option. The only managed healthcare company specializing in the college market, Collegiate Health helps schools privatize their student health centers and run them more efficiently and businesslike. Since signing its first client, Connecticut's Sacred Heart University, in 1993, Collegiate has won management contracts at 13 schools and less formal relationships with six others. Most are small colleges like the University of Hartford in Connecticut and Cedar Crest College in Pennsylvania. This year, Collegiate Health jumped a grade, signing up Idaho's Boise State University, with a student body of 15,000.