With fund raising becoming increasingly import in high education, closer attention is being paid to the methods universities use to bring money into the schools.

Penn State raised $82.5 million for fiscal year 1994, which ended on June 30.

Some universities have begun using information obtained from admissions applications to target the parents that the schools determine to be more financially capable of donating to the university.

G. David Gearhart, senior vice president for development and University relations, said Penn State does not target any particular group of potential donors differently.

"Really the issue is the ability of the friend or alumnus to give at a level they are comfortable with," he said.

But Daniel Saftig, director of annual giving at the University, said the University does try to become familiar with the ages of prospective donors and the types of business they are in, through visits and discussions.

"It's a common practice. Our prospects appreciate that we've done our homework. It's a matter of targeting our efforts in the best possible way," he said.

Saftig's office focuses primarily on raising money from alumni and uses a combination of direct mail and telephone contacts, including The Lion Line, which employs 115 student callers.

In fiscal year 1994, The Lion Line raised $1.3 million for academic programs at the University from parents and alumni, said Nicholas Ferrara, assistant director of annual giving who works with The Lion Line.

"We sit down and map out our calendar year. We place alumni into different groups, and we decide who we want to phone first and who we want to mail first," he said. The alumni are grouped according to whether and when they have donated money to the University in the past.

Instead of targeting alumni or parents differently based on how much money they make, Ferrara said at The Lion Line, the only information the callers have available to them is whether the person has donated money in the past.

Gearhart said the University works with and shares ideas on improving fund-raising with other Big Ten universities and a national council for advancement in support of education.

Saftig said the amount of money the University raises is a vote of confidence from the people who are making the donations.

"Last year we had more than 100,000 donors. People wouldn't give if they didn't have confidence in the University," he said.