The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have all been on television longer than the average length of a Penn State student's life.

What exactly has kept these game shows on so long is one question. But a more important question is how the average college student can get on these shows.

The Price is Right is doing its part Saturday night at 9 with a special episode saluting college students. All three shows occasionally feature college specials in which students from different schools compete to show their supremacy, at least as far as game show ability is concerned, while other students stay at home and live vicariously through their university's representative.

"I love when someone from a no-name school beats someone from Yale," said Gordon Wells (sophomore-hotel, restaurant and institutional management), just one of many students who watch these enticing game shows on a regular basis.

Of the big three shows, it's probably easiest to become a contestant on The Price is Right. Anyone can visit the show's Web site and request tickets to its tapings. The most difficult part of attending is getting to southern California, where the show is filmed.

Once there, potential contestants must wait in line, because the show gives tickets to all who ask, and it's first-come first-serve.

Jamie Lasky (junior-biology) went to the show recently and spoke very fondly of the experience. "We got in line at 4 a.m., and there were still over 170 people in front of us," she said. "But I would definitely do it again."

Wheel of Fortune has a different approach to find contestants. The show has a bus that drives around the country, auditioning thousands of applicants. An applicant must participate in a brief interview and play a version of the game. The most promising applicants are asked back for a second round in which they must play another version of the game. Contestants are then chosen based on their appeal or skill. Still, the grueling process could be worth it for the chance to say, "Pat, I'd like to solve the puzzle."

Jeopardy! is the most intellectual show of the three. The procedure to be on it is stiff. For Jeopardy!'s college edition, students have a chance against the doctors and lawyers usually seen on stage.

"I would definitely try out if I had the chance," Erinn Kane (junior-special education) said.

Kane just might have that chance this summer. Jeopardy! is hosting interviews for its College Championship in May in Nashville, Tenn., for those who can get down there. But if you just want to attend the show and can refrain from screaming the answers at the contestants, all you have to do is request tickets.

But if money is all that matters, The Price is Right would be the most profitable. The show's new Saturday night edition makes millionaires overnight.

"The showcases are worth twice as much, and if you spin $1 twice on the showcase wheel, they give you a $1 million," Lasky said.

The best that can be done on Wheel of Fortune is the $100,000 grand prize, and the highest one-day winner on Jeopardy! only won $52,000.

So instead of playing only at home, why not "come on down!"