The high-school seniors drifting in and out of the office in New York should be weighing financial-aid offers and deciding where to go to college. But some of them have yet to begin the process of applying for student aid. This article describes a nonprofit group in Harlem which gives last-minute help to students uncertain about applying for college admission and financial aid. Harlem RBI, a nonprofit program for inner-city kids, subsists largely on private donations. It also has a shiny new baseball field. And baseball, or softball, is what draws kids to the program. To play on the group's baseball or softball teams, the students are required to participate in its other programs, including college counseling. Children from the neighborhood are given preference in joining Harlem RBI, but the organization will accept applicants from other parts of the city if there is space. Almost all the students are from low-income families. The high-school seniors at Harlem RBI are exactly the kind of students whom need-based aid is designed to help. But that means very little unless they make it through the application process. A lot of this stuff is impossible until kids want it. For many of the students who show up at Harlem RBI, college is not a family expectation. They are unfamiliar with the admissions process--even the parts, like applying for student aid, that are designed to work in their favor. Most of the students attend underfinanced city high schools, and most will need the steppingstone of a community college before they are academically prepared to attend a four-year institution.