DURHAM, N.C. – Sunny Dawson ran two miles every other day when she started her freshman year at the University of Southern California. But the lure of the cafeteria near her dorm became too much to resist.

“Everyone I know went crazy, ‘Oh my God, pizza. Oh my God, ice cream,”‘ she said. Dawson soon stopped running and “started piling up the food in the cafeteria.”

By Christmas break, the 5-foot-10 native of Haleiwa, Hawaii, had gained 10 pounds.

“I realized I don’t have to be a victim of this and started making better choices,” she said. “I ate a lot of salads and cut out sodas altogether. By spring break I was normal again. I was stoked.”

As high school graduates start college this month and next, universities are offering a range of tools to help them avoid Dawson’s mistake.

While experts say the so-called “Freshman 15” is usually only 5 to 7 pounds, it’s a common experience for many college newcomers faced with unlimited cafeteria food, late-night pizza binges and snacking.

“The patterns and the habits that students get into in the first two to three months of school is what tends to carry them through the rest of their time on campus,” said Jen Ketterly, nutrition and fitness coordinator for campus health services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

At nearby Duke University, the private college of about 6,000 undergraduates offers an interactive nutrition workshop for freshmen with eating problems.

“A lot of kids really don’t have a clue of what they’re not supposed to eat and what constitutes a healthy diet,” says Jenny Favret, the nutrition manager at Duke’s Eating Disorders Program.

The problem isn’t always weight gain: Some new students lose weight because they’re no longer getting three meals a day from Mom and Dad.

“Often times students have a very difficult schedule. They don’t have enough time to eat (properly) so they eat a lot of snacks,” said Joshua Solano, 20, of Florida, who’ll be a junior at Duke this year.

“I actually lost a little weight from my irregular eating habits.”

Campus cafeterias have improved their menus over the years and now offer more healthy choices, such as salad bars, said Kim Dude, director of the Wellness Resource Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia.