Walking down the third-floor hallway of the high-rise Newport Beach hotel Monday afternoon, Elsa Ramon was so nervous she began to sweat.

"Why am I doing this?" she wondered as she scanned the doors, looking for Room 309.

The 18-year-old UC Irvine drama major said she had spent a month debating what to do. In fact, she said that at the last minute she had all but decided to back out, until some guys in her campus dorm encouraged her to go ahead.

As the former high school cheerleader faced the door to Room 309, she mustered all of her courage, thinking, "I'm here. I came this far. I might as well do it."

She knocked softly on the door and went in.

For Ramon and other young UCI and Cal State Fullerton women who made the walk down the Marriott Suites hallway this week, entering Room 309 represented the opportunity of a lifetime--even if most of them cringed at the thought of telling their parents what they had done: They were interviewed for a chance to represent their campuses in Playboy magazine's annual fall college football conference pictorial.

The young women may have been nervous, but inside Room 309 it was business as usual for veteran Playboy photographer David Chan.

"Hi, I'm David," the soft-spoken, slightly built photographer said to his latest arrival.

"My name's Elsa," Ramon said shyly, sitting down on the sofa in the suite's small living room.

As Chan prepared to shoot Polaroid pictures of Cal State Fullerton criminal justice major Joanne Joye on the balcony, Ramon picked up a Playboy application from the stack on the coffee table.

The form requests the kind of vital statistics that make Playboy one of the nation's most popular men's magazines--and one scorned by feminists: Applicants must fill in everything from their height, weight and hair color to bust, cup, waist and hip measurements.

Then there's the last--and most critical--item on the list: "I would like to pose: nude, semi-nude, clothed." (Ramon chose clothed and semi-nude.)

While waiting her turn to be photographed, she explained why she was there:

"Well, I'm usually a study bookworm and I thought I'm just going to do something that's not me at all. I think it would be neat to be a part of the so-called American pastime."

Which, she added with a photogenic smile, "is Playboy magazine."

Ramon is not alone in wanting to be a part of what long ago became an American institution.