Category — Admission and Orientation

Your soon-to-be college student may have received her first homework assignment well before she showed up on campus.  For many incoming freshman, their first assignment is a bit of summer reading. Your student may be asked to read an assigned book prior to Orientation, or she may be given the assignment at a Summer Orientation and asked to read the book before school begins in September.  At some schools students are given a copy of the book, while at other schools students are asked to purchase their own copy.

If your student was not expecting a summer assignment, he may be surprised – and even annoyed at having to do work over the summer.  As a parent, you may also be wondering why your student needs to get this “head start” before the first semester even begins.  Colleges have many different reasons for assigning summer reading and different approaches for dealing with the book once the students arrive on campus.

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The wait is over.  The envelope may be fat, or thin, or the news may have come via e-mail.  However it has arrived, your high school student has received word from his chosen colleges about whether he has been accepted, waitlisted, or rejected.  It is a defining moment for most students.

This may also be a defining moment for you as a parent as well.  You will need to think about how you react to any news, and how you support your student no matter what that news may be.  Your responses will help set the tone for your student.  Your reactions will send important messages to your student.  If the news is good, you’ll want to celebrate with him.  If the news is not what he had hoped for, you’ll need to help your student deal with his disappointment.  (Read our previous post on helping your student deal with disappointment.)

Giving thought in advance to how you will respond may help you to be prepared for any eventuality.  Here are ten suggestions of things to consider as you, as a parent, confront the college acceptance – or rejection letters.

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The Olympic Games are a marvel.  Once every few years we are able to watch the best in the world doing what they do.  They put everything on the line, give everything that they have – and they do it publicly.  When they succeed, there is nothing like the thrill of that moment.  When they do not, to say that they are disappointed is completely inadequate.

As parents, most of us love nothing better than to see our children succeed at whatever they attempt.  Sometimes, however, they will not.  It is easy to celebrate with your child when he is successful.  It is heart wrenching to support your child through her disappointment.  As parents, we can make the difference in how our students face and deal with their disappointment.  Our children have dealt with disappointments all of their lives, but as they face college acceptances or rejections, and some of the potential disappointments facing them in college, the stakes seem somehow higher.  They will get in to their choice of college – or not.  They may receive adequate financial aid (perhaps merit aid) – or not.  They may get into the classes they want, or the major they want – or not.  They may make the team, or the play, or the assistantship – or not. [Read more →]

If the college acceptance letters have just begun to come in, congratulations!  You are now officially a college parent.  You are excited for your student, and possibly a bit overwhelmed for yourself.  You’re not sure what you should be thinking about, or doing, or how to help your student prepare for the next phase.

Here at College Parent Central we believe that the more information you have, the better you will be able to support your college student as he navigates his new experiences.  But the problem with lots of information is that it can feel overwhelming.  Here are a few posts that we think might be a good starting point.  You’ll want to read more specific information later, but if you’re a new college parent, these posts should help you think about your new role and help you get started on your journey.   Congratulations!

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This is the second of two posts about parent participation in admissions visits to colleges.  The college visit is an important part of the college admissions process, but parents may not be sure how best to participate in and maximize that visit.  Our first post suggested some things parents should think about as they prepare for and make the college visit.  This post offers some specific suggestions for getting both parents and students started thinking about productive questions to ask during a visit.

Some possible questions regarding student concerns:

Here are some suggestions of questions your student might want to ask – or you might want to ask if your student won’t. (Remember, there are no right or wrong answers – just information to be gathered.)

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This is the first of two posts about parent participation in admissions visits to colleges.  The college visit is an important part of the college admissions process, but parents may not be sure how best to participate in and maximize that visit.  This first post suggests some things parents should think about as they prepare for and make the college visit.  Our next post offers some specific suggestions to get both parents and students started thinking about productive questions to ask during a visit.

One of the most important steps in the college admissions process is the campus visit.  Your student will need to see and get a feeling for a campus before making a final decision about whether a school is right for him.  Although the decision ultimately belongs to the student, as a parent, you also need to feel comfortable about the school.  Asking questions during the admissions visit is a great way to gather some of the information that you need to feel comfortable.  However, as with so many other considerations in the college process, parents walk a find line between being helpful and becoming intrusive.

Remember that the admissions process really does belong to your student.  It is important that you have a certain level of involvement, and provide a great deal of support, but it is crucial that you keep reminding yourself that it is not your process.  This is equally true of the campus visit.  While it is important that you go along if possible, your student is the person who needs to make the final decision.  What seems like the absolutely ideal environment to you may just not feel right to your student.  There is a reality to the chemistry that happens when a certain campus just plain “feels right”.  However, even though you may be peripheral to this visit, there are some important ways in which you can be involved.

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The college application process consumes much of a high school student’s junior and senior years.  Your student has been focused on the application process through SAT prep time, tests, possible AP courses, college visits, deciding where to apply, filling out applications, writing admissions essays, requesting recommendation letters, applying for scholarships.  It’s been overwhelming and all-consuming.  As a parent, you’ve been more or less involved in the process – perhaps keeping track of important dates, planning and driving to college visits, helping with decisions and applications, and dealing with financial matters.

But now it is mid senior year.  The applications have been sent.  The FAFSA and other financial applications have been filed.  Unless your student was one of the lucky students who was admitted through early action or early decision, there is nothing left for you, and your student, to do but wait.  It’s a difficult time.  You’ve both been so busy and focused for so long that it is difficult – perhaps almost impossible – to stop doing.

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New Year’s is often a time of new beginnings.  For parents of high school students who may be headed off to college in the fall, this year will bring significant changes.  You may, or may not, be prepared for those changes, but you know that they are still several months away.  We’d like to offer some New Year’s resolutions to help you, and your college bound high school student, begin to prepare now.  We hope that you find them helpful – and that you pass some of these on to your student.

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Are you familiar with NSSE (pronounced “Nessie”)?  As a college parent, you may have looked at some NSSE results when your student was choosing a college.  Or you may have heard from your college student that he has filled out a NSSE survey at his current school.  More than likely, however, you may not be aware of NSSE.  NSSE stands for the National Survey of Student Engagement, and as a college parent, it might be helpful to know something about it.

NSSE is an approximately ten year old, eighty-two question survey, conducted each year by researchers from Indiana University, which measures how students spend their time at college and what they gain from their college experiences.  Over the life of the survey, more than 1400 colleges have participated at least once, and over 2.4 million students have been surveyed.  Each year the survey is distributed to first year students and seniors at schools who choose to participate in the program.  The results for 2009, released recently, come from students at more than 600 schools. The results of the NSSE survey are intended to help schools identify areas that may be improved in order to help students become more engaged in their learning.

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Not all colleges and universities offer a course called First-Year or Freshman Seminar.  But more and more colleges are offering some kind of course specifically designed to help students make the adjustment to college life and college academics.  Your college student may be registered for such a course and you may be wondering what it entails.

First Year Seminar courses are designed to enhance the success of first year students as they make the transition to college and college level work.  They are usually available only to new first year students, but occasionally they are also open to transfer students.   In recent years, as the result of many research studies, more and more colleges are focusing on the entire experience of first-year students.  There is a growing effort to help these students adjust and succeed.  The focus on the first-year experience provides a double benefit.  Students succeed, and therefore the attrition rate decreases.  Students stay at their college and colleges increase their retention rates.  It is a good outcome for everyone.

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