Category — Campus Life

Paying for a college education requires a lot of financial planning.  Most parents begin thinking about how to finance college many years before a student is ready to embark on a college career.  Your college student may or may not be involved in this planning.   But whether or not your college student is involved in the bigger financial issues such as tuition and other college expenses, it is important that your student become financially literate in order to survive financially during and beyond the college years.

A growing national problem

Financial literacy involves the ability to read, manage, and communicate about personal finances and to have the skills and knowledge to make competent financial choices about banking, credit, insurance, taxes and investments.  How does your student stack up?  Most high school graduates don’t do very well.  High school student spending may create an unrealistic lifestyle.  Iowa State University tested high school seniors’ understanding of money management.  The average score was a 57% – a dramatically failing grade.

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This is the third of three posts about college students asking for help.  In our first post we considered why students sometimes have difficulty asking for help. Our second post looked at who students might turn to for help. In this post we’ll consider how students can most effectively seek the help they need.

Many high school students planning to go to college spend a lot of their time reviewing vocabulary words for their SAT College Board exam.  They learn big words, important words, roots of words, and definitions.  But if your college student is going to succeed in college, there may be one important word that he needs that never shows up on his entrance exam.  It may be the most important word that he can use in college.  What is that word?  “Help.”

Your student is very likely to need help at some point in his college career.  Hopefully, you’ve helped him understand that it is important to seek the help that he needs and encouraged him get past possible barriers to seeking that help.  Your student has worked to learn what is available to him on campus and thought about the most appropriate source of help for his problem.  Now your student needs to think about how to most effectively ask for that help.

Asking for help is often very difficult for students.  For many of the reasons that we discussed in our first post, students are reluctant to seek help.  However, even if your student understands that he needs to ask, actually approaching professors or college staff members may be intimidating.  This can be especially true if your student has missed some classes, or has any other reason to be concerned about what the professor or staff member may think of him.  Having a plan for the appointment may help your student to anticipate what might happen and to feel he has more control over the encounter.

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This is the second of three posts about college students asking for help.  In our first post we considered why students sometimes have difficulty asking for help. In this post we’ll look at who students might turn to for help and in Part 3 we’ll consider how students can most effectively seek the help they need.

Many high school students planning to go to college spend a lot of their time reviewing vocabulary words for their SAT College Board exam.  They learn big words, important words, roots of words, and definitions.  But if your college student is going to succeed in college, there may be one important word that he needs that never shows up on his entrance exam.  It may be the most important word that he can use in college.  What is that word?  “Help.”

One of the first steps in encouraging your college student to ask for help when he needs it is helping him understand some of the factors that may be holding him back from seeking what he needs.  Once he works his way past those barriers, however, it is important that he know what help is available to him.  We’ve written earlier posts about helping your student find support on campus.  It is important that your student know when he needs to ask for help and know where to find that help on campus.

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This is the first of three posts about college students asking for help.  In this post we’ll consider why students sometimes have difficulty asking for help, in Part 2 we’ll look at who students might turn to for help and in Part 3 we’ll consider how students can most effectively seek help.

Many high school students planning to go to college spend a lot of their time reviewing vocabulary words for their SAT College Board exam.  They learn big words, important words, roots of words, and definitions.  But if your college student is going to succeed in college, there may be one important word that he needs that never shows up on his entrance exam.  It may be the most important word that he can use in college.  What is that word?  “Help.”

As a parent, helping your child understand early in her educational career that asking for help is important may be one of the best lessons that you can teach. This lesson might start in elementary school – or even at home earlier than that.  As a college parent, it is important that you reinforce that message.  As one college professor has stated, “Asking for help is the new smart!” Help your college student understand the importance and necessity of asking for help and advocating for herself.

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If your student is heading off to college and will be living in a residence hall on campus, she is probably wondering, and even nervous, about who her roommate will be.  This is only natural, as most students who will be living in a relatively small space with another student may be sharing a room for the first time.  You and your student may both be wondering how and when the college will be assigning roommates.

Different colleges use different methods for assigning roommates.  Some schools make matches randomly.  Other schools send students a questionnaire to determine some lifestyle preferences and then spend many hours making matches based on that information. In some cases students may be matched by computer. Many schools will allow students to request to live with a particular student as long as the request is mutual.

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There is a lot of work that happens, for both you and your college student, as he transitions into college during the first year.  Both you and your student have a lot to learn about the school, and you need to work on new ways of relating to each other as well.  When your student is a senior, there is a lot of work that happens as your student gets ready for the transition out of college into the world of work or graduate school.  There may be work for you as well, if your student may be moving back home again.

Sometimes lost in all of the transitional work as students enter or prepare to leave college may be the sophomore and junior years when so much of the middlework of college happens. The major transition to college is over and the stress of senior year has not yet begun.  Although at times this period may seem somewhat awkward, these years represent half of your college student’s career, and they represent much of the foundation of your student’s education.  It is during these years that your student continues her exploration of herself, chooses or confirms a major, and begins to solidify her experiences.  As college parents, it is important that we remember that although these may sometimes feel like “quiet” years compared to the turmoil of beginnings and endings, important things are happening during this time.

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There are a lot of skills that college students need to learn and practice.  Perhaps one of the most essential of those skills is self-advocacy, knowing how to ask for and get the things that you need to be successful.  The term self-advocacy is very often used in the context of students with learning disabilities or learning differences, but it is an important skill for any college student.  In this post, we use the term generically, as a skill that is important for any student.  The more that your student is able to recognize and ask for what she needs, the better her chances of success.

Students who may have relied on others to advocate for them in the past now have to learn to communicate their own needs to others.  They need to learn to speak up for themselves and to be assertive.  Taking responsibility and control is not always an easy thing to accomplish.  As a college parent, you may need to help your student learn this important skill.  Although it may seem easier to do things yourself, and you may feel that you are better able to get the results that you feel are necessary, helping your student to learn how to advocate for himself may be one of the best things that you can do for your college student.

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This is the first of two posts dealing with college students and stress.  In this post we will consider the types of college student stress and some possible causes.  In our next post, we offer parents some suggestions to help their student deal with the stress they may encounter.

College students experience a lot of stress.  As parents, some of us are acutely aware of our student’s stress levels, and to others of us it may be less obvious.  Of course, not every student experiences stress, and some students actually thrive on a certain amount of stress; but many college students find that increased pressure or anxiety are part of the experience of college.  If you are not sure how your student feels about his stress level, or whether or not he feels that he is experiencing stress, consider some of the following information gathered about student stress.  You may want to discuss some of these findings with your student to help him realize that he, and/or his friends, may not be alone.

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Parents are the encouragers.  We encourage our college students to study, to make friends, to get involved in activities at school, to get to know their professors.  Consider adding to your list encouraging your college student to get enough exercise.  According to a study done by researchers at Ohio State, as many as 52% of college students do not exercise.  The study also found that students differ in their response to social support for exercise, with women responding most to support of family and men responding more to support from friends.  However, whether your student is a male or female, consider asking about how much exercise he or she may be getting.

There are many reasons why students may not get enough exercise in college.  Although it is possible that students are spending too much time studying to fit exercise into their schedule, it is more likely a combination of many activities that crowd their schedule.  Students are spending time studying, working on or off campus, socializing with friends, and participating in campus activities.  They may have erratic schedules.  They may be overreacting to their dislike of high school gym class and viewing formal exercise as being back in the high school gym.  For some students, it is possible that friends provide a disincentive by viewing exercise as unimportant or “uncool”.  Many students who were active in high school – either participating in sports or walking to and from school and/or jobs, may not realize how much less exercise they are getting now.

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There are good days and bad days for everyone, of course.  College students are no different.  We hope that our college students will have more good days than bad days.  But sometimes, your college student may hit a string of bad days, or may seem particularly unhappy with his college experience.  This is one of those times when, as college parents, we may feel most helpless.  And the reality is that, in some ways, we are.  Your student may need to work through the situation himself.  But you can be there, providing that all-important constant support, and perhaps also provide a bit of guidance.

Once you’ve determined that your student’s unhappiness is just that, and not something more serious that needs intervention or counseling, you can begin to help your student examine and think about the sources of her unhappiness with her college experience.  As a starter, it may help if your student understands that it is very normal to feel a low point a few weeks into the semester.  The novelty of a new semester is over, the reality of midterms, papers, and expectations hits. The glow of new friendships may also be wearing off.   It feels as though things might be better almost anywhere else.

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