Category — Understanding The World of College

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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As a college parent, you probably have very little influence over the amount of time your college student spends studying.  That is appropriate, as you begin to allow your student to gain independence and control over his choices and decisions.  However, you might help your student understand the importance of investing enough time in his work in order to do well.  As a parent, you may be able to help your student think through the realities of how he spends his time.  Then, of course, it will be your job to step back and let him find his way.

The college experience is about more than just coursework.  College is a time to meet new people, experience new things, and work at gaining independence.  But college is also about classes, exams, studying, working with professors, and, hopefully, gaining a wealth of useful knowledge and new ways of thinking.  In order for students to succeed, they need to put in the time.  Unfortunately, many students either do not understand the amount of time necessary to do well in college, or they do not prioritize the amount of time they need to spend studying.

What is expected?

The general rule of thumb regarding college studying is, and has been for a long time, that for each class, students should spend approximately 2-3 of study time for each hour that they spend in class.  Many students carry a course load of 15 credits, or approximately 15 hours of class time each week.  Doing some simple math indicates that your student should be spending roughly 30 hours of study time and 15 hours in class.  This 45 hours is the equivalent of a full time job – the reason that your student is called a full time student.  For many students, this number is a surprise.

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As a college parent, one of your concerns may be where your college student will be living while away at college.  Yes, you are certainly anxious that his classroom experiences are strong, but you want to be sure that your student is comfortable, safe, and happy in his living arrangements.  Some of this concern may have to do with a compatible roommate, but you are also concerned about the physical facilities in which your student will live.

College residences are not what many of us remember from our college days.  If you’ve spent much time visiting campuses, you’ve seen the changes.  Students today, and their parents, expect a different living environment.  Services which were yesterday’s luxuries are today’s required amenities.  Today’s students may expect private rooms and bathrooms, suites or apartment style housing, internet, cable, kitchen facilities, parking and easy access to laundry facilities.  They are sophisticated consumers, and colleges and universities are using housing options as tools to recruit and retain students.  Housing that offers fitness facilities, spas, pools, movie theaters, convenience stores, and cafes are more and more common.  As college tuition rises, colleges feel that they need to offer students more for their money.  Campus housing is one area in which they are offering more.

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The Freshman 15.  It’s a classic myth about college. Students who head off to college will gain approximately 15 pounds during their freshman year.  The stories have been around for a long time.  They are persistent.  Are they still true?  Maybe.  Sometimes. While some studies do support the 15 pound theory, another suggests that the number may be closer to 4 pounds, and yet another suggests 5-7 pounds during the freshman year followed by 2-3 during the sophomore year.

You have many things to worry about as your student heads off to college, and whether or not she gains a few pounds may not be on the top of the list.  However, it is worth giving some thought to this myth – and its sometimes truth – because it may reflect some additional truths about college students’ health in general.

Why might your student gain weight just because he’s going to college?

If college students gain weight during freshman year, the reasons are as different as the students themselves.  It’s impossible to pinpoint any single reason, but the cumulative effect of several possible reasons may add up.

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College spring break activities are legendary.  Many students travel – often to warmer climates – and party, drink, and generally carry on.  Many parents take these activities in stride, and many parents worry about their students during this time.  However, in recent years, many students are talking about, and engaging in, an “alternative spring break”.  This is the phenomenon of spending the week of spring break participating in some type of organized volunteer effort.

The idea of spending spring break in a volunteer effort has been around for a while, but it gained popularity and publicity following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  Many college students spent their spring break traveling to hurricane torn areas of the country to help clean up and rebuild.  One estimate is that by 2006, more than 30,000 students participated in some sort of alternative spring break experience.

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Is your college student taking full advantage of his opportunities in college?  As with so many things during the college years, students struggle to find balance in many areas of their lives.  They face many challenges, opportunities, and growing responsibilities.  College experiences come in many forms, and your student needs to determine how to negotiate these experiences.  In several areas, students may need help in discovering how to find the “extra value”.

Academics

The Norm:

Students come to college expecting a new level of schoolwork.  Most rise to the challenge of different types of classes and increased homework.  They know that they are required to spend more time outside of class doing schoolwork.  They know that their thinking may be challenged on a new level.  Many students do the work required and gain tremendous knowledge from their classes.

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If you feel as though you don’t know much about what life is like at your child’s college, there may be a reason.  A recent study conducted by the Brookings Institute discovered that only 1.4 percent of news coverage in this country deals with education.  Of that 1.4 percent, only about 27 percent deals with colleges and universities.  Twenty-seven percent of 1.4 percent isn’t much coverage!

The Brookings study covered the first nine months of 2009, and by comparison found that the 1.4 percent of coverage during this time was twice the amount of coverage in 2008, when it was 0.7 percent.  In addition to the fact that education was covered minimally, this study found that little of the coverage that there was dealt with school reform, teacher quality, curriculum or other educational policies.  In other words, the actual work of the schools was hardly covered.  Topics covered most during the period of this study were the H1N1 flu outbreak, budget problems, and school crime. Coverage of higher education topics centered largely on admission to college and paying for college.  Little coverage had to do with college life, college curriculum or college policies. This study concluded that “education news coverage suffers from problems related both to quantity and to quality.”

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For many college students, the final push of the semester is an extremely stressful time.  This is the time when many students realize that their time-management skills may not be the best.  This is the time when students realize how much reading is left, how many papers are still unfinished (or not yet begun), how much material will actually be covered on a final exam.  Students are overwhelmed, tired, sometimes sick, and often nervous or downright frightened.

During this stressful time of the semester, parents need to be supportive, but give a student some “space” to deal with his issues.  Students will react to pressure differently.  Some will rise to the occasion – and even thrive on the adrenaline of the final push.  Others will fall apart, have a meltdown, – and then pull themselves together and tackle what they need to do.  Some may forge ahead as they have all semester, almost oblivious to the added pressure at this point.  Others may crumple under the stress.  Parents need to be prepared for anything.

As college parents seek to find the right balance for the end-of-semester time, we’ve gathered a few earlier posts that may be especially helpful.  Remember that your role is supportive and that you need to let your college student cope in the best way that she can.  It is often difficult to stand back and watch as your college student struggles, but this is part of the independence that your student needs.  She may make some choices that are helpful and some choices that are not particularly wise.  She will learn from her choices either way.

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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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Your college student has received his midterm grades.  He may be pleased and feeling relieved, or he may have some cause for concern.  Now is the time that he needs to do some serious thinking about how he will approach the second half of the semester.  If all of his grades are good then he knows that he is on the right track.  If some, or all, of his grades are weak, then it is time to think about a new approach.

Your college student may, or may not, share his midterm grades with you.  If your student has some low midterm grades, he may view this as a failure.  You may need to help your student put these grades into perspective and make some decisions about the second half of the semester.

Withdrawing from a college class is not the same thing as dropping a class early in the term.  At most institutions, students have an option in the first few days of the term of dropping a class.  This is important for students who find that they are in the wrong level of a class, or that the class is inappropriate or of no interest to them.  Classes that are dropped at the beginning of the term generally do not show up on the student’s permanent record.  Withdrawing from a class later in the term usually results in a “W” appearing on the student’s transcript.  The “W” has no effect on the student’s GPA (Grade Point Average).

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