Category — Understanding The World of College

Most college students head off to college with lots of “stuff”.  Students need to furnish their rooms, take the items that they need for daily living, take study aids, clothing, recreational items, and sentimental items that may remind them of home, family and friends.  Increasingly, many of the items that students need to take to college are expensive.  Students come to college armed with cell phones, laptops, MP3 players, blackberries, bikes and cars.  All of these items are enticing: potentially easily stolen, and easily sold.

When it comes to theft on campus, many incidents are crimes of opportunity or convenience.  Some awareness, forethought, and careful actions on the part of your college student can help him decrease his chances of becoming a victim of theft.

Take some time to talk to your student before she heads off to school about campus safety.  She’ll want to be aware of how to take care of her personal safety, but she’ll also need to think about how to protect her belongings from theft.  There are some relatively simple things that your student can do to help her keep track of her belongings.

[Read more →]

Your college student may never need to appeal any decision made by his college.  He may never find himself in a situation involving a dismissal from school, late withdrawal from a class, grade change, judicial decision, or other special circumstance.  If that is the case, good for your student!  However, a few students may feel that some policy or judicial decision should be reconsidered.  Those students may need to appeal the decision to the appropriate board or committee at the college.

Is an appeal wise?

Appealing a college decision is not always the best thing for your college student.  The purpose of an appeal is usually to allow the student to explain extenuating circumstances or to provide additional information that may not have been available at the time that the decision was made.  He may be able to demonstrate that some circumstance has changed – perhaps a health situation, work situation, family situation, or even a change of focus or field of study.  It is important that you and your student remember, however, that an appeal is meant as an exception and to demonstrate extraordinary circumstances.  It is not meant as an avenue simply because the student is unhappy with the decision of the college.  An appeal may not be in the best interest of the student. If nothing has changed, taking a break or accepting the decision may be in order.

[Read more →]

There is a lot of focus on the new college student and both the student’s and parents’ transition to the world of college.  Entering college is a major life experience for both the first-year student and for his parents.  Underestimating the enormity of that shift may cause difficulties, so colleges run orientation sessions for both students and parents, authors write books for both students and parents, and colleges run special programming for first year students.

However, once students get past that first year of college they are often on their own.  Students are expected to have settled in and “know how to play the game”, and parents are often more comfortable with the idea of their student being away and navigating the world of college.  Unfortunately, some students do experience a sophomore slump in spite of a good first year experience and in spite of parental and college efforts to prepare them for the differences and changing expectations.

We’d like to offer a list of seven things that your returning student (sophomore, junior or senior) might want to consider to give a new focus for his year and to raise the level of his college experience.

[Read more →]

College parenting means being concerned about many things when your student heads off to school.  Naturally, one of the major areas of focus is your student’s academic success. You want your student to learn.  You want your student to get good grades.  You want your student to take the appropriate courses to be able to find a good job or get into a good graduate program.

Working with a good advisor will help your student make the course and schedule choices that are appropriate.  Learning in those courses and achieving good grades includes many factors. Some of the most successful students may be those who have mastered three important skills.  They understand the differences between high school work and college level work; they have learned the skill of good time management; and they seek the support or help that they may need early in the game.

[Read more →]

College parenting is difficult.  Anyone who has a student headed to college, in college, or recently out of college has realized just how difficult the college parenting job can be.  One of the most difficult things about this phase of parenting is feeling helpless at times as you watch your student struggle with something.  One of the times when we often see this happening is during that stressful end-of semester period. Parents may see and hear their student experiencing what appears to be a meltdown in response to the pressure and stress that occurs at the end of the semester.

We’ve written an earlier post about helping your student through that end-of-semester push.  Although we may often feel helpless, parents can be helpful and supportive in several ways.  In this post, we’d like to examine the end-of-semester stress a bit more closely.  It may be helpful for us, as parents, to be reminded of exactly what students are feeling and experiencing at this point in the college year.

What causes student stress?

The stress that students feel as the end of the semester nears is very real and is often overwhelming.  And this stress is felt by both the best students and struggling students alike.  Students often realize that there is more left to do than they realized.  They recognize that they may have procrastinated on some projects more than they thought.  They worry about deadlines, final papers, projects, presentations, and final exams.

[Read more →]

Colleges and college parents have at least one thing in common – they want college students to succeed.  For some students, that success may depend on accommodations to help them accomplish their goals. If you think that your college student may need some alterations to his living or learning environment to be successful, then it is important that you understand the framework in which colleges operate concerning accommodations.  You may feel that you are already familiar with regulations if you have dealt with accommodations throughout your child’s academic career, but it is possible that there are variations on the college level.

Some students, and their parents, are familiar with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which may have governed how their elementary or high school handled their needs.  However, this act does not apply beyond secondary education.  At the college level, two laws affect legal rights and requirements.  The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 applies to every public and private institution except those affiliated with religious organizations.  The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 applies to any entity that accepts federal financial assistance for any program or service.  Both laws were enacted to prevent discrimination against individuals with disabilities.

[Read more →]

Almost every college or university has an office dedicated to helping students find a career in which they are interested and to getting a job after college.  Whether the office is called the Career Center, Career Services Office, Career Placement Office, or some other variation of the title, the function is similar everywhere.  The variety of services offered by these offices is usually wide-ranging.  Unfortunately, many students think of the Career Office as a place they should visit during that last semester of senior year as graduation looms and they realize that they won’t be returning to school in the fall.  Students who learn early that the Career Office can help them, and who visit often at various stages of their college experience, are able to take full advantage of what this department has to offer.

What do Career Offices do?

Most Career Offices offer a variety of services for students.  Some of these services are specifically designed to help students early in their college experiences as they work to decide on their interests, strengths, and abilities and to choose a major.

[Read more →]

For many college students and their parents, the finish line is in sight.  Commencement is just around the corner.  Students have worked hard to reach this final moment.  Parents have been patient (most of the time), have supported, have worried, have encouraged (or downright scolded), have paid tuition again and again, and have possibly had moments when they wondered if this time would ever come.

But the season of Commencement is finally here, with all of the ceremony and pomp and circumstance that accompany it.  Most college students have experienced a high school graduation, which may or may not have been as formal as college Commencement.  Some students, and their parents, may be wondering what to expect, and what the experience will be like.

The format of commencement may vary according to the nature of the school, the size of the class, the weather, the location, or the particular traditions of the institution.  However, many factors may be similar no matter where the ceremony occurs.  Commencement is seen as the capstone experience of the student’s academic career.  It is a dignified, formal occasion and marks the formal action of conferring and receiving academic degrees.  Degrees are conferred on the candidates by the presiding officer (usually the college president) after they have been recommended or presented by another official (often a dean or provost).

[Read more →]

Congratulations!  Your college student has worked hard, you’ve stood by and supported him, and he’s almost made it to the finish line.  Commencement is around the corner.  But what if he’s almost there, but not quite?  Does that mean that participating in graduation ceremonies is out of the question?  Or that he’ll need to wait another year?  The answer is – that depends.  It depends on what your student still has left to do, and it depends on the college or university policy.

Each college establishes its own policy regarding who may participate in commencement ceremonies.  Some institutions will allow students to participate if they are within a very few credits of completion, and other schools will not allow students to participate until they have completed all requirements.  In some cases, it may depend on how soon the next ceremony may be.  Schools that have only one graduation ceremony a year, rather than an additional summer or winter ceremony, may be more willing to allow a student to participate if he is close to finishing.  Most likely, a student would need to be within three to six credits of completing his degree.

[Read more →]

College Parent Central celebrated its first birthday on April 1, 2010.  We’ve reached a milestone.  Launching on April Fool’s Day in 2009 seemed somehow appropriate since we were not sure what to expect.  We’re pleased to know that, in the past year, so many people have found the information here at College Parent Central helpful.

We believed a year ago, and we continue to believe even more firmly today, that parents have an important place in the college experience of their sons and daughters, but that many parents may need to learn how to be most helpful.  We believe that the more that parents understand about the college experience the more supportive they can be.

[Read more →]