Category — Transition To College

It’s been a long journey getting your almost college student ready for freshman year.  You’ve helped and supported through the testing, the college visits, the applications, the acceptance or rejection letters, and the final decision.  But you know that your work isn’t done.  The summer before that first year of college is a busy and stressful one – for everyone involved.  Your student may be focused and organized, or he may seem uninterested in the transition about to take place.

As a college parent, you know that you are going to need to step back and let your student take control of her college experience.  Yet, you want her to start of on the right foot – excited and prepared.  As always, the key is helping your student prepare.  Encourage your student to take the lead, and resist the temptation to handle things yourself.  This is your student’s opportunity to become increasingly self-sufficient.

We’ve gathered here some previous posts about things you can do this summer to help the transition go well.  Think about how you and your college student can work together to prepare for those first steps during the freshman year.

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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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Perhaps your soon-to-be college student has been invited to participate in a Summer Bridge Program at his college, or perhaps he is even being required to attend before he begins the regular semester in the fall.  Bridge programs may have varying names, but the purpose is similar at all colleges: to provide incoming students with the academic skills necessary to be successful in their college experience.

Bridge programs are designed to improve the preparation and ease the transition into college in the fall.  Students who attend, often students who are at risk or in need of remedial classes, may have a reduced need for developmental classes during their first semester of college.  According to a 2006 Journal of Higher Education, approximately 40% of students at traditional colleges and nearly 60% of students at community colleges take at least one developmental course during college.  According to the Economics of Education Review in 2010, fewer than 50% of students referred to developmental classes complete the recommended sequence. Students who are less prepared for college are less likely to return for a second year of college. Clearly, giving students a head start will help.

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College and university orientations for new students take many forms.  Sometimes orientation may take place early in the summer and may be a day long or may involve an overnight.  Orientation may take place just before the fall semester begins, with new students arriving on campus a few days before returning students.  Orientation usually takes place on campus, but may involve an off-campus trip or outing.  Orientation provides an important opportunity for new students to meet each other, make connections, and get to know the school and its expectations.

Whatever form Orientation may take, most schools use student Orientation Leaders to help conduct the program.  If your student is a new student and will be attending Orientation, he may be wondering who this Orientation Leader is.  If your student is a returning student, he may be considering becoming an Orientation Leader and you may wonder what that involves.

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As college parents, or potential college parents, we want our students to have a successful college career.  We hope that our student’s transition to college will go smoothly, that he will excel academically, make friends, be happy socially, and ultimately graduate to find a fulfilling career.  During the senior year of high school we may already be visualizing that next commencement ceremony.  Having the dream and the vision for our student is important – it may be what keeps us going through all of those tuition payments.  But is there anything that you can do, while your student is still in high school, and beyond the admissions process,  to help move him toward the success that you hope for?

There is a lot of material available to students about preparing for college.  There are countless books, websites, programs, lectures, and consulting services offered to help students as they move toward college.  Many of these services help students decide what high school classes to take, how to prepare for the SAT or ACT, how to select colleges and conduct college visits, how to finance an education and acquire loans.  There are lists and lists available of what to bring to college and how to furnish the ultimate dorm room.  However, there are some less tangible, less obvious ways in which parents can help their students be prepared for all that college entails.

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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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There are many important reasons why you should encourage your student to stay on campus on the weekends and not come home every weekend.  Research indicates that those students who are engaged and involved on campus not only do better in school, but also experience higher satisfaction with the college experience.  It is important to help your student understand why she should not return home most weekends if that is an option.

However, if your student attends school at a distance that makes coming home for a weekend a possibility, there are some reasons why an occasional visit home for a weekend may make sense.

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College is different from high school in many ways.  Both students and parents expect there to be differences, but they may be unsure of exactly what those differences are.

One of the major academic differences between students’ high school lives and their college lives has to do with the student’s schedule of classes.  Students will spend less time in class.  Typically, high school students spend approximately six hours a day in class – that’s approximately 30 hours per week.  College students may spend between twelve and fifteen hours per week in class.  Because college students spend so much less time in class, they are expected to do the bulk of their academic work outside of class.  College students who are clear about the difference have a much better chance of academic success in college.

A second major change regarding a college student’s schedule is that the student has much more control, and therefore responsibility for, his own schedule.  Students usually plan their schedule in consultation with their academic advisor, but students then may make changes.  Unfortunately, some students may make changes that may not be in their best interest in the long run.  There are many factors that dictate a “good” college schedule.

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The summer before your student heads to college is a busy time.  There may be an orientation for your student, and for you.  There are things to buy for the new dorm room.  Your student may be contacting her roommate.  There are doctor and dentist appointments to make, forms to complete, financing to finalize.  Your student may or may not be busy packing, and you may be busy worrying about why she’s not packing yet.  And through it all, your student is busy trying to say goodbye to friends, and you are trying to come to terms with the fact that she’ll be gone.

Amid all of the flurry of preparations for leaving, there are some important decisions that you and your college student should make to anticipate potential issues later on.  If you spend some time this summer agreeing on these points, you won’t be taken by surprise when inevitable situations arise later.  You’ll know that you and your student are “on the same page”, and you may prevent difficulties later.  Here are eight things to discuss with your student before she leaves.

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One of the things that college parents and their students both worry about is getting along with a college roommate.  Most students have never shared a room before, and small college residence hall rooms put students in close contact.  Parents and students alike realize that a good roommate relationship can be a wonderful experience, but a difficult situation can make everyone miserable.  Everyone hopes for the perfect match, a new best friend, and a happily-ever-after living arrangement.

Most colleges work hard at making good roommate matches.  They ask students for information about themselves and then assign roommates that have a good chance of being compatible based on lifestyle and interests.  However, no matching system is perfect, and even if students are perfectly matched, conflicts are inevitable. Even if students are well prepared for the experience of living with a roommate, conflicts are inevitable.   There are things that your student can do to try to minimize conflict and to deal with conflict when it arises.  One thing that you and your student may not have considered, however, is that there may actually be some benefits to those inevitable situations when your student is confronted with roommate issues.  We’d like to suggest four benefits or skills which your student may gain from dealing with roommate conflicts.

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