As we offer our year-in-review each year, I often say this is the time of year when we can’t decide whether to look backwards at the year that is just ending or to look ahead at the year about to begin.  This year, there is no contest. We’re all looking ahead to the future, to 2021, and to the hope for a better year for everyone.

2020 has been one of the most difficult years that most of us have ever faced. Some individuals have certainly faced tragedy of many kinds at other times in the past, but this year was tragic, frightening, and devastating in so many ways for so many of us.

Still, even with our focus clinging to the hope for a better 2021, we’d like to take a brief look at 2020 at College Parent Central. We’ve survived. We’re tremendously grateful for health. We’ve done what we can to reach out to help parents help their students through these difficult days.

The year of COVID

The COVID virus derailed everyone’s plans this year. We distanced, we stayed home, we worked remotely, we homeschooled, we learned to wear masks, we took up new hobbies, we baked sourdough, and we learned to cope with life — and death –  in new ways.

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When you do something once, it is interesting.  When you do it for the seventh year, there’s no denying the fact that it has become a tradition.

Right now, we’re in that time of year when we can’t quite decide whether to look backwards at the year that is just ending or to look ahead at the year about to begin. We probably need to do a little bit of both. Looking back gives us some perspective to look ahead and think about our goals and plans for the New Year. Reflection is always a good exercise.

We invite you to take a few minutes to reflect with us, and to think about how you view your role as college parent. Are you just starting your journey? Have you grown into the role over the past year? Where might you and your student go next year?

Something new this year!

The biggest development for College Parent Central this year is the launching of our new podcast! We’re so excited to be headed into 2020 sharing our observations, thoughts and suggestions through this new (to us) format! We hope we will be able to reach parents who may not have yet discovered the College Parent Central website.

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Cue the balloons and confetti!  We’re celebrating April Fool’s Day!

Well, actually, here at College Parent Central we’re celebrating our anniversary, or birthday, or blogiversary. We’ve officially made it to a decade.

It was April 1, 2009 (somehow April Fool’s Day seemed fitting) when we launched ourselves into the unknown and began College Parent Central.  We hoped that as parents accompanied their students on their college journey we might be able to help them understand their role and how best to support their students.  We thought we had a pretty good idea, but we didn’t know what to expect from this venture.

Ten years later we’re still going.  We still believe that there’s much for parents to learn and understand in order to help their students prepare for, transition to, and succeed in college. We’ve been pleased, over the last decade, to hear from so many parents who have found our information helpful.

If you’ve landed on College Parent Central, and you’re reading this, we hope that you find what you need here, too. Know that you are joining the over three million parents who have also visited College Parent Central over the years. We’re grateful for the many parents, educators, and counselors who have shared our information with others, who have provided helpful feedback, and who have taught us so much over the years.

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It’s that time of year when we can’t quite decide whether to look backwards at the year that is just ending or to look ahead at the year about to begin.  We probably need to do a little bit of both.  Looking back gives us some perspective to look ahead and think about our goals and plans for the New Year based on where we’ve come.

For the past 6 years, we’ve taken time to share some of our reflections about the College Parent Central year just ending.  We like the tradition and so we’re taking a bit of time to look back at 2018.

We invite you to take a few minutes to reflect with us, and to think about how you view your role as college parent.  Are you just starting your journey? Have you grown into the role over the past year? Where might you and your college student go next year?

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Cue the balloons and confetti!  We’re celebrating our anniversary, or birthday, or blog day!  On April Fools Day 2009, we launched ourselves into the unknown and began College Parent Central.  We hoped that we might help parents as they accompanied their students on the college journey to understand more about the college experience and about their role in the process.  We thought we had a good idea, but we didn’t know what to expect.

It’s now been nine years and we’re still going.  We still believe there’s lots for parents to learn and understand in order to help their students prepare for, transition to, and succeed in college. We’ve been pleased, throughout the past nine years, to hear from so many parents who have found our information helpful. If you’ve landed on College Parent Central, and you are reading this, we hope you find what you need here, too.

We’re grateful for the many parents, educators and counselors who have shared our information with others, who have provided us with helpful feedback, and who have taught us so much over the years.

Our purpose

It is always a good idea, from time to time, to reflect on your roots.  Each time we look back to the purpose that drove us to launch College Parent Central, we reaffirm that our basic principles haven’t changed.

• We believe that parents can be important partners in their child’s education from pre-school through college.
• We believe that most parents want to be involved in their child’s college experience.
• We believe that parents do have a place in their child’s college experience.
• We believe that many parents don’t know how to be involved in their child’s college experience.
• We believe that many parents don’t understand today’s college experience. (Those of us who attended college ourselves need to learn how the college experience has changed in the twenty-first century.)

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It’s that time of year when we can’t quite decide whether to look backwards at the year that is just ending or to look ahead at the year about to begin.  We probably need to do a little bit of both.  Looking back gives us some perspective to look ahead and think about our goals and plans for the New Year based on where we’ve come.

For the past 5 years, we’ve taken time to share some of our reflections about the College Parent Central year just ending.  We like the tradition and so we’re taking time to look back at 2017.

We invite you to take a few minutes to reflect with us, and to think about how you view your role as college parent.  Are you just starting your journey? Have you grown into the role over the past year? Where might you and your college student go next year?

Important themes

We shared 47 articles in 2017.  We hope they spoke to issues and ideas that are important to college parents.  But although some topics change and evolve from year to year, our most popular articles haven’t changed in the five years that we have been reflecting.  Parents continue to seek information when their student is having difficulty.

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Welcome to the NEW College Parent Central!  After almost nine years, the College Parent Central website was due for a facelift.  We’ve been working hard behind the scenes for months, and we’re proud to finally introduce our new look to the world!

What’s new?

What you’ll notice on the new site is more breathing room, easier reading, and more visuals (sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.) You’ll also notice new ways of navigating around the site — tabs at the top and some refreshed categories.  If you’re looking at our site on a phone or tablet, you’ll also find the new College Parent Central more mobile friendly.

If you’re investigating College Parent Central for the first time, we hope you’ll find it easier to find what you need — whether your identity is that of a future college parent, a new college parent, or a parent with a student who is struggling. We hope you’ll browse the articles on the site through the categories, but you’ll also find more information and guidance on the Portal pages for each parent identity.

We’ve also expanded our Resources section to help you find additional information and ways to support your student.

What hasn’t changed?

What hasn’t changed is College Parent Central’s commitment to bringing you the best information we can to help you understand your role as a college parent and to help you support your high school or college student to succeed.

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