Should My College Student Consider Summer Classes?

May 3, 2020June 30, 2009 by Vicki Nelson

Once the last of the final exams are finished in the spring, most students look forward to a long summer break before classes resume in the fall. Students often spend their summer working hard at a summer job, but they enjoy having a summer free from classes, textbooks, papers, and tests. Some students, however, may consider signing up for summer classes – either at their own college or at an institution closer to home. There are some things for your student to consider before they make the decision to continue classes during the summer.

Why would a student want to take summer classes?

Students opt for summer classes for a variety of reasons.

Colleges Are Working To Avoid Tuition Hikes By Cutting Costs

March 15, 2017June 23, 2009 by Vicki Nelson

In these difficult economic times, colleges, as well as the parents and students who are paying tuition, are feeling the financial pinch. Like the families who pay tuition, many colleges are attempting to tighten their budget in order to avoid raising tuition more than necessary. Many colleges are also committed to maintaining, or even raising, their amount of financial aid to students. Only 8% of colleges surveyed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities said that they had plans to reduce their financial aid offerings.

Most colleges and universities have already looked at and instituted some of the big savings strategies also being used by the corporate world as well. Many have looked to layoffs, halting construction projects, hiring freezes, and salary freezes. But colleges are also looking for other ways to trim their budgets.

Helping Your College Student Find Support On Campus

September 16, 2021June 22, 2009 by Vicki Nelson

As a college parent, you want to support your college student in any way that you can. You talk on the phone (but hopefully not too often), you send mail (students love to find something in their mailbox), you send care packages, you listen when they share joys or worries; but there is a limit to what you can do. In your attempts to help your student find their increasing independence and sense of responsibility, you need to help your student find and use appropriate on-campus support systems.

Your college student may continue to turn to you for help. Or they may feel that being grown up means that they need to do everything for themselves. In either case, your student may not be finding and taking advantage of the resources available on campus. Be there, but help your student consider who else might best help. Ask questions and suggest that your student investigate some of the possible support available on campus. Here are fifteen possible sources of help.

College Lingo For College Parents: Talk the Talk — Part 5

March 16, 2017June 19, 2009 by Vicki Nelson

We’ve written four earlier posts about some of the college vocabulary it might be helpful for you to know. Be sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Here is a fifth installment.

Clery Act

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act is named for Jeanne Clery, a nineteen year old freshman at Lehigh University who was raped and murdered in her residence hall in 1986. The law requires any college, either public or private, which receives federal financial aid, to keep and disclose crime statistics on and near campus. Amendments to the Clery Act passed in 2008 require institutions to include a campus emergency response plan in their reporting. Institutions are required to publish their report in the fall of each year, and it must contain information for the prior three years.

Important Academic Conversations with Your Student Throughout the Semester

September 16, 2021June 17, 2009 by Vicki Nelson

All conversations with your college student will be different. Sometimes your student will have lots to tell you or ask you, and other times you will both be searching for things to say to each other. However the conversations go, they are important times for sharing news, sharing feelings, making plans, and encouraging each other. Most of these conversations will probably not be about academics. However, there may be sometimes during the term when you will want to “check in” about how things are going in classes. Here are some possible suggestions for conversations at various times throughout the semester.

About a week into the semester:

By now your student has been in classes for one week and has probably had at least one class meeting for each of their courses. This is a good time to ask how they like them and whether they have read all of the syllabi carefully. If the college has a Drop/Add period, that deadline may be coming up soon. This is a good time to ask whether your student needs to drop or add any classes. (Remember that they may need to maintain a minimum number of credits to be considered a full time student – important for residence life, athletics, financial aid, and possibly health insurance.)

College Professors Are People Too!

September 16, 2021June 12, 2009 by Vicki Nelson

As a college parent, you may wonder about the people at college with whom your student spends much of their time. Who will their classmates be? Who will their friends be? Who will their roommates or suitemates be? Who will theircoworkers be? Who will their professors be? Students often head off to college with many of the same questions. They wonder, and then they discover their classmates, roommates, coworkers. They work at making and maintaining friendships. However, although students will see their professors in class each day, they may not think about the importance of working at establishing a relationship with these professionals.

You can encourage your student to get to know their instructors. It will be to your student’s advantage to get to know their professors – and to help them get to know your student. However, it is often difficult for many students, especially new students, to reach out to faculty members. Here are a few suggestions you might pass on that will help your set your student apart as an individual. Some may require more effort than others. However, using even a few of these suggestions will help your student stand out in their professors’ minds.

Parent Relations Offices Offer College Parents an Opportunity for Involvement

March 23, 2017June 10, 2009 by Vicki Nelson

As college parents of the millennial generation of students, we have spent most of our children’s lives actively involved in most of what they do. Parents have been told throughout their children’s lives that the more involved that they were, the better their children would fare. Most colleges and universities are currently working to learn how to best involve this generation of parents in the lives of their students at the college level, not by soliciting more involvement, but by channeling our energies appropriately.

In several of our earlier posts, we have discussed ways in which parents can shift to a coaching model with their student as well as how parents might communicate with the college. In this post, we take a look at ways in which many colleges are reaching out to help parents find their place in their student’s college experience.

Two decades ago, most colleges and universities paid very little attention to communication or programming for college parents. Parents dropped their students off at the beginning of freshman year and, with the exception of a possible Parents’ Weekend in the fall, had very little official involvement with the school until Commencement. Today, as colleges begin to recognize parents as partners in student support, more and more schools are establishing offices on campus whose primary responsibility is Parent Relations. The scope of services provided by such an office is continually expanding as parents insist on involvement and schools attempt to maximize and channel “helicopter parent” enthusiasm. Colleges are paying attention.

What FERPA Means for You and Your College Student

December 15, 2017June 9, 2009 by Vicki Nelson

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (sometimes referred to as the Buckley Amendment) was designed to protect the privacy of educational records and to establish the rights of students to inspect and review their educational records. It also provided control over the release of educational record information. The original intent of this legislation was to keep elementary and high school records private and to give parents access to their child’s school records.

Once a student turns eighteen, or attends school beyond secondary school, the rights of access to the student’s records transfer to the student. This means that all academic information regarding your college student goes directly to the student unless the student has given specific, written permission to release that information to someone else. The exception to this law occurs if parents document in writing that the student is still claimed as a dependent for income tax purposes. The college may require you to submit your most recent tax forms in order to support this claim.

What does FERPA mean for you as a college parent?

Generally FERPA rules mean that student academic information such as grades or academic standing (GPA, academic transcript, academic warning, academic probation, or discipline records) will be given to the student and not to the parents. College students are considered responsible adults who may determine who will receive information about them. College representatives are prohibited from discussing information about the student’s academic record with parents. Most colleges have a waiver form which students can sign allowing records to be released to parents or college representatives, such as faculty members, to discuss records with parents. Your student may, or may not, wish to sign this release.

What To Do If Your Student Is Academically Dismissed From College

November 24, 2017June 8, 2009 by Vicki Nelson

When you send your student off to college you hope and assume that he will be successful. Most students are successful and do well. However, some students struggle – either socially or academically. No parent wants to receive the news that his or her student has been academically dismissed from college because of poor performance. It is distressing and disheartening news. But it does happen, and parents need to help students deal with the situation. Although you may be disappointed, and possibly angry, your response may be a large factor in helping your student move forward.

Here are some things to consider if your college student is academically dismissed from college.

Alternatives to Having a Car on Campus

March 15, 2017June 1, 2009 by Vicki Nelson

In an earlier post, we suggested some of the considerations parents and students might want to discuss as they decide whether or not the student will take a car to campus. Many colleges prohibit first-year students from bringing cars, but at some point during the college years, your student may want to consider whether or not to take a car to school.

More and more colleges are encouraging their students to leave their cars home. As more students bring cars to school, parking on many campuses is becoming a serious issue. Colleges and universities are also trying to do their part to institute policies which are environmentally friendly. So if your college student is considering whether or not to take a car to school, he might want to investigate the alternatives available.