Parent Connection: Freshmen Parent Edition
The Countdown Begins

AU_Family

Hello fellow parents of college students! Has your child begun a countdown to college yet? Have you? We're past the half way mark of the summer and I imagine you're having mixed feelings right now about multiple "parenting" topics. Since I was in your spot last year at this time, I think I know what you may be feeling. 

Are you panicking that you should have done more, taught more, said more about many different subjects? Are you wondering if your child is ready to . . . get up on time, choose healthy foods once in a while without your direction, do laundry, choose friends wisely, make the most of their college experience, and basically be responsible for his or her own life? Worried about how you'll cope when your child doesn't seem to need you as much as before? I'm sure we all have some of those thoughts and feelings during this transitional time between high school and college. I imagine it's pretty normal.

I highly recommend you read the article in the Parent Resource section from a great provider of college "prep" material--College Parent Central. You'll read some wonderful tips about conversations to have, decisions to make, questions to ask, and skills to teach before your student moves on to this next phase in their . . . and your . . . life. You've probably already covered many or most of them, but there might be some valuable info here that you haven't thought to cover. I hope some of it is helpful.

And the countdown continues . . .

Blessings to all parents who love their children.
 
 
Elyse
Associate Director
of Alumni & Parent Programming 
Noteworthy Dates: 
 

August 26: 

~ International Students    Arrive

 

August 27-30: 

~ International Student    Orientation

 

August 30: 

~ New Student

   Move-in Day
~ New Student Orientation    Begins
~ Family Picnic in the Valley
~ President's Convocation    and Reception
~ Final New Student    Registration
~ Placement Exams

  

August 31: 

~ New Student Orientation
~ Parent Orientation and    Picnic Lunch
~ Upperclassmen Return

 

September 3:

~ Labor Day Holiday

 

September 4: 

~ Classes begin

 

October 5-6: 

~ Homecoming

~ Family Weekend

 

December 20: 

~ Last day of Semester I  


It is the summer before your student heads off for freshman year of college. The applications were done months ago, the long wait for acceptance is over, the final decision made, the deposit paid. You know this is an important time, but beyond all of the shopping for extra-long sheets and storage containers and writing that tuition check, you feel there is something you should be doing, but you're not sure what. Your student is busy saying the long goodbye to high school friends, connecting with new friends on Facebook, and conspicuously not packing yet, but you're at a loss.

 

If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. You've been focused for so long on this moment, and yet it's not clear what you need to be doing. Perhaps it's not so much what you are doing as the importance of your job of talking to your student to help him make some important summer decisions. There are a lot of topics to be covered, but hopefully, these are continuations of conversations you've already started. 

 

As you think about using this summer to help your student get started on the right foot, here are some posts that we think will point you toward some of those important topics of conversation and important decisions your student must face.