Your college freshman is finally home after fall semester. He seems happy to be home, but not eager to return to school for spring. Sometime between handing you an oversized duffle of filthy laundry, recovering from final exam sleep debt, gobbling up Mom comfort food as an alternative to pizza, lighting the Menorah or trimming the Christmas tree, your student casually announces: “I think I want to transfer.”
Grove’s 5 reasons that justify transfer are: financial necessity, academic upgrade, specialized major (I would expand that to include sports or arts programs) , family obligations, or social situation (I would include overall atmosphere). 5 “bad” (misguided) reasons to change schools are: love, your school is too hard, you’re homesick, you hate your roommate, or you hate your professors.I’ll comment on the reasons that are not self-explanatory.
Social situation that justifies transfer would be a true mismatch between a student’s temperament and a school’s overall atmosphere. Obvious examples: a serious student feels overwhelmed by a toxic, 24/7 partying environment, or a teen who enjoys work/play balance feels too pressured in a fiercely competitive pre-professional school.
Less obvious examples: a teen with a conservative upbringing is painfully disconnected on a far-left campus; a student of color feels no sense of community in a school lacking diversity; a person from a cosmopolitan area feels too isolated from entertainment venues on a remote rural campus; a kid who is wild about spectator sports feels unsatisfied in a school with no atheltics emphasis; a teen from a close-knit high school feels lost in a huge, annonymous public institution.
We are not talking about minor adjustments. A key college growth challenge is learning to adapt to new situations and appreciating people with different backgrounds and viewpoints. But most of us have been in environments at some point in life where we felt completely misplaced, like a fish out of water. That’s what I’m talking about.
College is such a highlight of one’s life, where one finds lifelong friends, forms key dating relationships or chooses a spouse, and selects one’s young adult career. Not to mention it is a huge financial investment, perhaps $50 grand a year! Why spend four years in a place where you won’t thrive and may be absolutely miserable?
The most tricky, self-deceptive reason for transfer is being in love. Young people under 21 are still wrestling with the intensity of raging hormones, in conflict with the yet not fully mature frontal lobe that controls executive function and decision-making. This reality is described in lay terms in The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries About the Teenage Brain Tell Us About Our Kids by Barbara Strauch.
Worse, an older adolescent’s identity is still in tremendous flux, when it comes to academic and career interests as well as key relationships (or even sexual identity). No wonder it’s tricky!Erik Eriksen asserted that the capstone developmental task of adolescence is forming an authentic identity, during which a young person may be vulnerable and confused until fully establishing his own individuality.
Navigating this morass effectively requires educating oneself in an environment that offers many alternatives to explore, for fields of study, career options, or friendship and dating opportunities. Limiting oneself too soon in any area is usually viewed (at least years later) as a mistake.
Am I saying that one should never make an educational or professional decision with a “significant other” in mind? No, but college is too early, because a student is still building the foundation of his personal, academic and career equity. And while rare, long distance relationships can work; I know several lifelong happily married couples who have proven it.
An overall theme of these 5 good, 5 bad reasons to transfer is: only transfer for “big picture” reasons that can’t be changed by staying. If a student doesn’t get along with one roommate, get another. But if a student can’t stand the whole campus culture, or the family can’t afford the school, or they don’t have enough courses in one’s desired major, it makes sense to consider transfer. Stay tuned: in future posts we will discuss how to go about it.
On Wed., Dec. 2, 7 PM EST, Wall Street Journal on Campus/Unigo webcast a panel discussion of admissions deans from 8 top colleges and universities called “Inside the Admissions Office” from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. The panel discussion was moderated by Unigo CEO/Founder Jordan Goldman.
Schools represented were Bryn Mawr, Grinnell, Marquette, University of Pennsylavnia, University of Vermont, Princeton University, Wesleyan University, and Williams College. I gave my Position U 4 College clients a heads up about this great webcast. I’d like to pass it along to my readers as well, since the webcast seems to repeated on an ongoing basis. Check it out!
What to do if you’re deferred? What does deferral mean, anyway? It depends on the school. “Some, like Georgetown University, defer all or most [applicants they do not accept early], denying only those who clearly don’t meet the qualifications for admission…Other colleges prefer to make hard decisions sooner rather than later, denying many qualified candidates they know they would deny in the regular cycle anyway, and deferring just a small percentage who look competitive for the final round…If there is a trend, it is in the direction of denying more students in the early round rather than fewer.” (Springer, p. 215).
Michele Hernandez talks about the varying meanings of deferral in A is for Admission: The Insider’s Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges: “…You will not know if you were a polite defer (that is, a valedictorian with low test scores who will probably not be admitted anyway but was deferred to show that he was strong enough not to be rejected outright) or a realistic defer (that is, somebody who looked pretty strong but the college wanted to wait for more scores and/or midyear grades to see how the person performed while carrying a challenging senior year course load.” (Hernandez, p. 38).
Both Springer et al and Hernandez suggest the student call admissions to get a sense of how to improve his chances in the regular cycle, write a letter to reaffirm the school as his top choice, add at most one powerful letter of recommendation, and update the school about new awards. And finish out the fall term with strong grades! But both authors caution that the odds of a deferred applicant gaining regular admission are not high (Springer, p. 216, Hernandez, pp. 39-41).
Given the low odds of admission after being deferred, your 12th Grader should continue to apply to meet Regular Decision deadlines. As J.S. Mitchell advises in8 First Choices: An Expert’s Strategy for Getting Into College, all the schools on the list should be genuine, attractive choices, not halfhearted backups. If the deferral decision was a wake-up call that your teen shot too high, reassess. Meet with the guidance counselor and utilize quantitative tools (i.e., Naviance Family Connection) to reevaluate the realism of the college list. If necessary, add less competitive schools, but institutions your teen would be happy attending.
What to do if you’re denied?Most next steps are the same as for deferral. Of course, denial has a more painful sting. Springer et al point out: “The problem with an early application denial is that it usually occurs in isolation, and also at holiday time…students usually apply early to only one college, and those who receive denials have no simultaneous acceptances to ease the blow.” (Springer, p. 215)
While it is easier to “save face” with peers when a student is deferred, the finality of denial allows the student to move on. A deferral will most likely not end in eventual acceptance, but because it keeps hope alive it may result in a half-hearted, less effective application effort for the regular cycle. Denial is a blow, but (after blowing off steam) the student is ready to resume the college process. Hopefully, you have kept your student working on Regular Decision essays all along, so he will not be totally back at Square One.
This may be a difficult experience in your family. Some accepted students will not be gracious or supportive. Others who were deferred or denied may ignite a nasty, sour grapes attitude within the senior class. Keep your teen on the high ground. Eventually good news will come, but it is now a long four months away. Try to boost your teen’s self-esteem, with the reminder that this simply means that the admissions committee of this particular college decided not to admit him. This may mean his academic credentials were not quite strong enough for this institution, or that the admissions people surmised the match wasn’t there, or even random occurences over which he has no control.
Fast forward to the experience of college grads in this economy. In my consulting practice, I work with young adults who jobhunt for months, weathering disappointment, learning to be patient in between opportunities, keeping their spirits up until they land the job they want. Learning to postpone gratification is a key life skill. Early admission deferral or denial in Grade 12 may be the first time your child has faced this kind of challenge, but it won’t be the last. He might as well learn how to survive it with his self-esteem intact.
Ironically, Dec. 15 2009 is the 70th Anniversary of the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta, where my son goes to college. Margaret Mitchell’s masterpiece is a timeless tribute to hardy human beings who persevere and survive in the face of disappointment, rejection, heartbreak and loss. Adversity is painful but strengthens one’s survival muscles. With your support, your young adult can learn to weather this disappointment with resolve, resilience and grace.
Early Decision (“ED”): Accepted.Whew! Your student is done with the college process, the outcome is positive, and your family can celebrate and relax over the holidays. But wait, you’re not done yet. If financial aid is relevant to your child’s attendance, you will need to review the financial aid package.
“Unmet financial need is the only grounds for not attending a college that admits you under binding early decision. If your financial aid package provides less money than you will need to attend, contact the financial aid office immediately…respectfully request that your financial aid package be reviewed…The family..makes the final decision about whether the early decision financial aid package is sufficient to allow the student to attend.” (Springer, p. 214).
If aid is not an issue, your student is honor system bound to attend the school. A deposit is required in a few weeks. Your teen must contact every school to which he applied (Early Action), and immediately withdraw his application. “Some selective colleges using early decision share their acceptance lists as a way to police compliance with the binding policy. If your name were to show up on two early decision admit lists, you would be in trouble with both schools.” (Springer, p. 214).
Encourage your teen to keep a low profile. This is a tense time for high school seniors, many gripped by a contagious “all-or-nothing” feeling I described in my last post. Most students who are disappointed now end up pleased by April, but this week it may seem like the end of the world to those deferred or denied. Prepare your happy teen for unpleasant dynamics, ranging from other kids’ inability to cheer for peers to downright jealousy. Friendships can become strained, even broken off. Urge your teen to be gracious and supportive. Remember, discretion is the better part of valor. And please, no obnoxious college sweatshirts!
In my next post, I will discuss next steps if your student has been accepted under an Early Action (“EA”) plan. Meanwhile, hang in there!
Thanksgiving is over, and your high school senior returns to school for one of the most nerve-wracking periods of an already stressful year.
Your high school student may have chosen to apply Early Decision (“ED”), Early Action (“EA”), priority application or rolling admissions. Even if your teen chose Regular Decision, the atmosphere will be wired with contagious tension for all seniors during the next few weeks.
For early applicants, the white-knuckle, nail-biting suspense really sets in now. That wilderness of free-floating anxiety and acceptance stress between Thanksgiving and December 15. It is such an all-or-nothing feeling, as though your kid’s whole self-worth and future destiny rests on one online message. It starts: “Congratulations…” or perhaps something else. You won’t need to read the rest.
As a parent, keep it in perspective, and pass on your wisdom to your student. This is not an all-or-nothing verdict. “ED” was a college enrollment invention to guarantee yield, not for families’ benefit. It is a Faustian bargain that gives applicants an acceptance advantage and early relief in the tortuous college process, in exchange for losing financial aid package choices and a longer incubation time for college exploration. “EA” was created to help admissions people spread out their workload, sometimes with an acceptance advantage, depending on the school.
Be realistic during this time period, and prepare your student for the most likely outcome. Was this university in the realistic range, perhaps a slight reach, for which the early advantage will likely compensate? Or was this school a pipe dream, a “Hail Mary Pass”, to which your teen applied early to maximize advantage but still a long shot? You probably know the answer in your heart already.
If it’s a long shot, help your student put it on the back burner. Emphasize that it is only one of many options. Keep preparing application forms for Regular Decision schools for your guidance counselor. Keep your son or daughter working on essays for “RD” schools. If December’s decision is disappointing, your student will not be overwhelmed by consequential application work required over the holidays before January deadlines.
As J.S. Mitchell advises in8 First Choices: An Expert’s Strategy for Getting Into College, all the schools on your teen’s college list need to be genuine, appealing choices, not halfhearted backups. This will mitigate the all-or-nothing feeling about December news. Help your student to take the long view: even if there are short term disappointments, by April he or she will probably be quite pleased.
Advise your student to keep a low profile. If December news is disappointing, your teen may be uncomfortable keeping up a “game face” with peers, especially students receiving happy news. The opposite is also true. Friendships can become strained, at least temporarily. The best approach? Keep it on the “DL” : follow a “don’t ask, don’t tell” strategy. The news will become clear soon enough. Follow this advice yourself with other parents. If you’re going crazy, remember to keep distracted by painting!
If your student chose not to apply early, what should you be doing now? Completing essays and applications. And “pushing the button” as soon as you can! Although “RD” applications are not due until January 1 or beyond, it doesn’t hurt to get applications and supporting documentation in early. The sooner an application is complete, the sooner it can be reviewed, by readers who are “fresh” at the start of the evaluation process, not overwhelmed and burnt out.
While your high school junior prepares for the PSAT’s and works on keeping grades up in challenging courses, what should you be doing to prepare for the college process?
READ.
Keep discussions about college to a minimum for now; as a senior, your teen will get sick of the subject soon enough. Just do your homework, to support your teen and be able to answer his questions.
College Match: A Blueprint for Finding the Best School for You by Steven R. Antonoff. A great starting point to help juniors figure out what they may want in a college. Not “how to get in!” Rather, an emotionally healthy approach to help teens know what they’re looking for.
Ultimate Guide to Summer Opportunities for Teens by Sandra Berger. Your teen will have one more summer to explore academic or extra-curricular interests before applying to college. Be on the lookout for great opportunities.
Also check out my post, Kris Hintz’s Top Ten College Websites. These web addresses should definitely be bookmarked—you’ll be using them a lot in the next two years!
When I work with high school students on this essay, asked in every school-specific supplement to the Common Application, their knee-jerk response is to play back obvious answers. “I love NY!” “Atlanta has perfect weather!” “Washington DC is the best place for a Poli Sci Major.” “Denver has great skiing.” “Boston is the ideal college town.”
Don’t get me wrong. Those answers are valid, and they do enter into college decisions (and should). But the Admissions committee “gets” those reasons: they don’t even need to be said. So what do you say?
My consulting practice is called Position U 4 College for a reason. You want to show the Admissions committee that you are uniquely positioned for their school, that there is an ideal match between their programs, student body, extra-curricular activities, and environment and your interests, skill set, goals, values and personality. Why are you and College X made for each other?
Your response to this essay question should reflect two things: (1) your self-knowledge and (2) well-researched knowledge of the college to which you are applying.
Knowledge of the university’s programs shows demonstrated interest, a hot button for Admissions people required to maximize their yield. Check out a March 2009 article in The Boston Globe: “A new factor in making that college–loving it”. If you take time to thoroughly research a school’s programs, it shows you are seriously interested in that college. If the match makes sense, evidenced by programs that fit your individual goals, Admissions people will surmise that, if they accept you, the likelihood of your enrollment is high. PS: Visit the school, and let them know you’ve visited.
Answering this essay question with well-researched content on programs will set you apart. Why? Because most kids won’t do this. They are answering the question superficially, saying what they would say to their friends: “Evanston is a great college town and it’s easy to hop the L to Chicago.” Think how much more effective it would be to write: “Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism is the top journalism school in the country, on the leading edge in new media, so it is the ideal place for me to pursue my journalism major.”
Great communication means considering your target audience: what will be meaningful to them? I don’t mean telling them what you believe they want to hear; just consider their frame of reference. “Georgetown has a beautiful campus” does not say what you’re going to contribute if accepted, as does “Georgetown’s Political Economy Major and Government minor will help me in my goal to become a lawyer and ultimately a U.S. Supreme Court justice.”
Believe me, you will stand out if you take the time to do a little research and give some substantive reasons for your interest in a college. You may even become more convinced you want to go there (or not)—and isn’t that what this whole college search is about, anyway?
Comments welcome! And for great perspectives on the college application process, check out Videos #2 (William & Mary) and #4 (Brandeis) in the righthand column.
Parents of college-bound seniors, August is before you!
If you missed my July post, Countdown to Senior Year, where I list ten things to get out of the way this summer, you may need to cram now! It’s time to get serious, get organized, and… “get cracking!”
• Refine your college list. Determine deadlines and supplemental application essay requirements for each school.
• Begin to brainstorm essays, privately or with a coach/tutor.
• Register for fall standardized tests and prepare via online prep programs, local classes or tutors. If you want to improve your spring scores, you have some extra time now to do the studying required.
Parents:
• Plan college visits for August so your child can finalize the college list and begin to strategize about how to apply in the fall (Early Decision, Early Action, Rolling Admission). If any schools require interviews, get them out of the way now!
• Ask your child about Family Connection by Naviance, an incredibly efficient web-based tool that offers high school students and parents valuable insight into the college admissions process with college search, scattergrams, scholarship information and college application statistics specifically from your child’s school. For example, you can instantly compare the SAT/GPA stats of all the schools on your teen’s college list with her own SAT/GPA. Most public and private high schools have it now. Why don’t you know about it? Because you have a teenager. But ask!
• Do your Financial Aid homework!Determine costs of schools on the college list. Check merit scholarships through Meritaid.com and school websites. Often merit scholarships have separate applications, with deadlines before the admission application.
If I’ve missed anything, check out other countdown books, such as Countdown to College by Valerie Pierce. Please leave comments about things you think should be done in the last month before senior year. Let the games begin!
“I really like Boston. And I don’t want to go South.” My young client made this emphatic statement, folding his arms, as though I had never heard it before. His college map stretched from Tufts to Georgetown University. I nodded, but added quietly, “You may want to keep an open mind.”
My family first stepped onto the Emory campus three years ago, on my son’s birthday. March 9 had always been a lucky day for our family, even in 2009 when the Dow turned around. We’d flown out of Newark airport in freezing rain under grey, depressing skies, arriving in sunny Atlanta at 70 degrees.
Emory’s Quadrangle, the center of campus, was absolutely stunning, surrounded by magnificent pink, grey and white marble-clad Beaux-Arts buildings. Spring was already in full bloom, with pink blossoming trees and striking red and yellow flowers we would not see up North until May. US News & World Report calls Emory’s setting “urban,” but the lush, parklike residential environment of surrounding Druid Hills (designed by Central Park’s landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted) makes it the greenest urban setting we’d ever seen!
A prominent bronze statue of Robert Woodruff stood by the Library of the same name, with new construction of opulent modern buildings blending perfectly with registered historical landmarks, proclaiming the school’s affluence. Now we understood its affectionate moniker “Coca Cola University.” My son applied to Emory early decision, and never looked back. He had the happiest freshman year of any kid we know, except perhaps his friend at Elon, another “hot” southern school in North Carolina. Our son got an internship in Atlanta this summer, something he may not have found in NYC.
So I said to my client, “At least visit some schools before you rule out the South.”
Parents who are going through the college admissions process, what has your experience been with your child exploring colleges beyond your state, region or country? How important is geography in determing your student’s college list?
Parents who have already sent a child to college, how far from home is your child’s college? What was your student’s reasoning in choosing that college? How has your travel experience been? If you could do it all over again, what might you do differently?
Your teen just graduated from high school, but he’s not ready to think about becoming a college freshman just yet. Parties, summer jobs, beach trips with friends, the beginning of what (in their minds) will be an endless summer.
But you’re thinking about college. You have mixed feelings about him going, but you’ve got to plan the big move. Where do you start? Like most huge tasks, I start with organization. For my son’s move, I assembled a binder with all key pieces of information in it, made a copy for my son and for me. Some of this project we did in tandem, some fell to me. I didn’t mind, since I knew that chapter of our relationship would so quickly pass. The college transition “bible” as I began to call it, had sections that I’ll share with you:
Travel Information: Essential if your child has to fly to college! Or for accomodations on the way or during move-in.
US Mail, Package Shipping & Summer Storage Addresses: If your child is going far away, it may make sense to buy dorm gear online and have it shipped directly to college, if they offer a summer storage address.
Copies of Important Documents: Completed insurance, medical, immunization forms, copy of insurance card, meds prescriptions, glasses prescriptions (so they can get a new pair if–when they lose them), passport numbers if any international travel is involved.
Maps of Campus & Area: Download campus maps from college website and Google area maps. Mark off locations of grocery, pharmacy, office supply, big box stores, malls and restaurants.
Orientation Schedule: Download from college website so you don’t have to keep going to your laptop to find out what is happening when.
Emergency Phone Numbers: You can never have too many copies, no matter how often your kid says the numbers are in his cell phone (they lose cell phones).
For parents who have already sent a student to college, what did you do to keep the process organized? I invite you to share your suggestions with parents who are preparing to go through the Big Move!
Your college freshman is finally home after fall semester. He seems happy to be home, but not eager to return to school for spring. Sometime between handing you an oversized duffle of filthy laundry, recovering from final exam sleep debt, gobbling up Mom comfort food as an alternative to pizza, lighting the Menorah or trimming the Christmas tree, your student casually announces: “I think I want to transfer.”
Dr. Allen Grove, professor and director of a program to help students transition to college, also writes the About.com Guide to College Admissions. In two excellent articles, he outlines: 5 Good Reasons to Transfer to a Different College and 5 Bad Reasons to Transfer.
Grove’s 5 reasons that justify transfer are: financial necessity, academic upgrade, specialized major (I would expand that to include sports or arts programs) , family obligations, or social situation (I would include overall atmosphere). 5 “bad” (misguided) reasons to change schools are: love, your school is too hard, you’re homesick, you hate your roommate, or you hate your professors. I’ll comment on the reasons that are not self-explanatory.
Social situation that justifies transfer would be a true mismatch between a student’s temperament and a school’s overall atmosphere. Obvious examples: a serious student feels overwhelmed by a toxic, 24/7 partying environment, or a teen who enjoys work/play balance feels too pressured in a fiercely competitive pre-professional school. 
Less obvious examples: a teen with a conservative upbringing is painfully disconnected on a far-left campus; a student of color feels no sense of community in a school lacking diversity; a person from a cosmopolitan area feels too isolated from entertainment venues on a remote rural campus; a kid who is wild about spectator sports feels unsatisfied in a school with no atheltics emphasis; a teen from a close-knit high school feels lost in a huge, annonymous public institution.
We are not talking about minor adjustments. A key college growth challenge is learning to adapt to new situations and appreciating people with different backgrounds and viewpoints. But most of us have been in environments at some point in life where we felt completely misplaced, like a fish out of water. That’s what I’m talking about. 
College is such a highlight of one’s life, where one finds lifelong friends, forms key dating relationships or chooses a spouse, and selects one’s young adult career. Not to mention it is a huge financial investment, perhaps $50 grand a year! Why spend four years in a place where you won’t thrive and may be absolutely miserable?
The most tricky, self-deceptive reason for transfer is being in love. Young people under 21 are still wrestling with the intensity of raging hormones, in conflict with the yet not fully mature frontal lobe that controls executive function and decision-making. This reality is described in lay terms in The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries About the Teenage Brain Tell Us About Our Kids by Barbara Strauch. 
Worse, an older adolescent’s identity is still in tremendous flux, when it comes to academic and career interests as well as key relationships (or even sexual identity). No wonder it’s tricky! Erik Eriksen asserted that the capstone developmental task of adolescence is forming an authentic identity, during which a young person may be vulnerable and confused until fully establishing his own individuality.
Navigating this morass effectively requires educating oneself in an environment that offers many alternatives to explore, for fields of study, career options, or friendship and dating opportunities. Limiting oneself too soon in any area is usually viewed (at least years later) as a mistake.![](http://positionu4college.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/decison2.jpg "\")
Am I saying that one should never make an educational or professional decision with a “significant other” in mind? No, but college is too early, because a student is still building the foundation of his personal, academic and career equity. And while rare, long distance relationships can work; I know several lifelong happily married couples who have proven it. 
An overall theme of these 5 good, 5 bad reasons to transfer is: only transfer for “big picture” reasons that can’t be changed by staying. If a student doesn’t get along with one roommate, get another. But if a student can’t stand the whole campus culture, or the family can’t afford the school, or they don’t have enough courses in one’s desired major, it makes sense to consider transfer. Stay tuned: in future posts we will discuss how to go about it.
The Hidden Ivies, 2nd Edition: 50 Top Colleges-from Amherst to Williams-That Rival the Ivy League
Pay for College without Sacrificing Your Retirement: A Guide to Your Financial Future
The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges 2010: Students on Campus Tell You What You Really Want to Know, 36th Edition
When I work with high school students on this essay, asked in every school-specific supplement to the Common Application, their knee-jerk response is to play back obvious answers. “I love NY!” “Atlanta has perfect weather!” “Washington DC is the best place for a Poli Sci Major.” “Denver has great skiing.” “Boston is the ideal college town.”
My consulting practice is called 
Knowledge of the university’s programs shows demonstrated interest, a hot button for Admissions people required to maximize their yield. Check out a March 2009 article in 
Great communication means considering your 
• Register for fall standardized tests and prepare via online prep programs, local classes or tutors. If you want to improve your spring scores, you have some extra time now to do the studying required.
your child’s school. For example, you can instantly compare the SAT/GPA stats of all the schools on your teen’s college list with her own SAT/GPA. Most public and private high schools have it now. Why don’t you know about it? Because you have a teenager. But ask!
Get educated on Financial Aid! Skim: 
Emory’s Quadrangle, the center of campus, was absolutely stunning, surrounded by magnificent pink, grey and white marble-clad Beaux-Arts buildings. Spring was already in full bloom, with pink blossoming trees and striking red and yellow flowers we would not see up North until May. 
My son applied to Emory early decision, and never looked back. He had the happiest freshman year of any kid we know, except perhaps his friend at 
Parents who have already sent a child to college, how far from home is your child’s college? What was your student’s reasoning in choosing that college? How has your travel experience been? If you could do it all over again, what might you do differently?
Your teen just graduated from high school, but he’s not ready to think about becoming a college freshman just yet. Parties, summer jobs, beach trips with friends, the beginning of what (in their minds) will be an endless summer.
of this project we did in tandem, some fell to me. I didn’t mind, since I knew that chapter of our relationship would so quickly pass. The college transition “bible” as I began to call it, had sections that I’ll share with you:
Dorm Checklist:
office supply, big box stores, malls and restaurants.
For parents who have already sent a student to college, what did you do to keep the process organized? I invite you to share your suggestions with parents who are preparing to go through the Big Move! 
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