When your student was in high school, they probably received what may have felt like an overwhelming amount of recruiting material from colleges.  Some may have come in the physical mail, and much of it may have come electronically.  Whatever its form, it just kept coming.

Now that your student has been accepted to college, has paid the deposit at their chosen school, and is about to head to college in a few short weeks, there is a new flood of information arriving — and this flood may make the earlier information seem like a mere trickle.  There is an important difference this time: this information is crucial and should be carefully read and considered.

Lots of summer information

Although some of the summer information arriving from your student’s new college may come in hard copy through the mail, much of it will come electronically.  And the information that arrives electronically will be sent to your student, not to you.  It will most likely arrive at your student’s new college e-mail address, so it is important that your student make sure that they set that up as soon as the college sends the log-in information.  Be sure to ask whether that’s done.

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Heading off to college is a big step. Your student has anticipated this step for a long time and probably worked hard throughout high school to get ready, apply, and make that final decision.  As parents, you’ve been involved — sometimes in the thick of it all and sometimes on the sideline — and you are also anticipating a big change.

But as big as that step to college seems, it is just that — one more step.  And the step is that much easier for your student when they are prepared.  Perhaps one of the reasons we all have so much anxiety about the college admissions process and the college transition process is that we see it as a giant leap rather than a step.

Your student has taken steps throughout their life — some bigger than others.  There were those literal first steps, then daycare or preschool, kindergarten, middle school and high school.  Remember how scary each of those steps felt at the time?  Your student may have learned to ride a bike, have a first sleepover, play in a first athletic game, give a first music or dance recital, talk to a girl or boy (!), go on a date, and learn to drive a car.  Scary, right?

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