We’re thrilled to be celebrating the 50th episode of the College Parent Central Podcast! We hope we’ve shared helpful information, advice and support in our first 50 episodes. We had fun brainstorming 50 helpful tips for parents and students to celebrate our 50th episode. They range from ”Go to Class” (for students) to ”Don’t Call Professors” (for parents.) Find the suggestions that speak to you and your student and see how many you can practice right now. Thanks for joining us on the journey so far! We look forward to our next 50 episodes!
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We had a lot of fun with this episode! After we finished congratulating ourselves for our 50th episode (Yay!) we got down to the business of sharing 50 different tips to help parents and students.
Even if you don’t listen to all fifty, go back and catch some of the episodes that cover topics important to you! We’re proud of the ground we’ve covered and we hope our first fifty episodes have information that will help you and your student – and also let you know that you’re not alone on your journey.
For this episode, we brainstormed 50 quick tips. They’re in random order and some are for parents and others for students. In order to cover 50 tips in about 40 minutes, we had to move quickly, so limited ourselves to only a sentence or two about each one. It was high-speed and we had fun. We hope you will, too. Some of these tips have whole episodes about them, so follow up on the ones that interest you.
We’re sharing the list here, but we hope you’ll listen to hear what we have to say.
Leave us a comment below to let us know which one(s) are most helpful to you. Or let us know whether any of these surprised you.
Here we go!
(S = tips for students, P = tips for parents)
- Keep a planner — and keep it up to date — with all of your assignments and tests. (S)
- Read the syllabus carefully. (S)
- Talk ahead of time about how much, and how, you plan to communicate. (P) (More in episode #005)
- Remember the 24-hour rule. (P)
- Identify one or two upperclassmen you are comfortable asking questions. (S)
- Find something to do besides academics that brings you joy. (S)
- Reach out and get to know your advisor. (S)
- Reach out to your professors and use their office hours. (S) (More episode #035)
- Know resources available on campus — counseling, health services, RA, CD — where they are and how to access their services. (S) (More in episode #008)
- Talk to your student about and have them sign a health proxy. (P)
- Don’t ask your student to share their passwords with you. (P)
- Read your college email. (S)
- Get involved on campus and find ”your people.” (S)
- Find a place on campus where you feel comfortable — for studying, relaxing, or just being alone. (S)
- Think about how to be a good roommate, talk about expectations and create a roommate contract. (S) (More in episode #021)
- Get familiar with the rhythm of the school year and have appropriate conversations at the right time. (P)
- Send mail for your student’s physical mailbox. (P)
- Send care packages with personal items. (P)
- Find friends to talk to who have been through this before. (P)
- Go to class. (S)
- Get — and use — an alarm clock besides your phone. (S) (Here’s one fun idea!)
- Don’t be your kid’s alarm clock or calendar reminder. (P)
- Learn how to send a professional email. (S)
- Think of school as your full-time job — 2 hours for every hour in class. (S)
- Take care of your health — get enough sleep, think about what you eat, get exercise. (S) (More in episode #024)
- Think about and live into your new role as a sideline coach. (P)
- Chunk out your big assignments in your planner. (S)
- Take notes in class and reread them to review before the next class. (S)
- Talk to your student about expectations for break — both parents’ and student’s. (P) (More in episode #003)
- Talk about finances and how to put together a budget. (P)
- Don’t call professors! (P)
- Have key phone numbers pre-programmed into your phone. (S)
- Don’t walk around alone at night. (S)
- When your student calls with problems, let them vent rather than immediately trying to fix things. (P)
- Be a sounding board for your student — listen, ask questions, help them problem solve. (P)
- If you want or need accommodations, be sure to ask how to get them. (S) (More in episode #019)
- Send your student to school with a comfort pack in addition to a first aid kit. (P)
- Send your student to school with a first aid kit and make sure they know how to use it. (P)
- Buy your textbooks and do the reading. (S)
- Try studying with others. (S)
- Be open to meeting new people and don’t rely too heavily on your high school friends. (S)
- Get comfortable with the uncomfortable. (P)
- Make hotel reservations early for Parents’ Weekend, Commencement, Move-in. (P)
- Reread any paper or email before you hand it in or hit send. (S)
- Do something for yourself. (P)
- Don’t believe everything you see/read on social media. (S)
- Visit the Career Services office early and find out what they offer. (S)
- It’s OK to be undecided for a while. (S)
- Explore majors, minors, courses and see what’s out there. (S)
- Take responsibility for your degree path and don’t rely on parents or advisors. (S)
Don’t forget that you can listen to all of our previous podcast episodes here or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also go to followthepodcast.com/collegeparentcentral to add our podcast so that you’ll receive each new episode as we release it.
Let us know what you’d like to hear about on future podcasts! Leave a comment here or email us at podcast@collegeparentcentral.com.
Who knows what we’ll come up with for our 100th episode!
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