Veteran College Parent

As students prepare to begin or return to college, making sure they have everything they need to be successful can be challenging.

But now as you wipe the sweat from your brow and pat yourself on the back—your child is going to college! Then it dawns on you - What should they bring with them? Where should you shop? What do they need? What don't they need?

Relax. While packing your student for college may feel like an overwhelming task, it doesn't have to be. In fact, you might even have some fun with it.

We’ve compiled the Ultimate Packing Lists for residence hall life, classroom and studying needs and personal items they should bring along too - so that you can get your student off to school and ready to learn! Read more for tips and tricks to ease the headache of the big move.

• Residence Hall Packing List
• What your student should have for Classroom and Studying
• Personal Items to pack for college

By: John Swartz, JobQuestU.com

College life is filled with class schedules, GPAs, homework, and those pesky final exams. However, it’s important to look beyond the textbooks and understand that the purpose of college is to begin building a professional foundation so that a quality job or graduate school is secured upon graduation.

We’ve discussed whether or not parents should help grown kids with expenses like credit card debt, and even whether it’s appropriate for parents to foot the bill for a big wedding, but what about health insurance?

Your “soon to be” college freshman belongs to a generation now referred to as “millenial.” Even if you happen to be one of the lucky ones who has had a virtually stress free parenting experience, you might want to buckle your seat belt. This could get bumpy. Anticipate phone calls reporting, “I’m out of toilet paper…” their tone will assume you may want to do something about this. You won’t be alone.

This year, 1.4 million graduates are tossing their mortarboard caps into the sky and receiving bachelor's degrees. Almost immediately, many will face another rite of passage: getting dropped from their parents' health insurance.

For the full article, please go to:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121365626631779015.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

All around the country, parents are taking photos of grinning college graduates holding their hard-earned diplomas. But after "Pomp and Circumstance" is over, students and parents can start worrying: The debt season will begin.

Read the article

By Ali Cooper ’09
News Reporter

To Choate seniors, April is anything but a picturesque time for blooming flowers or fantasies of a summer of fun. Instead, April 1st represents the tolling bell when college decisions roll in, the final day of college decisions culminating the long “college process” for the class of 2008.

Colleges Restrain Spending: Blame rests with State Lawmakers Who Squeeze Education Funding
By Daniel J. Hurley

It's that time of year when newspaper headlines across the USA announce the latest tuition increases at the local public college or university for this coming fall semester — increases that could well be in the high single digits and, in some cases, double digits.

The steady stream of tuition increases raises the question: Can't colleges rein in their spending?

By Prashant Gopal Fri Mar 14, 8:08 AM ET

A year ago, Jeff Shea began buying up rental properties around the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from which he had only recently graduated with a business major. Shea, 23, who lives in Chicago, owns three rental homes near campus, including a four-bedroom house he bought for $138,000 and rents to four students for $1,800 a month.

"It's the best time ever to buy houses," Shea said. "The rent is inflated because so many people go to school here."

Ritter signs textbook bill: Measure aims at making book bills more affordable

By Brittany Anas
Originally published 12:23 p.m., April 8, 2008 - Dailycamera.com

Gov. Bill Ritter signed a bill into law today that requires publishers to be more upfront about the costs of college textbooks — a measure that proponents say will help keep the skyrocketing prices in check.

Many college students still rely on their parents for financial support throughout most of their college years. It used to be a bit more difficult in past years to “share” money but in today’s society there is many more option for making money available to far-away college students. One of the more common ways for parents to ensure students have access to funds is by establishing a joint bank account, either checking or savings, where both the student and the parent can make deposits and withdrawals conveniently.

READY TO CHARGE?

By Tom Hartwell, The Vicksburg Post

[03/26/08]

Some teens prepared to use plastic, some not

Felicia Jacobson said alarm bells rang when a student came into her office one day elated: she had just gotten a credit card.

"She said, 'Ms. Jacobson, Ms. Jacobson! Guess what?'"

Jacobson, director of Vicksburg High School's career center, said she was troubled to learn the student celebrated getting her new credit card by going on a small spending spree with her boyfriend.

Credit woes put student loans in jeopardy
By Lisa Sandberg
Houston Chronicle, Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — The nation's credit crunch is taking a toll on a sector of the population that tends to be unemployed and untested when it comes to repaying debt: college students.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5648864.html

Students Urged To Know Their Rights
By:Karen Forman
03/26/2008

When it comes to getting a college loan, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is looking to make sure high school students know their rights. In order to bring attention to the Student Bill of Rights, Cuomo's staff members have been traveling around the state to educate area high school teenagers about the ins and outs of student loans, making a stop in Suffolk on March 18 to meet with Longwood High School students.

Read more: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19424619&BRD=1776&PAG=461&dept_id=6363&rfi=6

New research shows that parents influence their child's likelihood of involvement with drugs, alcohol and risky sexual activity even after their child leaves for college. Specifically, students who said their fathers were in the loop had a lower likelihood of doing drugs or engaging in risky sexual behaviors. When mothers were in the know, students were less likely to drink alcohol. The protective effect of mothers' awareness was more pronounced when the students also felt close to their mom.

Friday, February 15, 2008

In the wake of Thursday's Northern Illinois University shootings, campus safety is back in the spotlight. RD did its own research and found many colleges are getting smart about new risks. Reader's Digest gives out grades and tells parents what to study up on.

Article By Lisa Collier Cool With Fran Lostys

An analysis from Business Week.com:

Why recent moves by Harvard and other educational heavyweights to lighten the financial load for middle-income families won't be copied at many schools

For the full analysis go to:
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/feb2008/bs2008023_374181.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

As colleges and universities nationally are considering the development or restructuring of services and programming for parents of their students, questions arise about how to establish, staff, and provide appropriate services. Since 2003, the University of Minnesota Parent Program has conducted a biannual National Survey of College and University Parent Programs. The survey includes questions to track trends in parent services and structures, staffing, and best practices.

For the complete article please go to:

Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2008
By Dean Treftz

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- What to do about college students who drink heavily on Thursday night? Put a price on their heads.

University of Iowa officials are so concerned about binge drinking among students, they're offering departments extra funds to hold more classes on Fridays. The spur for that? A study that found early Friday classes reduced heavy drinking the night before.

Colleges should have figured out by now that the parents of schooled children are, by necessity, homeschooling college admissions. Parents take an interest, a profound interest, in everything associated with getting their children launched into successful futures, and when public high school counselors are each serving 250 or more students, parents are aware that they need to look out for their child's interests, because if they do not, who will?

For the full article, please go to: