Preparing for and transitioning into the first year of college involves so many, many details, and it’s easy to get caught up in just getting through what needs to be done. Then the college experience can be taken over by the day-to-day details of classes, assignments, GPA, activities, friends, schedules, career planning and just surviving. While we all know it’s good advice to live in the moment, sometimes it can also help to take a breath, zoom out a bit, and look at the bigger picture. In this episode, Lynn and Vicki suggest why it’s important for your student (and you) to take some time to take a look backward, to look more widely at those experiences available now, and to look forward to the future. Changes of perspective can be illuminating for all of us (And yes, that includes parents!).

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• Much more information for college parents can be found on our website, College Parent Central
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Vicki and Elizabeth had a wide-ranging conversation with Harlan Cohen, college transition expert and author of The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into In College. Harlan shared why the transition to college can be so difficult and why finding your People, your Places, and having Patience can make a difference. Harlan encourages parents – and students – to understand that the first year of college, or at least the first semester, may be a terrible mess. Although that may not sound very positive, you’ll want to hear Harlan explain how that knowledge can be freeing and help students find their direction.

Thank you for listening!

• Much more information for college parents can be found on our website, College Parent Central
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Talking about tutoring is a new topic for our podcast, but we are finding that college parenting begins earlier and earlier, and parents are making many early decisions with future college potential in mind. In this episode, Vicki was pleased to be able to have a conversation with Celine Bewsher, Owner/Manager of Club Z! Tutoring in Cambridge, MA. Celine shared her insights about how tutoring can help students succeed, not just by helping with a specific subject at a specific time, but by helping students master the skills that they’ll need in the future. Celine helped us understand why starting to work with a tutor early can pay off as students approach test prep and the greater demands of college classes. Whether or not your student could benefit from tutoring, this conversation with help you understand better how your student learns and how you can support them all the way through school.

Thank you for listening!

• Much more information for college parents can be found on our website, College Parent Central
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This episode is sort-of an encore episode. Each year we do an episode where we share some of our favorite – and helpful – books for college parents. This year, we realized that many of the books that we’ve talked about over the past four years are still ones we recommend. So we’ve pulled together seven of our suggestions from past years and put them together in this episode. These books are truly some of our top recommendations. Happy listening – and then happy reading!

Thank you for listening!

• Much more information for college parents can be found on our website, College Parent Central
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Once your student makes their final college decision and puts down that important deposit, they enter a new leg of the college journey. Sure, you know there will be lots of preparation work ahead – summer decisions, shopping, good-byes, packing – but your student may be thinking they’ll really become a college student at Move-in Day in the fall. Your student may still be a high school student, but the college knows there’s work to be done now. In this episode, Sarah and Vicki talk about your student’s strange mental place with one foot in each world and why it’s important for your student to begin to connect with the college soon after depositing. The work of being a college student starts now, in early summer, and Sarah and Vicki explain why and share what students, and their parents, should expect and why it matters.

Thank you for listening!

• Much more information for college parents can be found on our website, College Parent Central
• Find us on Twitter at @CollParCentral
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When our student heads off to college, we worry about a lot of things, and one of the primary concerns is our student’s health and well-being. We first interviewed Dr. Jill Grimes, often dubbed the “College Doc” because of her focus on the health of college aged students, back in Episode #024 in 2020, at the height of the Covid Pandemic. It was time to invite her back to hear what’s changed in the last 4 years and also to hear about what’s new in the 3rd edition of her book The Ultimate College Student Health Handbook: Your Guide for Everything from Hangovers to Homesickness. In this episode, in conversation with Vicki and Elizabeth, Dr. Grimes shares tips for preparing your student for doctor visits on their own, what paperwork your student and you should complete before they head off, and she helps us understand (so we can explain to our students) how today’s pills and weed are so different from those of a few years ago.

Thank you for listening!

• Much more information for college parents can be found on our website, College Parent Central
• Find us on Twitter at @CollParCentral
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Here’s an encore of an earlier podcast episode that we think is so important it deserves to be released again. If your student is making their decision right now, you may need to hear this. The college admission process begins earlier and earlier and sometimes seems to go on forever. When those highly anticipated acceptance letters begin to arrive, the process enters a new phase. The ball is now in your student’s court to make a decision. What is your role as a parent at this stage? In this episode Vicki and Lynn unpack some of the emotions and practical steps you and your student can take as your student looks for the school with the best “fit,” perhaps moves to their second choice of school, or copes with being on a Waitlist. As your student makes this final decision, everyone’s roles begin to shift.

Thank you for listening!

• Much more information for college parents can be found on our website, College Parent Central
• Find us on Twitter at @CollParCentral
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In this second crossover episode with a Facebook Live even hosted with cohost Elizabeth Hamblet, we were joined by Timothy L. Fields and Shereem Herndon-Brown, authors of The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions now out in its second edition. Tim and Shereem shared how the book came to be, what’s new in the second edition, and touched on many topics including what makes a strong college essay, college choice and the college search process, and how and why parents can be drivers of the college admission process. You won’t want to miss this conversation.

Thank you for listening!

• Much more information for college parents can be found on our website, College Parent Central
• Find us on Twitter at @CollParCentral
• Sign up for our newsletter for ongoing information
• Please leave us a review at “Love the Podcast” to help others find us.