Parent vs. Student Responsibility
Parent Resources - Books
• Coburn, Karen L. and Madge L. Treeger. Letting Go: A Parents Guide to Today's College Experience. 2nd ed. Bethesda, Maryland: Adler and Adler, 1992.
In order to be successful in college, it is important that students learn how to be college students. Learning the policies and procedures of a large university can be daunting, but academic advisors are provided to teach students the skills necessary to navigate the rules and processes students need to acquire classes, succeed in college-level subjects, and, of course, graduate. Learning how to schedule classes is a key skill students must acquire the first semester at college. Therefore, we kindly ask that, as parents/guardians, you encourage your students to learn this skill by themselves (with the help of university staff, of course).
Please, don’t do the following for your student:
- Register for him/her. While this can be a time-consuming and frustrating process for your child, it doesn’t require any skills or special abilities that your student lacks. This is a skill that students need to learn, and be comfortable with, during his/her college career.
- Plan out his/her classes for the next four years. This is your son’s or daughter’s responsibility. Creating a four-year plan helps the student REALLY look at the courses/major s/he is pursuing. This helps them reflect on class choices and hopefully generate the following questions: “Am I really interested in this class?” “Do I really want to study _____ for the next...16 weeks?” “...4 to 5 years?”
Four-year plans (major maps) are available on the eAdvisor web resource.