Practical Advice for the Parents of Rising College Freshman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) Get your kid to sign the relevant forms. https://massotorrence.com/resources/8-legal-documents-parents-and-college-students-should-sign

2) Get them a credit card but NOT A Debit card.

3) Schedule their medical maintainence appointments with their regular doctors, a year in advance if possible. It is easy to cancel these appointments, but hard to schedule it on short notice. Their holiday breaks are when they should be getting their dental cleaning, vision appointments, dermatologist and full physical etc. Get them vaccinated for flu and boosted for COVID in August. Way before they go to college.

4) Give them access to your Uber account.

5) There are many lists for college dorms on DCUM, so checck the threads.

Parent of a college senior here. The post above is excellent. OP, go to that link. You should get a power of attorney and a medical power of attorney. Remember, once your child is legally an adult, you as a parent actually do not have legal standing to make medical decisions for them or even to have doctors talk to you about your child's condition if he is injured or ill. Don't depend on the kindness of doctors to talk to you or ask you for decisions if your kid ends up in the hospital. It's rarely going to be needed but having a medical POA gives peace of mind to both you and your student.

The linked article has other docs you need to pull together. I do recommend getting insurance on his belongings in case something gets stolen or lost or damaged while he's there.

In four years I have never once seen any grade report in any form for my DC. I ask near the end of each semester how things are going in terms of grades and she tells me. She was always very academically minded and I knew I'd need to let go in college and have just reminded her briefly, a very few times, that if she plans on grad school eventualy, her undergrad grades will matter for that. If your kid needs someone eyeballing his grades, do that, but only with a "floor" in place as someone else put it, not with some kind of "Only straight As will do" mentality.

Be sure to encourage your kid to take advantage of all the opportunities to join clubs and activities, get involved with volunteering, join an arts organization if he likes to play an instrument or sing or act, etc. etc. He should make friends based on interests, not solely on who his roomate is or who randomly happens to live on the same hall in his dorm.

Have open conversations all this summer about drinking, sex and drugs, including weed, which kids seem to think is less harmful than drinking but which is far more potent now than years ago.