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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Learn what office hours are.  Believe it or not, going to a prof's office is not punishment and doesn't mean you are in trouble.[/quote]

Yes -- absolutely.  Also, when you choose classes, ask upper-classmen/women about the classes they found most interesting and teachers they found most effective and helpful.

And, friends are important.  I'm 30 years out from college and those friendships have been mainstays in my life through some difficult times.  My oldest kids are recent college grads, and I already see how much their college friends mean to them.  Take time to be a friend.

Set time aside for exercise and sleep.

Finally, birth control is essential.  [/quote]

Either your age is showing, or your nerdiness, or both.  [/quote]

Ha -- I'll gladly cop to both of those (note that I mentioned I graduated 30 years ago).  How about you -- will you cop to your ageism and general nastiness?  How does it make you feel?  Do you need to be gratuitously mean to make yourself feel better?  There are other ways to do that, you know.    [/quote]

I'm older than you, actually.  The suggestions that new students make friends and also get advice from upperclassmen on what classes to take just struck me funny, that's all.  If your college-aged kid really needs to be told either of those things they'e really in a heap of trouble.    
[/quote]

Interesting that you're older, and, yet, so mean-spirited.  That certainly blows the theory that maturity and life experience can help us become more generous.  Anyway, I understand that my advice here was not mind-blowing at all, but at a time like leaving home for college, a parent might have an opportunity to say something that sticks with a kid in a way that hearing the same advice at another juncture might not.  My sense is that much of the advice proffered here is in that vein.  BTW, what advice would you have for your child?  [/quote]

We sent off 4.  We had no unsolicited advice for any of them.  They were young adults who had done well enough in high school to get into top colleges and didn't need us to tell them they needed to see their professors during office houses, make friends, be on birth control or get advice from classmates at course selection time.  We knew they were ready to roll and that they'd call when they needed us -- which, from time to time, they did.  We certianly saw no need to leave them written essays on how to conduct themselves.

When we dropped our oldest off we hid our tears until she couldn't see them -- and comforted our youngest, who was more upset to see her go than we were.  From there we learned pretty quickly that none of this is a big deal.  Life goes on, you talk and text, they come home a lot and still drive you crazy at times and in the end nothing's all that different.  There was no drama whatsoever on anyone's end when it came to dropping off numbers 2 to 4.   [/quote]

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