Wisdom from a college advisor

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What if you had the advice of a proven expert to help your child navigate through the exciting but intense years of college? Well, you do! The advisors on college campuses across the country are paid to do just that.

Today I have a guest blog from a smart, straight-talking college advisor, Priscilla Beth Baker. She has “gone viral” for her views on a post on Facebook. Most people loved it, but a few were unhappy with her advice. Which proves the point she was trying to make!

When the kids enter college, it is time to let them learn, by trial and error, how to navigate their way through the adult world. It is hard when they call and are lonely or freaking out about their first failing grade. If they have moved across the country, they may be dealing with culture shock – rural to urban, Southwest to Northeast. (This is no joke – I discovered this on moving from Texas to Michigan! The foods are different, slang is different, and everything seems a bit odd.)

They can survive and thrive. You just need to give them time to acclimate. Which they will do, Priscilla assures us. Just give them a chance to prove it! In her own words:

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I serve as an Academic Advisor at a large University which puts me in the unique position of witnessing firsthand a lot of what most of you only speculate about higher education and the college experience today. Having had no fewer than twelve students (male and female) sob in my office in the first 3 weeks of the semester, I began to reflect on this chronic trend towards students not being able to handle what many of us might consider “normal” levels of stress.

So what can you do for them while they are away to help them adjust in ways both big and small, be it down the road or across the country, knowing that their needs will change from that first year to the last?

I don’t have all the answers – just maybe a little useful advice based on the chair I sit in every day across from your college-aged kids, and the benefit of a little distance from my own parenting missteps when my eldest went away to school.

Reasons Why College Was Different for Parents

I am here to tell you that, for a variety of reasons, the college experience is NOT the same as when we went to school. It seems to me that it is a perfect storm of:

• many high schools engaging in massive grade inflation and not fully preparing our kids for what lies ahead (and so much of this is tied to both state and parental pressure put upon teachers and administrators alike)
• our generation’s over-involved, fix-it style of parenting
• social media and the strange dichotomy of these platforms which are meant to connect us, but often do just the opposite. Our kids have been raised in a technological era – a veritable arms race of land mines none of us ever experienced or anticipated

I went to a training on this generation, termed Gen Z, yet also depressingly termed “the loneliest generation.” Record numbers of students are facing anxiety, depression, mental health issues, and suicidal ideations on campuses ill-equipped to deal with the sheer volume. Regardless of our own opinions about how “real” this epidemic is, I am here to tell you that our opinions don’t matter – because it is real to OUR KIDS.

So what can you do for them while they are away to help them adjust in ways both big and small whether they are down the road or across the country, knowing that their needs will change from that first year to the last?

1. Your children need to learn how to solve problems on their own. 
Remember when you were away at school and had an issue – what did you do? You talked to roommates and friends. Or yourself. You figured it out. THEN you might have told your parents. Or not. Jumping on their school’s website and finding everything for them might be helpful in the short term, but I can tell you that it leads to total paralysis day-to-day especially when they find an internship or a job and have not developed any of those professional competencies.

If they ask you for help, your answer should be, “Why don’t you ask your advisor or your professor?” That is why we are here! You would not believe the random questions I get….and they make me laugh and I am happy to get them because it means they aren’t asking you. Of course, as parents we are still a resource for our kids while they are in college; we just shouldn’t be the resource. There needs to be a BALANCE in promoting both short-term and lifelong growth.

So when do you intervene on behalf of your child? You intervene if there is a major issue your child simply cannot solve on their own (and they have tried multiple avenues) or they are not getting the services which they are entitled. Then you might need to step in.

2. Do not text your child hourly. Or even daily.
Let them set the tone. And if you don’t hear from them, don’t panic! That’s generally a good thing! And it’s okay NOT to answer occasionally or immediately. Do not get roped into negativity and complaining via text either. If they want to vent, have them call.

Sometimes students are afraid to share their struggles with their parents for fear of worrying or disappointing them, so encouraging them to see an advisor, counselor, coach, or trusted friend might help them put things in perspective. Obviously, if your children are struggling significantly, more frequent contact will be necessary, and make sure they are aware of the mental health services available on their campuses.

3. Please use the parent page of your child’s university as it was intended, as a means of getting basic information. 
Those pages can be an excellent informational resource at times and they do promote a sense of community but engaging in lengthy conversations with other parents complaining about your child’s institution and then passing that along to your child does nothing but make them more anxious. It may also make your student feel like you don’t trust them to navigate matters on their own and that their privacy is being violated.

4. Encourage them to join clubs and professional societies. 
It is far more likely that they will find “their people” there than in their dorm. Joining things is all part of the personal growth curve in college.

5. Tell them to treat college like a job with a 40+ hour work week. 
Many of your kids didn’t have to work that hard in high school and did well. Not so now. They can enjoy themselves, but they need to work hard to earn downtime.

6. If your children need academic accommodations of any kind, make sure they are registered. 
Students who need it should be registered with whatever student services office exists on your campuses.That way, not only do they get the services they need, but there is an official paper trail which will avoid any possible conflicts with professors.

7. Encourage your kids to engage with their professors. 
Tell them to go professors’ office hours and not to be afraid to engage with them in class and in general. If your child has an issue with a class, tell them to go directly to the professor, or to their advisor if they feel uncomfortable. And resist the temptation to intervene and cc department heads/deans/college presidents which happens more often than you know!

8. Tell them to get help. 
Tell your kids to get help before they think they actually need it to avoid the unenviable spiral downward – to use all the resources (academic and otherwise) that their universities have to offer.

9. Tell them to schedule their downtime. 
Time management is the single biggest factor in a student’s success. Tell them to schedule their downtime just as they do their classes and allow themselves to completely check out of academics with whatever activities bring them joy and balance instead of stressing out about what they should be doing.

This prevents what I like to call “going down the rabbit hole of no return” where they become so overwhelmed that all they do is sleep and skip class because they don’t even know where to start to get caught up and engaged.

10. Tell them to be open. 
Tell them to be open to new knowledge, new experiences and new people, to not trust their first judgments of people/situations, to not make assumptions. It is important that they push themselves outside their comfort zone from time to time to avoid complacency. Being off balance is a good thing once in a while!

11. Hold them accountable. 
If they mess up, hold them accountable, and make them do the same. Cheating is a major issue on campuses for a reason. They can learn and grow from their missteps only if they are held accountable.

12. Normalize failure. 
A lot of what I do on any given day is normalizing what a student perceives as failure. That is an important message for your child to receive. If they are really struggling, even failing – academically, socially or any other way- they need to know that others are as well, that it is short-term and that there are valuable things to be learned from those struggles. And don’t be afraid to share your own struggles with them!

Advisors can’t meet all your children’s needs and we don’t have all the answers, but we know how and where to get those answers to direct them to the right resources. On particularly challenging days, I remind myself of what I would want my own child’s experience to be walking into an advisor’s office or anywhere on their campuses.

“I am here. You have my undivided attention. What do you need?” Each of your children deserves to have that experience.

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Thank you, Priscilla Beth Baker!

You can find more of her valuable insights, plus her response to those parents who didn’t agree with everything she said, on her Facebook page, @priscilla.b.baker