21 Things Parents Wish They Knew Before Their Kids Went Off to College

By F. J. Talley

Parents of college students have many questions when their kids start college. This book provides tips so parents can be the best partner they can to their students in college. From helping their students learn new study skills, make new friends, handle failure and success and grow to become strong, happy adults, parents can use all they help they can get! This book provides the overview parents of college students need.

• Language: English
• Publisher: F. J. Talley
• Release date: Oct 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215511503

F. J. Talley

F. J. Talley wrote his first novel-length work in the summer between college and graduate school. This still unpublished work helped to develop his writing style, characterized by dialogue sprinkled with wit and dry humor, even though he doesn't really have a sense of humor. He has previously published three novels: Twin Worlds, followed by Take Hart, both of which were published in 2017.  The second book in the Flight of the Raven series—Desert Son—was published in 2023. Hard Look Back, the second in the Stephanie Hart series, is set for publication in June 2024. He is currently seeking publishers for Diaspora, which is the first in the Mitchell Street Series. F. J.'s work has appeared in the anthology for Creatures, Crimes and Creativity on three occasions, and his short story "By the River" was selected for inclusion in the 30th Anniversary anthology of the Maryland writer's Association. F. J. is also the winner of the 2019 Award for Fiction from the Gulf Coast Writer's Association. And F. J.'s novel Take Hart, was selected as a finalist in the 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the category of First Novel (70,000-90,000 words).

Book preview

The Importance of Reading the Room

When your student was deciding where to go to college, I’m sure you all took several things into account. You checked out the major your student wanted to pursue and perhaps visited a class. You also took a tour of campus, and chatted with students and faculty during an open house program. It’s also common for prospective students to have an overnight stay, or to receive plenty of phone calls from current students or admissions staff telling them how awesome their college choice is.

If your student is lucky, they also took a good look at the college community when the red carpet wasn’t out. I’ve often urged students who are serious about a college to visit the campus—multiple times, if possible. During open house days, everything and everyone is at its best: the campus is beautiful, all the students you see are smiling and happy, and the food is top-notch. There’s nothing wrong with this. What school wouldn’t want to put their best foot forward to attract the best and brightest students? But this isn’t how the campus may be during a regular school day, and that’s when your student should visit as well.

Parents have told me that they wish they had visited the campus on a regular day so their student could check the vibe. They’ve told me that the friendly atmosphere was a few degrees chillier when their student arrived, or the wealth of student activities turned out to be a single program each weekend evening that ended at 10:00 pm.

And just as important is getting a sense of the atmosphere in the local community, regardless of where the college is located. In a big city, students have access to many more local features and amenities, but they also need to be more careful about sketchy neighborhoods. Students attending rural campuses may find that can’t walk anywhere to buy cosmetics, snacks or medicine because nothing is within walking distance. Also important is the feel of the local community. Do they love the students in their local college, or are what we call town/ gown relations openly hostile.

The advice those parents gave me is clear: check out the campus and local community on an off-day to make sure the fit is really right for your student. Help your student learn to "read the