Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
An Ivy League Dean helps parents launch their children into college with this step-by-step guide to the critical transition period between the admission letter and the end of the fall semester. Many parents believe that once their child is accepted into a good school there's nothing more to worry about. But one in three freshmen will drop out and less than fifty percent will graduate on time. Adjustment is key. Countdown to College presents targeted preparations to ensure that students excel and end up on the winning side of these graduation statistics--and lead exciting, independent lives.
Distilling lessons and sharing stories (some funny, some cautionary, all helpful) from her long college advisory career, Monique Rinere offers a unique and essential month-by-month roadmap to the many issues ahead. She advises on parenting through the "senior slump" so that students don't jeopardize their college spot, how to prepare for a roommate and their new-found freedoms (parties, spending, sleep), and gives strategic advice on picking an appropriate class load (Rinere's rule of thumb: students are expected to put in three hours studying outside of class for every credit hour in the classroom). Countdown to College also includes guidance for parents on how to face the emptying nest and let go of their anxieties about their child's autonomy. The result: a college experience that is rich, rewarding, and successful for teens and parents alike.
Synopsis
After all the testing and touring and applying, your child has been accepted to college. Congratulations Now what? Every new student grapples with making a successful transition to college--with remaining healthy, happy, grounded, and in school. Indeed, the national statistics are sobering: one in three freshmen will not come back for sophomore year, and less than 50 percent will graduate on time. A student's adjustment is key, especially during the period starting with the lazy summer months before move-in and ending at the dizzying close of a student's first semester. And parents must prepare for the absence of their child, who has been their focus for a very long time, in order to make this change a win for the whole family. Distilling lessons and sharing stories (some cautionary, some entertaining, all helpful) from her long college advisory career, Ivy League dean Monique Rinere presents a unique month-by-month road map to a college experience that is rich, rewarding, and successful for teens and parents alike. Taking parents from the moment the acceptances arrive to the end of the first college semester, her expert advice covers:
- assessing the right fit among your child's options: who and what to ask to get the real scoop on campus and academic life
- understanding actual costs: considering hidden expenses, financial-aid and scholarship fine print, loans, and work-study opportunities
- parenting through the senior slump so that students don't jeopardize their hard-won college spot
- talking to your child about freshman culture shock and their new freedoms around parties, food, finances, and sleep
- what your child needs to know about working with an academic advisor, interacting with professors, and creating their own community of advisors
- how to help your rising freshman create a conceptual bridge from what they are, a graduating high school senior, to what they want to be, a college alum
- time-management and class-scheduling tips to help your child pick an appropriate class (and extracurricular) load
- advice for parents facing the emptying nest: letting go of your anxieties about your child's autonomy and seizing this opportunity to reinvent your life in new and intentional ways