A college education is the second largest investment you will probably make next to your home. There are many hidden costs of sending a student to college. This catches parents off guard and unprepared. This book give you a heads up and some tips on how to handle the high cost of a college degree. This is not to scare off parents but I am all about gathering information. With information, you can tackle the financial expectations successfully.

He suggests fiscal responsibility by putting together a plan to manage financial affairs during the college experience.

Some tips he shares: Using Amazon.com or Craigslist for buying used text books (there are many sites online for used text books); Getting around campus on a bicycle -it is more prudent to have a car when you graduate to get a job than as a student; Protect yourself by having medical insurance; Save for emergencies such as student trips, your computer is stolen etc…; And No Credit Cards - a better option is a debit card.

My next posting is more advice of preparing for the hidden costs of college.

Homemaker Barbi - http://www.homemakerbarbi.com

Not all of the tools available on the internet work for everyone. It is a good idea though to look at everything and then decide what works best for you. Share these tools with your student. Maybe they will use them, maybe they won’t. It is up to them. They have to decide what works for them… This is important, the student decides this. As parents, we can just offer a variety of tools for their tool box!

Did you know that the mother bear will protect, provide milk and teach her cubs everything she knows for 2 years…? But…she will not provide them food. When she catches her salmon, she eats it. She does not share it with her cubs.

So what can we learn from the Momma Bear? We can teach and protect but we also need to step back and let our cubs, our college students, catch their own fish. This is how they learn. College students build their self confidence by doing. Sometimes they goof up, but this is how they learn. We provide the fishing lessons, they provide the fish.

http://www.studyrails.com/

I had one of the few college students that was prone to procrastination and was distracted by all the fun going on outside the library benefit from time management and organization tips. I am thinking, there are other students that need all the tips we can give them for success.

If you have some tips, let us hear them!

As parents, we can help our students to be independent yet organized. The idea is to find a system that works and that is user friendly.

http://www.daylert.com/

Let me know any feedback on this system or any other system that you and your student has used successfully. There are many different systems and everyone is different. So, whatever works is fine but find a system.

My suggestion is to have a system in place before your student goes off in the fall. This way you can be in tune with each other. As the semester progresses dates can be added. When a parent understands the students schedule, they can have appropriate expectations.

A common calender can become a great communication tool.

UniversalGiving™ is a social entrepreneurship non-profit whose vision is to “create a world where giving and volunteering are a natural part of everyday life.”™

http://www.universalgiving.org

Check out this web page for possible volunteer opportunities for your student.

“Today’s children love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders, and love to chatter in place of exercise… They contradict their parents, talk before company, gobble up their food, and tyrannize their teachers.”

Socrates - 2300 years ago or so.
Isn’t this a great quote?  Parents are often criticized for their parenting and it can feel hopeless.  Quotes like this give me hope and validation that we have parented a generation that is going to move forward and think of things we never thought of.  I never even came up with the idea of piercing my belly button!

So, parent on…  Do the best you can and keep gathering information because we learn from others and sometimes we learn that we need some help. Don’t forget www.CollegeWorks101.com has information that can help you with this parenting experience.