MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Our top story on Midday Edition, it's a major right of passage, beginning the first year of college is exciting and stressful. Sometimes it is hard to determine who is more excited or stressed, students or parents. San Diego Community College students are already in classes. The San Diego State University campuses bustling right now with students moving into dorms, and classes begin next week. As the school year gets underway, we will discuss what it takes to make a successful transition to college life and what help is available if there are bumps along the road. First I would like to welcome Michelle Guerra. As I mentioned, this is a busy week at SDSU. It seems that one that students and parents have are a lot of questions. One of the most frequent questions you hear? MICHELLE GUERRA: In anticipation of opening weekend, we have a lot of questions about residents, moving in, roommates, the proper things to bring, for attending school, all types of housekeeping questions. Meal plans, buying books, you name it. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What do people ask about roommates? Who they are, can I have another one? MICHELLE GUERRA: We haven't got that yet, but sometimes that will happen towards the end of the semester. Making an early connection with roommates, find out what they are bringing, versus what you are bringing, because you do know what duplicates in the room. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: That makes sense. I think we're all familiar with the typical scene of the parent dropping the student off at the dorm, and tears and goodbye, how stressful can those moments be for parents? MICHELLE GUERRA: It's really an emotional time for both parents and students. We really treat it as a family affair. Our parents, for some of them it's the first time their sons or daughters have left home. For those left behind, sometimes it's more emotional for them because their sons or daughters are expressing everything new, and they are back in the hometown, and everything is the same except to love one is gone. This opening weekend we are very intentional with ramming to ease the transition. We have a number of events for students so they can make friends, and make meaningful connections, and for family members, we actually have parents moving meetings that we do so that they can meet the staff that will be living with students in the halls. It all culminates for parents on Saturday morning when we have the twelfth annual new student and family publication, where we have nearly 11,000 official RSVPs. Afterwards, we encourage the parents to say goodbye. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: When the parents say goodbye, when the doors close, so to speak, and the student jumps for joy, what kind of challenges faced them that they are not aware of? MICHELLE GUERRA: Think a lot of students whether they articulated or not, they are thinking of things like will I make friends? Where will I fit in? Will I make it in classes? Throughout the summer we saw thousands at our new student orientation and we tried to hit home on those different aspects, so when they start to feel those feelings, they have resources to turn to. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Back in the day, student said goodbye to the parents, and except for maybe phoning home for money, parents were not very involved in the kids college side, has that changed? MICHELLE GUERRA: It has, over the last decade we've seen the parents become more involved for various reasons. It's a huge investment, they want to make sure that the students are successful, that the University has the right programs, and we really see an increase in parent involvement, and San Diego state has welcomed and embraced that involvement. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Is it at least partly because of technology? People can Skype, they can basically see each other and talk to each other every day. MICHELLE GUERRA: They really have a relationship, even thousands of miles away, it feels like they are just up the street because of all of the social media, text messaging, those types of things. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: We hear about helicopter parents who hover over the kids, pushing them to excel, do you find that to be a problem? MICHELLE GUERRA: At San Diego State we value parents as partners, we don't necessarily buy into the whole notion of helicopter parenting. If you think of a helicopter, it's a good thing, they swoop in and times of emergency. When we tried to do with our parents is to help them understand that we want to work together as partners, help empower the students, help them take responsibility for their actions, and put them in the driver seat, maybe not the parent as they were before. We help them get up to speed on what San Diego state has to offer, who we are, so that they know when sons and daughters call home with different problems, they can say have you reached out to this area or this person? Again, being the coach and the resource from afar. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What are some of the resources available for students as they make the transition into college life? MICHELLE GUERRA: We really have a wide variety from our wonderful staff, faculty and residents, counseling and psychological services, student health services, as well as our vibrant student life and leadership on campus. We really stress the importance of students getting involved, we find it really helps in their transitions, and making San Diego state their home. Once they find their niche on campus, everything else falls into place, when they build the community. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: As you well know, most students might have a couple of bouts of anxiety, homesickness, and as you said, they find a niche and often are running into college life. But you also see some students struggling? MICHELLE GUERRA: Especially for students away from family units, or any issues at home and now they are away from home, it can be tough to find that niche, and ease over the transition. We really seek out the students and help them, because we know that with their credentials they can make it here, and we want to help them find meaningful connection so they have that support base on the college campus. We want to help them do that time period. Really for the first sixty-eight weeks we find is the critical transition period, and we put our family weekend within that time to invite families back to campus and give them the motivation, love and encouragement to keep them going. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I've been speaking with Michelle Guerra, and I've been taking her away from very busy activity this weekend. I want to thank you very much, the key for speaking with us. MICHELLE GUERRA: It's been a pleasure, thank you so much. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Now I would like to welcome Lynn O'Shaughnessy, author of the College Solution: a guide for everyone looking for the right school at the right price. She is a college consultant. Welcome back to the show, it's good to see you. LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY: I'm not a college consultant though. Also, thecollegesolution.com is my blog. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What makes a school the right solution for the right student? LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY: I don't know that there is any right answer for that. Frankly, a lot of students and parents get hung up on getting the right school and the right fit, and frankly, I don't know there is such a thing. I think a lot needs to go into looking at schools beyond this perfect fit, I think a lot of times particularly for students who have college educated parents who have done well in high school, they tend to equate a great fit with the school that has the highest academic ranking with US news. That's unfortunate, and it also creates a lot of pressure for students, and parents who think that the fit will only be if you can get in the top ten, twenty-five or forty colleges, according to US New's cramped and harmful rankings. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: That is what I'm talking about when I'm talking about the right fit, I mean for the particular student, not necessarily for the parent or for the rankings. Do you think enough time and energy goes into looking at who the student is, how they learn, and what kind of atmosphere would be right for this student? LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY: I don't think enough people spend nearly enough time, I have probably encountered dozens of families through my blog and my talks over the years. I think for most families, as a practical matter, most students go to schools within 100 miles of home. Most children go to state universities, regional universities, they don't go to private schools or research universities, it's just what is close. For some of them, that is the best choice, for others it is not the best choice. I think part of the problem is, families have no idea how to even go about searching for schools. The universe that they pick from is quite small. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: How could they expand that universe? LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY: A lot of high school counselors are not trained in this area, in public schools they have to have masters degrees in counseling, but these counseling programs usually include zero courses on College planning. Or maybe in electives. Unfortunately, a lot of families are depending on high school counselors to help with this, and they typically do not know about a lot of colleges beyond the state schools or the ones that everyone has heard of, these impossible IV leaks and other schools that are high in rankings, wherefore a lot of students, I think there is fantastic schools throughout the country that are not nearly as hard to get into, including colleges which most people don't know anything about versus universities. One thing that I tell people, this is the season of rankings, we have US news coming out with the latest ranking, Money Magazine just came out with a new one, Washington monthly will be coming up shortly with theirs, what I say family should do is to look at the rankings but don't believe that number one is better than number two on the line. But at the rankings as a way to find ideas for schools, that is what I would do, and then research those schools, but just forget about the rankings as something you need to believe in, and rather look at it as a tip service to find different kinds of schools, particularly colleges, because people don't know what a college is. I gave a talk last year at Santa Cruz, where it is a huge college town. There are probably over 400 people in the audience and I asked them in the beginning, how many of you know the difference between a college and university, hardly anyone raised their hands, maybe ten or twelve people. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What is the difference? LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY: Research universities, UV systems, Ivy League, flagship state schools, their focus is on professor research, that is the number one priority of the university. Your contact with undergrads, the second priority is that you education for the next generation of PhD's. The third priority is the undergrad. And so, typically professors contact undergrads through lectures, with a lot of passive learning. It can be hard for some students to connect with a professor, although it is important to find those mentors and connect. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Is it sometimes different at colleges? LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY: With college, they do not have the research emphasis. At a college, they typically just educate undergraduates. There are no graduate students. Professors are there to teach primarily, not to do research. They are typically smaller classes and it's easier to find mentors because you have a massive twenty kids, rather than 400 or 500. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: If a student feels they are drowning in a university and not excelling and they want to make a transition to a smaller school, is that expensive, to transfer? LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY: Yes, it's much better to find a school you can afford from the beginning rather than transferring. That said, there is a lot of transferring going on and I think that if it is because people are not doing a good job of thinking through where their child should go to school, or a college versus a university, because they do not know the difference. In fact, a third of college students in the country and up transferring at least once. That is for students who start full-time or part-time. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I want to pick up on something you said about the fact that not enough initial research goes into this. I think a lot of kids go to a college, and they are there because they think it's the only college they can afford to go to. They are not particularly pleased about it, but they are happy to get a college education. What kind of options by they have if they expand a little and explore more? LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY: Price tags are meaningless. That is what I specialize and write about all of the time in my blog. I'm a financial journalists, and there are ways to research the price of the school because price tags are meaningless. One everyone should do when looking for schools before you fall in love with any of them, use a net price calculator. All schools have to have them on their website. You put in your latest income tax return, putting your parents income, assets, that sort of thing, and it will generate a personal estimate of what that school will cost. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: So it's personal for everyone? LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY: Right. The only problem is, about half of the net price calculators in this country are bad, because they use the federal template. The other half are good. One way you can tell, is if the calculator asks very little questions, it's probably a federal calculate her that is pretty worthless. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: So open your horizons, realize the cost of personal, and maybe you can find something a little better. LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY: Right, put research into it for sure, but for some students, who need financial aid, they are great schools in this country that could be less expensive. With other kids, state school maybe the least expensive option. It is a little complicated, but there are ways to get through this. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: A great resource is your blog, The College Solution. Thank you so much.
It's a major rite of passage. Beginning the first year of college is exciting and stressful. And sometimes it's hard to determine who's more excited or stressed out — students or their parents.
San Diego community college students are already in classes and the San Diego State University campus is bustling right now with students moving into dorms. Classes at SDSU begin next week.
So, as the school year gets underway we look at what it takes to make a successful transition to college life — and what help is available if there are bumps along the road.
