Before move-in day
Encourage your student to contact their roommate(s)
Students will receive room assignment information over the summer. Coordinating with roommates prior to move-in will help determine who will be bringing specific items to the room (e.g., TVs, printers, game systems, etc.) and avoid duplication of supplies.
Roommates may want to look into renting or purchasing a microfridge for the year. This compact refrigerator/freezer/microwave oven combo unit meets all size, safety and electrical requirements and is the only approved device that allows students to have a microwave in their room. Details are available here.
Once the semester begins
Avoid asking your student if they are homesick
The first few days and weeks of school are activity-packed and the challenge of meeting new people and adjusting to new situations may take a majority of your student’s time and concentration. So, unless they’re reminded of it (by a well-meaning parent or family member), they’ll probably be
able to escape the initial loneliness and frustration of homesickness. And even if they don’t tell
you during those first few weeks that they miss you – they do. Homesickness is normal.
Visit occasionally
Visits by parents and families (especially accompanied dinners out together, and fun new adventures) are often something that new students are reluctant to admit liking, but appreciate greatly.
Visiting your student gives them an opportunity to share some of the important aspects of their new world (e.g., friends, activities, etc.). The Chapman Family Homecoming Celebration is the perfect opportunity to visit for the first time. Students are settled in by this point and parents can get a realistic feel for how everything is going.
Trust your student
As one college student recalls: "One of the most important things my mom wrote to me in my four years at college was ‘I love you and want for you all the things that make you the happiest. I guess you, not I, are the one who knows best what those things are.'"