The Worst Advice Parents Can Give First-Year Students
When I was a teenager, nearly fifty years ago, my parents dropped me off for my freshman year of college. It was a momentous day, filled with excitement and a little bit of fear. That day marked the beginning of my long journey through higher education, a path that would take me from being a wide-eyed undergraduate to a graduate student, a professor, an administrator, and eventually a parent to three college students. Over the years, I’ve watched students stumble and struggle, but I’ve also had the privilege of witnessing them bloom into remarkable scholars. It’s an incredible thing to see young men and women take their education and turn it into something extraordinary—something you could never have predicted. And now, as another new batch of freshmen prepare to step onto college campuses, parents across the country are packing up cars and saying their goodbyes. As those goodbyes are exchanged, many will pull their kids aside to offer a few last words of advice. Here’s the thing...