Below is a list of some popular books for student supporters in North America, including a synopses from the back cover of each book.
Please keep in mind that while we strive to recommend reputable, current, relevant, and accurate external resources, the information, views, and opinions within these books may not be endorsed by Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Letting Go: A Parents' Guide to Understanding the College Years
By Karen Levin Coburn and Madge Lawrence Treeger. ISBN: 0060521260
For more than a decade Letting Go has provided hundreds of thousands of parents with valuable insights, information, comfort, and guidance throughout the emotional and social changes of their children's college years—from the senior year in high school through college graduation. Based on real-life experience and recommended by colleges and universities around the country, this indispensable book has been updated and revised, offering even more compassionate, practical, and up-to-the-minute information.
- When should parents encourage independence?
- When should they intervene?
- What issues of identity and intimacy await students?
- What are normal feelings of disorientation and loneliness for students—and for parents?
- What is different about today's college environment?
- What new concerns about safety, health and wellness, and stress will affect incoming classes?
When Your Kid Goes to College: A Parent's Survival Guide
By Carol Barkin. ISBN: 0380798409.
Written by a mother who survived the perils of packing her own child off to school, When Your Kid Goes to College provides supportive, reassuring, and helpful tips for handling this inevitable but difficult separation. Comprehensive and accessible, this practical guide includes info on:
- Teaching your child how to live on his own, from balancing a checkbook to dealing with a roommate.
- The difference between financial and emotioanl dependence -- and how to keep them separate.
- Helping your spouse, younger children, and even pets deal with the transition when your child leaves -- and when she returns.
- How to fill -- and even enjoy -- the hole that your child's absence leaves.
It isn't the end of the world; it's the beginning of an exciting new one for your child-and you!
When Kids go to College: A Parent’s Guide to Changing Relationships
By Newman, M and Newman, R. ISBN: 0814205623.
"The Newmans speak with the expertise of parents, psychologists, and professors as they describe the developmental changes that occur in college kids as they undergo a 'personal synthesis.' . . . With the insight available here, a parent can feel reassured and better able to assist when called upon." -Booklist
This practical guide will tell you how to make the most of these exciting years. identity formation • values development • career exploration • social relationships • sexuality • alcohol and drug abuse • romantic relationships • dorm life • personal freedom • depression • discrimination • college bureaucracy
Barbara and Philip Newman are the authors of many books on human development
You're On Your Own (But I'm Here if You Need Me): Mentoring Your Child During the College Years
By Majorie Savage, 2003. ISBN: 0743229126
Parents whose kids are away at college have a tough tightrope to walk: they naturally want to stay connected to their children, yet they also need to let go. What's more, kids often send mixed messages: they crave space, but they rely on their parents' advice and assistance. Not surprisingly, it's hard to know when it's appropriate to get involved in your child's life and when it's better to back off. Marjorie Savage, who as a parent herself empathizes with moms and dads, but who as a student services professional understands kids, offers advice on wide-ranging issues, including:
• Why students complain about the food but still manage to gain fifteen pounds their first year
• How to teach basic financial responsibility, including the handling of credit cards and academic expenses
• When parental intervention is critical
Let the Journey Begin: A Parent's Monthly Guide to the College Experience
by Jacqueline Kiernan MacKay. ISBN-10: 0618077138
This brief text includes innovative features and activities to help parents deal with the issues they and their children face during the first year of college. Let the Journey Begin highlights the ongoing process of adjustment and is structured in eight sections to reflect the school year cycle. Features of the text include student and parent reflection, guided journal entries, checklists, problems and solutions, and explanations of college terms.
The Debt Free Graduate (Revised Edition): How to Survive College or University Without Going Broke
From Money$mart (First published, Harper Perennial)
An updated version of the Canadian guide that people have been praising and that no student can afford to be without! Since the bestseller, The Debt-Free Graduate, was first published in 1996, university and college tuition fees have more than doubled in some provinces. The Debt-Free Graduate is filled with tips on:
- Finding the best summer jobs
- Strategies for making your money go further
- Finding hidden sources of free money
- Cutting the costs of school supplies
- Avoiding the big bank heist
- Travelling on the Cheap