Customer Reviews

When Your Kid Goes to College; A Parent's Survival Guide

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After more than a dozen years as a dean of first-year students, I sent my own first child off to college five years ago, after an anxious and tearful summer. My own vast professional experience proved to be an embarrassment, as I forgot all the speeches I had made to parents encouraging them to "let go." This book is a guide that puts it all in perspective, from the practical preparations through the uneasy transitions of the first year. Having read it, I will be much better prepared when my second daughter goes off to college this year. In fact, I plan to keep it on my night stand.

This book is a comfort--a great guide that can handhold the whole family through the jittery pre-college summer and the first college year. We put so much energy and time into getting our kids into college that we forget that there is another whole phase of life, filled with all kinds of anxieties, that takes over the minute they are accepted. This book is great at identifying all of that in a readable and sometimes gently humorous way--and just helping you through. It really is a survival guide, and I recommend it for anyone whose kid has just been accepted to college or who is in his or her first year.

Our freshmen advisors and other staff who interact with parents think that When Your Kid Goes to College is a "must read" and a great resource book for parents. Although my copy is still circulating around campus, I intend to get it back and keep it handy for my own personal use when my son goes off to college in a few short years.

This book might be useful in families where the child is the first ever to go to college, but for the rest of us it's pretty lame. There's no significant info here -- you can get more and better from your child's high school guidance counselor.
And there's really nothing about "parent[al] survival" in it. Barkin warns of feelings of loss and disconnect, but other than to say that many people go thru this, there's no useful info.
Check that: her suggestion to bring a toolkit and duct tape is excellent, but I didn't need a book to think of that.
Save your bux and post to a Yahoo forum instead.

Very well written...lots of quotes from kids and parents...and chapter written by her son from a kids point of view. Lots of relevant information for parents who have their first...or only kid heading off to college. Definitely worth the money.

Having just sent our one and only off to college, without a lot of trauma, I finally had some time to investigate what I thought I "should" be doing! This was the first book I read, and I found lots of helpful information, especially about networking with other parents in the same boat. I appreciated the advice to give your kids the freedom to grow, while still allowing them to use the safety net - a balancing act we were already trying to acheive. I also copied the section on how to do laundry and sent it to my son - it should be required reading for all college students. I no longer get laundry brought home on school breaks! Yeah. The dirty dishes coming home were something else, but I couldn't ban the laundry - until he felt capable of doing it himself (with a gift of quarters of course!).

This is one of the best books for parents with high school students. It will help you anticipate and handle the transition you and your child will go through as they become a young adult in college and you begin the "empty nest" process.

This books is rather preachy and the quotes of "other parents" seem to be contrived to fit the narrative rather than real quotes from real experiences. It is also out of date as it talks about mail and email as modes of communication. I had hoped for a book that would indeed be a "parent survival guide" and one filled with insights and tips on handling the jumble of emotions and stressors that occur as your child is getting ready to leave for college. Instead, its more like the stereotypical PTA president mom that wrote a book based on what she thinks is the experience and tries to validate those views by adding in other quotes and a few tidbits. Sorry to be harsh but it was really a huge disappointment. I just skimmed the book and put it in the donate pile for the library. The best tip I got from the book was to pack extension cords - which also proves the point that it is a book veers far from "survival guide" and professional insights on the transitions both parents and students are undergoing during the high school graduate turns into college freshman summer.

This is a books I suggested our school guidance department recommend to the parents of the high school seniors. I have already offered to share it with some friends getting ready for the college process this year. I found it on the the list of recommended reading provided by the University of Wyoming, while I found it helpful, I wish I had gotten it the summer before her senior year than the summer she was leaving for college.

This book is a must-read for parents of college students, especially empty nesters for the first time. As author of The ABC's of College Life, a street-smart guide dishing out the inside scoop on college life, I highly recommend When Your Kid Goes to College as the ultimate survival guide for parents!