Fall 2021 Letter to Senior Parents: Tips for a Successful College Launch

I know seniors are in the midst of application submissions craziness, and juniors are probably seeing this stress in a few peers at school. I believe that the college process is not just one of academics, but it needs to include social, emotional, and financial aspects as well. I have had a few mental health / life skills / “successfully launching your child” links on my website for parent and student use, but I want to emphasize that these are available for everyone to read/watch because there have been some recent events at multiple college campuses involving student suicides.

All colleges are seeing an increase in mental health issues and usage of their mental health services. Some of this is due to Covid-19 pandemic changes in our lives, but a lot of it has been brewing for the past decade. Your seniors’ lives may be very scheduled right now with school and extracurricular activities. When they get to college, they will have to handle new friends, new living environments, taking care of their sleep, getting help if they are sick, navigating time management, performing academically…the list goes on. College students are responsible for their own lives 24 hours a day when they are away, and this is a drastic change from high school for many of them.

October 12th was World Mental Health Day, and many colleges used this day to offer ways for students to decrease stress and check in with their peers. University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill even closed down for the day. I decided to send a few links to all of my parents, but you can also go to my website resources for more. My favorite one is Dr. Tim Davis talking about launching your child into college. He touches on the data colleges have been collecting on mental health and tips for letting go little by little.