College Parent Central Podcast Vicki Nelson and Lynn Abrahams

Once your student makes their final college decision and puts down that important deposit, they enter a new leg of the college journey. Sure, you know there will be lots of preparation work ahead – summer decisions, shopping, good-byes, packing – but your student may be thinking they’ll really become a college student at Move-in Day in the fall. Your student may still be a high school student, but the college knows there’s work to be done now. In this episode, Sarah and Vicki talk about your ...

When our student heads off to college, we worry about a lot of things, and one of the primary concerns is our student’s health and well-being. We first interviewed Dr. Jill Grimes, often dubbed the “College Doc” because of her focus on the health of college aged students, back in Episode #024 in 2020, at the height of the Covid Pandemic. It was time to invite her back to hear what’s changed in the last 4 years and also to hear about what’s new in the 3rd edition of her book The Ultimate Colle...

Here’s an encore of an earlier podcast episode that we think is so important it deserves to be released again. If your student is making their decision right now, you may need to hear this. The college admission process begins earlier and earlier and sometimes seems to go on forever. When those highly anticipated acceptance letters begin to arrive, the process enters a new phase. The ball is now in your student’s court to make a decision. What is your role as a parent at this stage? In this e...

In this second crossover episode with a Facebook Live even hosted with cohost Elizabeth Hamblet, we were joined by Timothy L. Fields and Shereem Herndon-Brown, authors of The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions now out in its second edition. Tim and Shereem shared how the book came to be, what’s new in the second edition, and touched on many topics including what makes a strong college essay, college choice and the college search process, and how and why parents can be drivers of the c...

We recently received an email from a parent with a question. This mom was concerned that in spite of a number of supports, her son was struggling and not doing well. She could see far enough down the road to be fairly certain he was going to fail and she wondered whether failing was the only way he would realize that he needs to use his supports more fully. This mom wants to hold on to the hope that her son will come through - and she asks for some strategies to guide him. In this episode Vic...

Vicki and Sarah spent some time recently at the Region 1 conference of NACADA - the National Advising Association. There's a lot to learn about how staff and faculty advisors work to guide your student throughout their college career. In this episode, Vicki and Sarah compare notes and share some of the themes that bubbled up at the conference. It may help you understand a little more about your student as you hear what some of the people who work with students every day had to say. The more y...