<p>Wondering how many parents are involved in some capacity at their S/D's college? In what manner are you involved? I definitely see me being involved provided the opportunity is there.</p>
<p>It’s 3000 miles away, so I don’t show up on campus very often. But I do get “involved” prior to every term in the form of a check for the tuition, room, and board.</p>
<p>We paid the college bills, and now that we are done with those, we also make a donation to the annual fundraising drive. When our older child was in college, we did travel there to see his performances…but I wouldn’t exactly call that “involved with the college”…it was “involved with our son”. </p>
<p>College is not like high school. Our KIDS were involved with their colleges. </p>
<p>What kind of “involvement” are you hoping to have? There isn’t a “college PTO” or a parent booster club. Just curious.</p>
<p>My daughter’s college has a parents association. I am involved only as far as reading the newsletter and contributing to the scholarship fund. I am, in truth, put off by the concept of a parents group attached to the college, my kids should be involved with their college - I am involved only so far as being involved with my kids. If they don’t grow up and become independent now, when would that ever happen?</p>
<p>I’m with thumper on this. We pay the bills, we send a check for the annual appeal, we visit once a year (although starting next year — their junior year — that will probalby decrease to zero times a year), and if something arrives in the snail mail or e-mail inbox, we read it then delete it.</p>
<p>DS’s school is 1000 miles away, so I volunteered when school asked me to contact a few parents in my neck of the woods, to answer questions such as how do you ship stuff, what airline do you take, etc. No big whoop.</p>
<p>This is probably considered “involved”. Unless you’re going to jump in with both feet and be a fundraising ambassador, I can’t imagine how much more “involved” you can get.</p>
<p>The only people I know who are really involved with their kids’ college are in the booster club if their kid is a varsity athlete or in the parents’ clubs of their fraternity or sorority.</p>
<p>S1 and DH are both alums of the same univ. DH is a member of the alumni association and we enjoy watching the the athletic teams on TV. That’s about it.</p>
<p>S2 attends my university. Our involvement there is paying the bills and cheering for the football team when they play on TV. </p>
<p>We wear school sweatshirts for each school but that is just as much for us as them since they were our schools too:)</p>
<p>I have a Google News Alert set up for D’s college. We make a small donation to the parents’ fund used for emergency assistance. </p>
<p>That’s it. I don’t expect to continue contributing at all once D graduates – that’s her job.</p>
<p>I read the online version of the campus paper regularly, and we’ve gone to campus events scheduled for the days of our visits (and we’ve made a number of trips). We’ve also visited many of the favored student restaurants and watering holes.</p>
<p>As parents of a varsity athlete, we were very involved in supporting our son’s team. We lived 238 miles from the school (that would be 3-3/4 hours if you jog at the one permitted rest stop!) and saw our son and his friends and their parents almost every weekend during the spring semester, and a few times during the fall semester. We even saw his friends and their parents during summer travels! And we had the honor of spending Memorial Day weekend with the team family three of four years. We even all missed graduation together as seniors and senior parents!</p>
<p>It was an unusual experience – as most parents do not have the opportunity to know their son’s friends as well as we did, and most especially their friends’ parents. It was an experience that we would not have skipped!</p>
<p>OP, can you clarify what you mean by “involved”? There aren’t room parents, last time I checked :-). I imagine my major involvement for my two next year will be writing the check, attending parents’ weekends, and reading the campus paper if it’s online. For S’s school, it will probably also involve attending a football game or two, but we would have done that anyway as it is also our alma mater.</p>
<p>I used “involved” to be ambigous. I know there are some parent groups - haven’t looked in detail to see what that comprises. Just wondering about general fundraising and other volunteer opportunities.</p>
<p>How close do you live to campus?
I am sure you could host barbecues for accepted students in your area, things like that. </p>
<p>We like visiting the city that our girls’ school is in, but we do so less and less. Have gone to a game or two and wear the sweatshirts. :)</p>
<p>Opportunities for parent involvement vary by school, but in general include fundraising, welcoming new parents, hosting events or student interns, and career-related activities (speaking to students, offering internships and jobs, etc.). Many schools have web pages specifically for parents where such opportunities are outlined. Otherwise, call the Development office.</p>
<p>I’m not involved as of yet, though I’ve purposefully met ShawSon’s key professors on parent’s weekends as well as a couple of deans. I will offer to give a talk at the school, perhaps for parent’s weekend or something else, on the subject of a book I’m trying to complete on career choices. I’m trying to use ShawSon’s graduation as a deadline for this book as it is not linked to my work (I’ve written a couple of work-related books). I’ve given a little money, but I’m not sure ShawSon would want me to be particularly involved.</p>
<p>I would never have expected nor would I have wanted my parents to become involved in any of my college experiences. I bought a window sticker for the car and a few sweatshirts for them as gifts. </p>
<p>I have also never even considered being involved in any of my adult childrens organizations.</p>
<p>I have given money to the schools financial drives.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would think it a bit much if, when my kids step onto campus, <em>I</em> were to call the admissions office and start volunteering in some capacity. It feels pretty helicopter-y to me. If my kids love their schools enough that when they graduate, <em>they</em> want to host events in other cities, host get-togethers for prospective or admitted new students and their parents, and / or raise funds, more power to them, but it doesn’t seem like my place to do so.</p>
<p>Some schools actively seek parental invovement. I recall both the student guides and adcoms at Bennington talking about parents hosting students during the school’s required FWT (field-work term) in January. Many of the FWT jobs are unpaid, so having a free place to stay means students aren’t limited to cities/towns where they have family.</p>
<p>I hire students from D1’s school, which my department never did before. I go to D1’s performances on campus. I am not a people person, so I don’t got to the school’s events around our area.</p>
<p>I read the parents association newsletter and have made contributions, both to the general parents fund (it’s included right on the bill at D3’s school!) and to specific groups (the Jewish students group, for example). We live close enough to D3’s school to attend any musical performance she’s in if we want to and can visit D2’s school with a bit of planning. S went to school a thousand miles away, so the only thing we did there was freshman orientation and graduation.</p>
<p>Oh, and I bought t-shirts.</p>