The Answer Sheet - School Survival Guide for parents (and everyone else).

Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 09/02/2011

5 Commandments for college freshmen

By Valerie Strauss

The transition to college requires a change in mindset; a change in attitude and behavior. To help make this transition as painless and productive as possible, here are five commandments for a successful college career.

By Valerie Strauss | 04:00 AM ET, 09/02/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life

Posted at 02:35 PM ET, 01/17/2011

Are college campus smoking bans draconian?

By Valerie Strauss

Is it fair to ban smoking anywhere on a college campus?

By Valerie Strauss | 02:35 PM ET, 01/17/2011 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life | Tags: bans on smoking, nonsmokers rights, smoking, smoking at school, smoking bans, smoking on campus, smoking rights

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 10/12/2010

Teaching college kids to 'pilot their own helicopter'

By Valerie Strauss

Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov writes that colleges make a mistake when they urge parents to drop their kids off at college and quickly drive away. The trick is to strike a balance between too much parental involvement and too little.

By Valerie Strauss | 11:00 AM ET, 10/12/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life, College Life, College Life | Tags: adjusting to college, college admissions, helicopter parents, marvin krislov, oberlin, oberlin college, parents, university of michigan

Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 10/04/2010

How to make schools safer for gay students

By Valerie Strauss

Here are new recommendations for schools to address safety concerns of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students in the wake of four suicides of gay students in three weeks.

By Valerie Strauss | 09:30 AM ET, 10/04/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life, College Life | Tags: gay students, gay suicides, harassment of gays, harrass and gays, lgbt, lgbt students, lgbt suicides, safe campuses, safe schools, students suicide, suicides

Posted at 02:37 PM ET, 10/01/2010

Tyler Clementi and all of the bystanders

By Valerie Strauss

Where were the people who knew what had happened to Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi and did nothing to help when he learned he had been secretly recorded while having sex with a man in his dorm room?

By Valerie Strauss | 02:37 PM ET, 10/01/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life | Tags: bullying, clementi suicide, cyberbullying, dhraun ravi, gay suicide, invasion of privacy, molly wei, phoebe prince, rutgers university, student suicide, tyler clementi, tyler suicide

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 09/24/2010

Report: Gays face high rate of harassment on college campuses

By Valerie Strauss

The U.S. military is not the only difficult environment for gay and lesbians. A new research study on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on college and university campuses across the country reveals high rates of harassment and a lack of inclusiveness in policies and programs.

By Valerie Strauss | 05:00 AM ET, 09/24/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life | Tags: LGBT, campus pride, discrimination and gays, don't ask don't tell, gays on campus, harassment and gays, military and gays

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 09/02/2010

How to help your child adapt to college life

By Valerie Strauss

An expert in first-year student transitions gives advice for parents to help their child freshman successfully make the transition from high school to college. The tips, in fact, are useful for all college students.

By Valerie Strauss | 06:30 AM ET, 09/02/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life | Tags: adapting to college, college freshmen, es a, first-year experience, transition and high school and college

Posted at 10:59 AM ET, 08/21/2010

As he heads to college, a freshman looks back

By Valerie Strauss

A University of Virginia freshman from Fairfax County looks back as he heads today to start his life in college.

By Valerie Strauss | 10:59 AM ET, 08/21/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life | Tags: a charmed life, adam turay, college clases, college freshmen, new school year

Posted at 03:24 PM ET, 07/20/2010

A how-to-get-through-college book for parents

By Valerie Strauss

The author of "The Naked Roommate" has written a book about college life but not for kids. Rather it is for the parents, who are now more involved than ever in their child's college.

By Valerie Strauss | 03:24 PM ET, 07/20/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life | Tags: college and homesickness, college freshman, college life, harlan cohen, parents and college, the happiest kid on campus, the naked roommate

Posted at 10:11 PM ET, 07/09/2010

College students hitting books less, study shows

By Valerie Strauss

Add this to the common lament that things aren’t the same as they used to be: College students are apparently not studying anywhere nearly as much as they used to.

By Valerie Strauss | 10:11 PM ET, 07/09/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life | Tags: college life, how much do college students study, how much do students study?, leisure college, research on studying, students studying less, study hours decline, studying and college

Posted at 11:40 AM ET, 06/24/2010

College Tour '10 resumes (with links)

By Valerie Strauss

For rising high school seniors, the frenzied college admissions season is about to begin -- if it hasn't already. And our College Tour '10 resumes. Here are links to student and parent impressions of schools visited this year. Send us your own.

By Valerie Strauss | 11:40 AM ET, 06/24/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life | Tags: College Tour '10, admissions process, campus visits, college admissions, college admissions process, college essay topics, college essays, college visits, common app, common app essays, common applicaiton preview, common application, common application essays, deciding on colleges, how to write a college esssay, the best college essays, visiting campuses, visiting colleges

Posted at 10:00 AM ET, 06/07/2010

Student sex mag at unlikely school: U of Chicago

By Valerie Strauss

This item might not be worth reporting if it involved another school. But a student-run sex magazine at the University of Chicago, which has long had the unfair reputation of a school where fun goes to die, rates a mention.

By Valerie Strauss | 10:00 AM ET, 06/07/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life | Tags: chicago sex magazine, college life, sex magazine, sex on campus, university of chicago, vita excolatur, vita magazine

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/28/2010

Today's college students less empathetic -- study

By Valerie Strauss

Are college students as nice as they used to be? Apparently, no, and modern technology may be partly to blame. A new University of Michigan study shows that today’s college students are not as empathetic as they used to be.

By Valerie Strauss | 06:30 AM ET, 05/28/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life | Tags: analysis on empathy, are college students empathetic?, college students, college students and empathy, college students and university of michigan, study on empathy, u michigan study on college students

Posted at 02:24 PM ET, 05/26/2010

Ann Curry gives wrong commencement speech

By Valerie Strauss

NBC reporter Ann Curry delivered a commencement address at Wheaton College in Massachusetts over the weekend, but thought she was talking to the student body at the Illinois institution of the same name.

By Valerie Strauss | 02:24 PM ET, 05/26/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life | Tags: ann curry, ann curry and speech, ann curry gives wrong speech, commencement speech, wheaton college, wheaton college and commencement and speech, wheaton college commencement, wrong commencement speech, wrong speech

Posted at 02:22 AM ET, 05/16/2010

A 94-year-old woman earns college degree

By Valerie Strauss

How’s this for inspirational? Hazel Soares, a 94-year-old great grandmother, earned her bachelor’s degree in art history this weekend at Mills College in Oakland.

By Valerie Strauss | 02:22 AM ET, 05/16/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life | Tags: 94-year old earns degree, Mills College, college graduation, hazel soares, second oldest woman earns degree, second oldest woman graduates from college

Posted at 05:30 PM ET, 05/04/2010

How safe are college campuses?

By Valerie Strauss

Every time there is a sensational murder on or around a college campus, and school security becomes a hot issue, as it is today in the wake of the murder of a University of Virginia student by her former boyfriend, also a student. So exactly how safe are college campuses?

By Valerie Strauss | 05:30 PM ET, 05/04/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life | Tags: George Huguelycharged with first-degree murder, college campuses and safety, college life, huegely, lacrosse murder, murder and uva, university of virginia, uva student killed, uva student murdered, yeardley and murder

Posted at 01:22 PM ET, 05/03/2010

New data on campus violence

By Valerie Strauss

Attackers are most likely seek out specific targets on or near college campuses because they have an intimate relationship with the victim, according to a new government report that analyzed threats and violence at schools over more than a century.

By Valerie Strauss | 01:22 PM ET, 05/03/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life | Tags: government study on violence, lacrosse player and murder and uva, lacrosse player charged, murder and uva, murder on campus, study on violence, uva lacrosse death, uva murder lacrosse, violence on campus, violence on college campuses

Posted at 09:52 AM ET, 03/16/2010

Latest college trend: Mixed-gender dorm rooms

By Valerie Strauss

Men and women are sharing dormitory rooms at about 50 colleges and universities around the country, the latest step in the evolution of dorm living.

By Valerie Strauss | 09:52 AM ET, 03/16/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life | Tags: college dorm, college life

Posted at 02:32 PM ET, 02/04/2010

Yale saves with colder buildings

By Valerie Strauss

In a sign of how severe the country’s economic downturn is affecting even the wealthiest universities, Yale’s leaders just told the school community that it was freezing salaries of highhly compensated officials, setting thermostats in all buildings to 68 degrees and taking other steps to save money. President Richard Levin and Provost Peter Salovey detailed the measures the school is taking to absorb a decline of the endowment from $22.9 billion in June 2008 to $16.3 billion in June 2009--a 28.6 percent drop.

By Valerie Strauss | 02:32 PM ET, 02/04/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life | Tags: Yale University, endowments

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 01/18/2010

Willingham: Textbooks too much

By Valerie Strauss

By Daniel Willingham The Spring semester at the University of Virginia begins this week, and I will be teaching some 350 students in a course called "Introduction to Cognitive Psychology." The list price for the assigned textbook is $123.75. You can get my book, "Why Don’t Students Like School?" for about twenty bucks. Why are college textbooks so overpriced?

By Valerie Strauss | 11:00 AM ET, 01/18/2010 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life, College Life | Tags: Daniel Willingham

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 11/24/2009

Planning to spend loads of time with your college freshman home for Thanksgiving? Well, don’t.

By Valerie Strauss

So your college freshman is coming home for Thanksgiving, the first trip back since they packed their bags and moved away--and you have cleared your schedule to spend every waking minute with him/her. You probably shouldn’t have bothered. Most of you should be prepared to see very little of your son or daughter, who is returning to test their new selves in their old haunts.

By Valerie Strauss | 06:30 AM ET, 11/24/2009 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life, College Life | Tags: Thanksgiving, college freshman

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 11/14/2009

The List: Naked runs, primal screams and other weird college traditions

By Valerie Strauss

Here is a list of some non-academic traditions at some of our finest colleges and universities. Note how many involve running naked in public, or loud screaming. Discuss and share the traditions you followed at your school. Naked Quad Run, Tufts University--Students run clotheless around the Rez Quad several times on the night of the final day of fall semester classes in December. The university provides refreshments.

By Valerie Strauss | 11:30 AM ET, 11/14/2009 | Permalink | Comments ( 0)
Categories: College Life | Tags: college traditions

The Answer Sheet: College Life