As a parent, the idea of your teen flying the nest and heading out to University likely fills you with worry. While you’re undoubtedly proud of their achievements, it brings around a lot of changes in your life. For example, they’ll likely be living away from home for the first time, meaning you’ll no longer see each other everyday. However, you can reduce your worries by ensuring that your teen is as prepared as possible before the big day arrives.
With that in mind, here are some top tips that you can use to help your teen prepare for uni!
Get to grips with the application process.
Applying to university can be incredibly stressful, especially if your teen is applying to schools with a low acceptance rate. Doing a little research in your own time about the application process will help take a little pressure off your teen, as you’ll be able to provide them with additional support and advice.
Ideally, you should focus on finding ways to help your teen make their application stand out. For example, if they’re struggling with writing a strong personal statement, you could look into companies that offer a personal statement service. They’ll work closely with your teen to help ensure their key strengths and attributes are reflected in their statement, increasing the chances of them receiving an offer.
Prepare them for the ‘grown up’ world.
One of the biggest challenges that new students face upon arriving at uni is the shock of ‘adulthood’. That is, many arrive on campus without knowing how to properly take care of themselves without having their parents around to support them. As a result, you should make a real effort to prepare them for the grown up world before they go.
For example, you can protect them from a daily diet of ramen noodles by teaching them some simple recipes they can recreate, such as tasty tray bakes you can make in under 15 minutes. You should also give them a few lessons on laundry, saving them from shrinking all of their clothes (or bringing hoards of laundry back home whenever they come to visit).
Get organised sooner rather than later.
By now, you’re probably well-versed in the amount of work it takes to keep your kids organised for school. Luckily, back to school prep for a university student is not all that different from sending them off to primary or high school, meaning the sooner you get prepared, the better. For example, you should encourage them to put together a shopping list of everything they need ahead of time, from books to cooking utensils. You can then work your way through this list gradually, without leaving things until the last minute. This is also a great way to save money, as you can shop around to find the best deal. When it comes to university textbooks, try to shop second-hand. The information in them will be exactly the same, but their price-tag will not, meaning your teen can then put the rest of their student loan to good use.
