Who
By Adina Glickman
Is Your First‑Year Student? How Different Personalities Adjust to College Whoever your student was when you dropped them off at school, they’ll be practically unrecognizable when you see them next. There may be confidence you never thought possible. There may also be piercings and ink. Whatever road they’re now traveling, yours as a parent has also experienced a seismic shift. All of the parenting skills you mastered through their childhood and teens are now obsolete. The hard work you put into learning how to love, guide, and communicate with them goes sideways when they leave for college. At first it will feel like you’re driving blind, but as you let your student show you who they are becoming, you’ll realize that this new stage of 12
parenting is awesome. When you don’t need to give your full attention to protecting them, you have brain and heart space to see them, appreciate them, and enjoy them as they unfold into unique adults. But until they settle into their college selves, it can be a mighty confusing journey. As a freshman advisor and the director of Stanford University’s learning strategy programs, I spent almost 20 years behind the firewall of silence that students install between
themselves and their parents. The backstage pass to students at college when parents aren’t around afforded me a glimpse you all don’t get to see. Here are some “types” of students I’ve encountered. Of course these descriptions are ridiculously twodimensional compared to the real person your student is, but you may see elements that ring true from one or more of them.
Fall 2022
