Cornell University

Educational psychologist Jane McClure joins us this month to recommend a book that will arm you with advice about getting the best possible results when communicating with your college-bound teenager. Think of it this way: We all want to continueto be part of our children's lives and the problem-solving that continues through college and beyond. Read on to find out more about how to make sure that happens and what to do when it does…

A few years ago, I read a wonderful book titled, Don’t Tell Me What to Do, Just Send Money, by Helen E. Johnson and Christine Schelhas-Miller.  It is filled with so much wisdom and useful advice, I find myself re-reading sections from time to time, whenever thorny issues between students and parents arise and I’m trying to figure out how to advise them.  I highly recommend it to any parent whose son or daughter is about to go off to college.  You will love the humorous anecdotes which will make you laugh but at the same time teach you a new style of communication that will be incredibly helpful as you form a new kind of relationship.  Here are a few of the key concepts presented in the book.

Nancy Hargrave Meislahn, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, at Wesleyan University of Middletown, Connecticut, joins us this month and graciously answers -- not five -- but six questions.

 Wesleyan was founded in 1831 by leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church and began with 48 students (all men); the president; three professors; and one tutor. Tuition was $36 per year.

Today, Wesleyan’s 316-acre campus located in central Connecticut hosts about 2,900 full-time undergraduates – both men and women -- who choose among more than 900 courses offered in 40 departments and 44 major fields of study, taught by 375 faculty members. Its student/faculty ratio remains at 9 to 1, with two-thirds of classes enrolling fewer than 20 students.

Named for John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, the college was never a seminary, but offered a liberal arts program from its inception. Unlike most college curriculums at the time of its founding which were steeped in the classics, Wesleyan set out to put modern languages, literature, and the natural sciences on equal footing.  That orientation continues today with students pursuing a self-directed curriculum, numerous undergraduate interdisciplinary programs, and broad research opportunities.

Many of you are heading out on your first college road trips. Here coauthor Christine VanDeVelde remembers her first college visits with her daughter: A few years ago, my daughter and I ventured forth on a short tour.  We managed to walk the Vanderbilt campus in Nashville, Tennessee, in the middle of what they call a “dogwood winter” – the trees are blossoming as temperatures plummet. We then flew north to Chicago, just in time for an epic snowstorm that closed O’Hare for a day and a half. After trudging along the campus on the edge of Lake Michigan in ballet flats, we holed up in an Evanston hotel, bundled in our new Northwestern sweats watching Pay-per-View movies. My husband took the next trip that summer – Lehigh, Yale, Boston University, Dartmouth, and Cornell -- where they had to buy new shoes to accommodate  the amount of walking they did but enjoyed much better weather and a side trip to Legally Blonde on Broadway. Despite blisters, traffic jams and inclement weather, we found these road trips to be peak parenting experiences – some of the most memorable and enjoyable times we have spent with our daughter.

Steakhouses, food trucks, bagels, Thai, Italian -- you'd think you're in Manhattan instead of at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Perhaps the wealth of restaurant options is due to the campus' renowned Hotel School? If Cornell is on your college tour list, you've got a dining option for every occasion.