General Information

College will mean a lot of changes for your family. Your relationship with your college-aged students will change as their independence grows. You will begin to interact with their emerging adult self. For many students this will be the first time they have lived apart from their families.

Where to start?

A good place to start if you are not sure what office you need to contact is the Student Assistance & Parent Service Center.

There are many single parent families and students living with extended families sending a student to college. Although family structures differ greatly, much of what they experience as a student going to college is very similar. You can expect that much of the information here will relate to your situation very well.

There is a great deal of things you can do to support your student's transition to Western Illinois University.

You may have played a significant role in helping your student choose and make application to Western. There is a great deal of paperwork to complete for such things as financial aid, housing, and class registration. Much of this you may have helped sort through. All of this is important and now equally important is to help them with plans to actually move to campus. Our advice is to help them prepare but don't prepare for them. It will be important for their success that they learn to seek out the necessary assistance and solve problems as they arise. We are not saying you should leave them totally alone but trusting your student to make decisions and solve problems will help build their self-confidence.