Over the past decade, most colleges and universities have evolved their thinking - and improved their services - toward current and future college parents. They now realize that parents can play an important role in the success of students. For current college parents, what has been your experience in terms of interaction with school officials? For future college parents, what are your expectations? Please share your views on parental involvement by leaving a comment below and suggest how schools could improve their partnership with parents to promote student success. Thank you for participating, and please let other parents know about our blog, Hoverings: A Blog for Current and Future College Parents.

Enough beating around the bush.  Show some gumption and Share Your Magic-Bullet Solution for Lowering the Cost of College.  And when you’ve made your comment, forward a link to your friends and family members, so that they can react to your suggestion and make one of their own.  Let’s get this idea party started.

Harvard, Yale, Stanford and other wealthy colleges and universities have pledged to use more of their endowment dollars to support financial aid needs of families in the lower and middle thirds of the income scale for their incoming students. I view this as a positive first step, but also believe that wealthy colleges could do even more, perhaps even going to a free-tuition model. Please share your views on how colleges should use their endowment dollars by leaving a comment below. Thank you for your interest in College Parents of America; please tell a friend about our organization.

College Admissions Together: It Takes a Family, a new book by Steven Roy Goodman, a top educational consultant, and Andrea Leiman, a noted psychologist, makes the point that getting into college with a minimum of family fuss is hard - unless you know how to manage the tensions that surface along the way. How did you manage - or how are you managing currently - your family’s college admissions experience? Was it - or is it - an ordeal, or was it - or is it - an opportunity to bond as a family? Please share your family’s college admissions experience by leaving a comment below. And please order Steve and Andrea’s book for just $13.46 at www.capital-books.com.

Inspired by what we’ve learned about your concern for the health and safety of your children, and driven to do something about those concerns in a forum that is student-centric and respectful of the traditions and laws related to student life and student health, we have taken steps to create a 501(c)(3) organization that will address those concerns in a meaningful way.

The Center for Student Health and Life (CSHAL) will be, first and foremost, supportive of students and driven to address student concerns. Yet, because of CSHAL’s birth within the hallways of College Parents of America, it will also be grounded in the parallel reality of the importance of school and parent support for the health and wellness of the student.

Please Share Your Views on the Formation of CSHAL by leaving a comment below and tell us your thoughts as to what issues this new group – dedicated to improving the health and wellness of students during their college years and beyond – should address.