Letting Go: A Parents' Guide to Understanding the College Years

The sixth edition of this classic parents’ guide and college orientation staple has been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect the realities of college today. 

For more than a decade, Letting Go has provided hundreds of thousands of parents with valuable insights, information, comfort, and guidance throughout the emotional and social changes of their children's college years—from the senior year in high school through college graduation.

Based on research and real life experience, and recommended by colleges and universities around the country, Letting Go, Sixth Edition, has been updated and revised, offering even more insightful, practical, and up-to-date information. In this era of constant communication, this edition tackles the challenge facing parents: finding the balance between staying connected and letting go.

• When should parents encourage independence?
• When should they intervene?
• What issues of identity and intimacy await students?
• What are normal feelings of disorientation and loneliness for students—and for parents?
• What is different about today's college environment?
• What new concerns about safety, health and wellness, and stress will affect incoming classes?

A timeless resource, Letting Go, Sixth Edition, is an indispensable book that parents can depend on and turn to for all of their questions and concerns regarding sending their children to college.

Karen Levin Coburn is the Senior Consultant in Residence and former Assistant Vice Chancellor for Students at Washington University in St. Louis.

Madge Lawrence Treeger is a psychotherapist and a longtime member of the Washington University Counseling Service.