New York Times Room for Debate, Have College Freshmen Changed?:

For many parents, the first few weeks of college are filled with worry about how their children will handle the shift from high school to the first stage of adult life. (The suicide of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers freshman, added to those concerns with fears of campus bullying and incivility.) Many campuses have orientation programs to help new students make that transition. Even so, college administrators are struggling to keep up with what their students need.

Are social, academic and financial pressures on freshmen becoming more intense? Have freshmen changed? Does the fact that many students are used to “helicopter” parents monitoring and guiding all of their activities affect the transition to college?

• Philip Babcock (UC-Santa Barbara), Academics Aren’t the Problem
• Linda Bips (Muhlenberg College), Students Are Different Now
• Barbara Hofer (Middlebury College), Pressure to Text Mom
• Hara Estroff Marano (Editor, Psychology Today), Cutting the Apron Strings
• Neil Montgomery (Keene State College), Parents Protecting Their Investments
• Stephen Joel Trachtenberg (George Washington), What Else Can We Do?
• Jean Twenge (San Diego State), Tolerant, Mainly of Themselves