How to Support Your Honors Student

Links to Additional Parent Resources

Welcome to Parents & Guardians from the L&S Honors Program:

Welcome, parents, to a proud tradition of UW-Madison parents whose students are involved in the L&S Honors Program. College is an exciting and sometimes overwhelming time in a young person's life. Particularly in the first semester and extending into the next few years, you and your student will experience major life changes that will be most easily dealt with if you can be flexible and open-minded. On this page, we offer a few ways for parents to be supportive during these changes and to address some of the common questions and concerns we often hear.

How to Support Your Student:

Suggestions from seasoned advisors about how you can help make your student's transition to college a good one:

• Encourage your student to contact us for advising - if your student has questions or concerns about courses, schedules, degree requirements, options for studying abroad, we're the right place to come. We want to develop a long-term working relationship with our students.
• Allow your student some time to adjust to campus life. This is a big change and it can take some time before students feel at home and comfortable with the new routine. The best thing you can do at this time is to be available and listen to your student, rather than overwhelming your student with questions and expectations to have the rest of his/her life and major figured out in the first week!
• If your student has specific concerns, collaborate with him/her to come up with some strategies and courses of action before you contact the university on his/her behalf. For one thing, campus partners often respond more favorably to direct student inquires. In addition, we cannot provide any student's private information to parties other than themselves due to FERPA. Be sure to foster an open line of communication with your student to gather information about their academic and developmental progress directly.
• Support and celebrate your student's newfound independence by providing support and advice to him/her about important decisions, but allowing the student to have the final say.
• Encourage your student to get involved! College is much more than just taking courses. To gain the most out of the college experience and to prepare for life beyond, developing skills and interests through avenues such as student organizations, leadership and intern activities, part-time jobs, volunteering, research , independent study, and studying abroad can really broaden your student's horizons to new life passions.

Links to Additional Resources:

Frequently Asked Questions

University of Wisconsin-Madison's Parent Program

Financial Aid

Letters & Science Scholarship Office

Student Development Theory from the University of Texas at Dallas