The transition from high school—and home—to college can be stressful for students and their families. Students and parents arrive on campus unprepared for what college is really like. Academic standards and expectations are different from high school; families aren’t present to serve as “scaffolding” for students; and students have to do what they call “adulting.” Nothing in the college admissions process prepares students for these new realities.

As a result, first-year students report higher stress, more mental health issues, and lower completion rates than in the past. In fact, up to one third of first-year college students will not return for their second year—and colleges are reporting an increase in underprepared first-year students.

How to College is here to help. Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Schwartz guide first-year students and their families at any point in the transition process, during the summer after high school graduation and throughout the school year, to prepare to succeed and thrive as they transition and adapt to college. The first practical guide of its kind, this book draws on the authors’ experience teaching and working with thousands of first-year college students over decades.