SocialSphere, Inc.

As my summer at SocialSphere comes to an end, I thought I’d share some of the most interesting things I found during my research:

Millennials in college want to talk to their parents – and they do, frequently.

Afraid your kids will take off for college and you won’t hear from them until graduation? Worry not. Gone are the days when calling home meant a ten minute check-in once a week. There’s no more waiting in line to use the one landline telephone on the dorm floor. Millennials in college talk to their parents, frequently and through a variety of communication tools. In a series of interviews that Jesse and I conducted earlier this summer, parents reported talking to their college-aged children several times a week on average. All the parents we interviewed utilize a variety of tools in their communication. The most popular means of communication are cell phone calls and emails, but parents said they also regularly send text messages, make landline calls, talk to Skype, and occasionally send good old-fashioned letters or packages.

We could debate the pros and cons of frequent communication between parents and their nearly grown children, but instead, let’s focus on the implications of these phenomenon. Technology is bringing families closer even as they spread out geographically and children grow up. Parents and Millennials are having conversations that create mutual support networks. Parents act as a sounding board for college students trying to make decisions, and in some instances, parents are developing true friendships with their children. Considering the responses I got from parents, it seems that the important thing to realize is that it’s not the content of the conversation, but the frequency that is important. Topics of these phone calls and emails ranged from the child’s classes and social life to family news to current events or literature and movies. Additionally, emails and texts messages provide a great opportunity for a Millennial to say, “Hi” and “Yes, the exam was great; I was thoroughly prepared,” or for Mom to say, “I miss you and can’t wait until you come home for Thanksgiving.” Technology doesn’t create these relationships, but it can add dimensions to the parent-child relationship that previous generations didn’t have.

Colleges and universities are missing a huge opportunity to connect with parents.

College students who talk to their parents are healthy and productive on campus, which in turn makes parents feel that the time and money they have invested in the school is worthwhile. The natural next step is to strengthen the relationship between the school and the parents, to keep them informed and involved beyond just their child’s activities. If parents have a good relationship with the institution and are happy with their child’s performance there, they will be more likely to maintain a relationship with the school after their child graduates. More active and generous parents means that more buildings can be built and improvements can be made, which attracts more students. Finally, if colleges are more proactive in informing parents of problems on campus and the steps that the school is taking to fix them, parents will be less likely to bombard administrators with phone calls, questions and criticisms. While many steps have been taken over the past ten years to increase parent involvement with universities, parents want more. As part of the interviews, we asked parents about their current and desired communications with the universities their children attend or attended. Here are some suggestions that parents had for schools:

• Provide parents with information for all four years. “The first year it seemed like [the college] bombarded us with [information about] meetings and what’s coming up,” says Al, father of a college junior, “and now he’s been there for a year and it seems like we hardly get notified of anything.”

• Tell parents about events happening on campus. All parents receive letters from financial aid or from the development office seeking donations, but it’s important to tell them about what’s happening on campus, too. Marjorie, the mother of two college-aged boys, thinks news of on-campus events is important because it provides starting points for conversations with children. “If you have a kid who isn’t willing to share a lot, it gives you an opportunity to ask questions,” she says.

• Give parents opt-in and opt-out control over all communication they receive. The problem at the opposite end of the spectrum is parents being given too much information. Allowing parents to choose which updates to receive and in which form (email, web site, newsletter in the mail) creates more meaningful and efficient communication because it reflects the individual interests and concerns of each parent.

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