Why Helicopter Parents are Here to Stay

High school students take notice: Don’t expect Mom and Dad to leave immediately after they move you in to school. On Monday, the New York Times ran an article highlighting the various ways colleges handle helicopter parents who are helping their children move in to their new dorms. More specifically, college deans and orientation leaders are finding that they must be more explicit when telling parents that their presence is not required for the remainder of orientation. This raises an interesting question: why might parents feel incentivized to stick around after schlepping and then arranging all of their child’s gear from the likes of Ikea, Bed Bath and Beyond, et ceteta? A blog post that same day, from the New York Times Economix blog team provided an intriguing, yet plausible answer.

Orientation Mania Hits College Campuses Everywhere

No, universities aren’t faring a sudden outburst of a neurological disorders, but they’re definitely on high alert. As these warm, musky days of August roll forward, colleges and universities across the country are whipping out the pop-up tents, setting up check-in booths and passing out pre-stuffed folders to freshmen, new graduate students and other fresh faces on their respective college campus. Phew, what a long sentence. In short, it’s orientation week at tons of schools. Bring on the orientating! I have one more day of my journalism graduate student orientation at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, and I’m wiped! In a good way. My 40-or-so other new student cohorts and I have been wowed with dozens of multimedia presentations, lectures and discussions with faculty, program directors and current students. We’re getting a full dose of the opportunities available to us through our [...]