11 Skills Your College Student Should Have Before Leaving Home

It won’t be long before freshman students are packing up their cars and driving off for their first year of college. If you’ve got an incoming college freshman, I’m sure you want to do everything that you can to make sure that they make it okay once they’re out on their own. These 11 Skills Your College Student Should Have Before Leaving Home are a great place to start preparing them. Teach them these skills and when they leave home, they’ll be okay.

11 Skills Your College Student Should Have Before Leaving Home

Change a Tire – When your college student is driving themselves to school, having a flat tire is a possibility and roadside assistance isn’t always available. Making sure they know how to change a flat will keep them from being stranded on the side of the road.

Balance Their Bank Account – Your new college student will need to know how to balance their bank account. If they can’t, they will never know if something is wrong with their account or if they are overspending.

Wash Their Own Laundry – Whites with reds and add bleach, right? Wrong, and your college freshman needs to know it. Make absolutely certain they won’t turn everything pink and that they know how to properly do their own laundry. This includes stain treatment, drying delicates, and so on.

Cook a Basic Meal – Mac and Cheese and Ramen are going to get awfully old if your college student can’t cook. You don’t need to teach them to be a gourmet cook, but you should teach them how to fix a basic meal for themselves as well as kitchen safety. Their taste buds will thank you.

Create a Budget – Your college student’s finances might not deal with huge amounts of money but they will still need to know how to create a budget for themselves. When you’re dealing with smaller amounts of cash, it is way too easy to find yourself broke.

Shop for a Deal – Just because they’re leaving home doesn’t mean that they will want to (or be able to) spend money at their every whim. Teaching them the importance of looking for a deal and how to look for one will help them build a skill-set that they will use their entire life.

Make a Professional Phone Call – In today’s age of email, it probably won’t surprise you much that most people aren’t sure how to conduct a professional phone call. They will need this skill all throughout their life, which means there’s never been a better time to teach them how to conduct themselves on a business call.

Schedule a Doctor’s Appointment for Themselves – There’s a good chance that your new college student will get sick at some point during their first year. Before they leave home, walk them through the process of creating a doctor’s appointment for themselves, filling out insurance paperwork, and everything else associated with visiting the doctor so that they know how to do it when they need to.

Discuss a Conflict with a Professor – As they grow, our kids get used to us dealing with their problems for them. As a new college student, they will need to learn how to do it themselves. Teach them proper conflict resolution before they leave home so that they know what to say and how to act when they have an issue.

Apply for a Job – You would probably not believe the amount of people who don’t know how to properly apply for a job. There is more to it than just asking for an application. Teach your new college student how to not only fill the application out properly but also how to interview well so that they will succeed when they’re looking for their next job.

Protect Themselves – College campuses can be a dangerous place sometimes, so the most important skill your college student needs to know is how to protect themselves. It is up to you to choose the method that you teach them but whatever you do, don’t leave them unprotected.

More Ways to Prepare Your College Students:

25 Ways for College Students to Save Money

How to Save Money on College Textbooks

How to Save Money on College Expenses