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Health & Fitness

Keeping In Touch When Your Child Is Away At College

Back in the day when I attended college, keeping in touch with my parents was simple. I had a phone in my dorm room that I called them on or they called me on. We tried not to stay on the phone all that long since we were charged by message units which was related to both distance and time on the phone. I went to college in Manhattan and my parents lived in Massapequa on Long Island. There was also the occasional letter. Those students whose parents lived out of town had a different issue that some of us chronologically gifted people may know as long distance charges. Some dorms did not have phones in their rooms but there was a payphone in the hall. That created still another issue of trying to keep the call short since you may not have had much change, collect call charges could be expensive and there may have been a line to use the phone.

Today things are totally different.  Almost all college students have cell phones and there is Skype and iChat for video conferences.  The cell phone provider you use at home may not have a strong signal where your child is at school. The college would know which provider(s) work well in their area. As a parent, it may be worthwhile for you to change cellphone providers or it may be more beneficial for your college student to get a cell phone plan of their own with a provider that has good cell phone reception at their school. 

If your child is abroad the situation changes. Note that your cellphone plan generally is for domestic use only. You incur roaming charges when used to make calls both abroad and while abroad.  Assuming you do not have an international plan, accessing data and texting while abroad will incur still more additional charges which may be substantial. They should consider renting a cellphone from a provider in the US for the country they will be abroad for most of the time they are there. Cellhire, Cellular Abroad and PlanetFone are three companies that provide rentals. This would be used for local calls made there. There is also video chatting. Skype and iChat are the two big ones here.  We’ll keep our discussion to Skype as this works on both PC and Macs. iChat is a proprietary program that only works on Apple products. With Skype you can talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere, any length for free provided you are speaking with someone who is also using Skype. The only charge would be for internet connection fees if any. This is just like at home. Viber is a good app to have on a smartphone. If your child is on a wireless network, they can receive and make calls on Viber to those also on it and will not incur roaming charges or minutes used. They also can text using Viber when in a wireless network for free. Again they must be on a wireless network. One other possibility to think about is MagicJack.  For a $70.00 initial investment and a $30.00 annual subscription you can make unlimited calls to the USA and Canada from anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection.  If done right, charges for international calls can be very inexpensive.

You will or should be having discussions with your college child about the new experiences they will be having. You also will need to also discuss how you will be communicating with him or her while they are away. Will their college friends be using the same cell phone provider if minutes are limited on the plan your child will be using? Will you and your child have the same cell phone provider will be an issue if one of both of you do not have unlimited minutes?  If an emergency was to arise how will you get in touch? Keep in mind if there is a natural disaster texting is better for your child reaching you or vice-versa then using the phone.        

Regardless of what plan you choose, your student should also bring an Ethernet cable with them.  If your student lives in a dorm where there is an Ethernet connection you and them will be glad particularly if the Ethernet connection is the only way for them to connect to the internet.

All colleges offer students a school email address likely ending in .edu. This should not be used for personal communication. Your child should maintain a personal email account. If you have something you need to discuss with them or vice versa, use their personal email address and make sure that your son or daughter continues to have a personal email address.


If you have additional questions about keeping in touch with your college child or reducing your monthly phone charges I can be reached at (917) 572-3468 or email me at mike@ComputerConciergeNY.com  

Feel free to join the conversation and post comments and questions on my Facebook page at Computer Concierge NY LLC . There also are tips there to better use your computer, smartphone, iPad and other technology you may have or are thinking of buying.

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