Friday, May 31, 2002

A story published today by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that moving back home has been a financial salvation for a growing number of college graduates.

A recent survey shows 63 percent of college students plan to live with their parents after graduation. That's up from 56 percent who responded last year to the poll by JobTrak, an online database of jobs. The percentage planning to stick around for more than a year also inched up to 22 percent this year from 19 percent.

The U.S. Census says 18 million unmarried Americans ages 18 to 34 live with their families.

Experts who study the trend say Gen Y graduates are more financially savvy and more comfortable living with parents than previous generations. The slacker stigma attached to living at home no longer applies, they say. Some Web sites targeted at college students extol the virtues of having clean laundry, good meals and no rent.

Karen Levin Coburn, assistant vice chancellor for students and associate dean of freshman transition at Washington University in St. Louis, is co-author of the book, "Letting Go: A Parent's Guide to Understanding the College Years." She offers advice for parents when their college student comes home:

- Revisit your house rules. Curfew may no longer be appropriate, but an expectation of a phone call if the student will be out late may be reasonable. Parents may expect the student to do his or her own laundry and wash the dishes.

- Acknowledge the person your student is becoming, not an image you hold from the past.

- Remember that, like college, a visit home is a learning experience. When the student returns home, everyone in the family has to adjust to his or her place in the family.

- Don't be surprised or offended if your student is homesick for school. They may even start calling school "home."