College is a new chapter in a student’s life.  The sooner students get over being homesick, the better off they will be.  Homesickness is simply caused by a separation from their home environment.  You need to help your student by letting them know that he/she will always have a family, and being separated from family is just a part of life.

Here are a few tips/ticks that students have made that can help your son/daughter overcome their homesickness.

• Make friends with similar interests – Start with your dorm, you have to live with them anyways.
• Try not to get too concerned with things that are happening at home, unless they are really important and urgent.
• Talk to your friends that go to other universities, but don’t get too caught up in how much you miss them.
• Try not to call home all of the time.  This will make you miss your family even more.
• Bring a few pictures or a little hard held picture book that you put together so you can look at it when you feel like it.
• Make your dorm room homey and fun.  You should enjoy the space that you have.
• Throw yourself into your studies, but make sure not to over-exert yourself.
• Exercise often – if you are healthy, you will feel better and not stress as much.
• You might feel depressed, but you can get very sick from not eating.  Eat properly, even if you aren’t hungry.  On the other end, if you are a “stress eater,” don’t eat too much or you will make yourself equally as sick.  Find the right balance of healthy foods.
• Pick up a hobby, find something to keep yourself busy and keep your mind off of home.
• Don’t look back too much – remember who you are and where you’re from, but don’t dwell on your past.
• Let yourself have fun.  You might have a boyfriend/girlfriend back home, but that shouldn’t keep you from having fun.
• Whenever you feel like you’re getting homesick, do something with friends that will entertain you.
• Talk to a trusted counselor/friend – Talking to someone who can and will make you feel better.  Even guys need a shoulder to cry on at some point.
• The main point in this is to keep yourself busy.  Join some clubs, go to the gym, do all your work during the day, maybe even find a part time job somewhere.  As long as you are keeping yourself busy through the whole day, you won’t even think about being homesick.
• Find someone to be with.  Having a special someone will make it easier to forget about the ones at home.
• Sometimes bringing a reminder of home helps you feel better in the beginning.  After a while, start hiding if from yourself.  This will help you by using baby steps.
• Don’t stay in contact with your old friends like you used to.  This makes you feel worse because you are stuck thinking of old friends when you could be making new friends.  This does not mean to break them off completely.  Use Facebook to stay in touch.
• Take advantages of times that you can actually travel home for a weekend.  This is a great way to relieve home sickness and stress while getting your mind off of your studies by leaving the campus for a short period of time.  Don’t go home more than once/month.
• When leaving home, don’t get too sad.  Remember that you have fun at school and that you’ve left home for school before and you can do it again.
• Invite friends from home to your school.  This is a great way to feel closer to home while having a good time with your close friends.
• Join an intramural sports team to meet new friends, as well as keep your mind off of home.
• Meet up with new friends from your dorm for lunch each day so you do not eat by yourself and feel lonely.
• Find friends who are in your major.  This way you will have similar classes for a couple years and the same workload.  You will find that you will soon run out of time to be homesick.
• Be open-minded.  Always consider saying yes to any opportunity that comes your way instead of saying no right away.
• Use Skype, Oovoo, or Facetime to keep in contact with your friends and family.
• Make plans with your friends back home for breaks.
• Go outside of your comfort zone when it comes to making new friends and trying new things.
• Everyone is in the same situation as you so don’t be afraid to just go talk to people
• Keep a positive attitude with your head up
• An important thing to remember is that you got away from home because you wanted to achieve something. Right?
• Even if you get sick being away from those you love, remember that it’s something temporary and not permanent.
• A very good trick to avoid such feeling is that you contact whom you love and make a plan for a future to meet.  In doing so, you can avoid the feeling of homesickness and focus on what you are here for, because in your mind you know that you have already planned to meet with them sooner or later, so you just wait for that day to come and not to over think about it.
• Actually, if you think about homesickness itself, you are more likely to get sick because this is a very negative thing to think about.  Be positive and smile.
• It might sound silly, but whenever you feel sick, invite your friends to your place and cook a nice meal.

 Tell your son/daughter to think of college as a brand new adventure.  There are so many opportunities, and your student will become friends with all kinds of people.  Tell your son/daughter that their college experience can be whatever they want it to be.  If you ask any senior every one of them would tell you that they wish they could stay in college longer.  Because in reality, four years is going to fly a lot quicker than you will want it to. .