Families
Family Resource Guide
Our Family Resource Guide includes a number of resources available to our students. Feel free to familiarize yourself with these helpful resources.
Colby has programs and resources – ranging from workshops, roundtables, and reading groups to academic success office hours and peer mentoring – aimed at maximizing students’ academic potential. Our faculty and staff provide specialized support to help students navigate all academic concerns that may occur. Below are links to some academic resources and programs you may find helpful:
Check out some upcoming events during the academic year.
Families often have questions regarding tuition, payment options, on-campus student employment opportunities, and student health insurance.
The transition to college can be difficult for new students. It often takes some time for students to feel comfortable with their surroundings. We are here to support your student as they adjust to campus life, choose a major, explore opportunities, develop expertise, and prepare for their post-college life. We have included information from some of the most common areas of information and support below:
Maine remains a top travel destination in the country. There are great places for outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, fishing, and skiing. When you bring your Colby student to campus or come for a visit, there is much to see and do. Learn more about Waterville and the surrounding areas on our Visit page.
Check out the resources in this section to learn more about life on our campus.
We eagerly await the arrival of the first-year class each year. As you prepare to send your student to Colby, please find some additional information about move-in and orientation below.
Sending mail/packages:
Each student is assigned a Mayflower Hill number as a school address. Please do not use the College’s general address. Boxes can be shipped to campus after Aug. 15. On the box, please clearly include the following:
(Student’s full name)
(Students mailbox number) Mayflower Hill
Waterville, ME 04901
Special Occasions:
Colby’s Dining Services team is happy to work with you to provide a special treat for your student. The Send-A-Sweet program, run by Colby’s own dining services, allows you to send a care package directly to your student for any special occasion or “just because”.
There are a number of local florists who routinely deliver flowers to campus. We’ve included two popular options below.
Colleges sometimes employ words, phrases, or acronyms in conversations or descriptions that may be difficult for those who are not already engaged in the college culture to grasp. As a result, we have complied a list of some of the most common words and acronyms used at Colby.
- CA: Community Advisor, a trained student who lives in a residential hall to support students and plan events.
- CCAK: Colby Cares About Kids, a mentoring program through the Colby Volunteer Center (CVC).
- CER: Colby Emergency Response, a first-responder organization where trained students work with Colby Security to provide 24/7 emergency on-campus response.
- CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium, a celebration of student scholarship in the spring. Visit colby.edu/clas.
- COC: Colby Outing Club, Colby’s largest club with 100+ trips a year.
- COOT: Colby Outdoor Orientation Trips, required of all first-year students. Trips are designed to be fun and engaging while preparing students for their transition to living and learning on campus.
- DavisConnects: Provides Colby students global, internship, and research experiences regardless of personal networks, connections, and financial means.
- GES: Global Entry Semester, allows incoming students to study abroad in Dijon, France or Salamanca, Spain.
- Pugh Center: A multicultural center devoted to affirming cultural differences and promoting social justice.
- The Spa: Not a spa at all, but a snack bar and coffee shop in Cotter Union.
Family Involvement
Families play an integral role in supporting their students during their four years at Colby. Here are a few ways that you can have an impact on campus life for all Colby students.
Parents are valuable resources for Colby’s career center, DavisConnects, forwarding employment opportunities and information about entry-level job positions to the College, mentoring students in their places of work, and sharing valuable career advice with students and young alumni. The DavisConnects’s Colby Connect program engages students and connects them to fellowships, internships, job shadowing, and employment opportunities and prepares them for graduate study. In addition, DavisConnects welcomes parent participation in career symposia on and off campus.
The Parent Council is a group of over 150 current Colby families who support, volunteer, and serve as ambassadors for the College. Many Parent Council families lead philanthropically, with annual contributions to the Colby Fund to ensure that each student’s experience is hallmarked by intellectual innovation across disciplines and meaningful connections that extend far beyond Mayflower Hill. Families are also invited to join the Parent Council by giving of their time and talent, volunteering in areas such as DavisConnects, the Halloran Lab for Entrepreneurship, Athletics, or Admissions and Financial Aid. Still others offer to host regional Colby gatherings. In addition to advance notice of family webinars, Parent Council members are invited to gather on campus twice a year, at Homecoming and for a spring event. We hope you will consider joining this vibrant parent group and contributing to Colby in a way that is meaningful to you! Learn more here.
As parents and guardians, you have a unique opportunity to provide gifts that powerfully reaffirm the ideals at the heart of Colby’s mission. Your support also helps provide every student with outstanding facilities in which to learn and grow, and helps make certain that deserving students have access to a world-class education. Gifts of all sizes make a difference. Indeed, roughly one-third of annual donations to the College come from parents. Over half of all current parents and a majority of senior families further support their student’s experience through the Colby Fund. Whether you wish to support the College’s facilities, financial aid, athletics, remarkable faculty, or another important area, the Colby Fund is the best vehicle to further your children’s success. Make a gift today.