You have had three daughters now leave for college. Do you have any advice?

There are many things I wish I had known earlier. One such lesson was not to buy your books in the campus bookstores, as the price for new books is prohibitive. It is so much less expensive to either look for used or even new books through Amazon or Half.com at Ebay. I wish I had taken advantage of the option to rent textbooks for the semester or quarter since my own student had little desire to keep most of her textbooks beyond the term. This is so much easier than trying to sell back books, especially since professors are often known to change editions of textbooks frequently, rendering your purchases obsolete. My own daughter tries to find the syllabus before the class starts so as to have a week or two to get the books online, especially if they are bought from third-party sources.

Amazon Prime, which allows you to send books to your college address for free, is available at no cost for students. This has been remarkably handy for sending everything from bed linens to printer cartridges, especially since most items listed on Prime arrive within two days.

If you are driving your student to school, start saving all those 20 percent Bed Bath and Beyond coupons that come in the mail. You can use one for each item you buy, which is great, as they have most of the items you will need to set up their dorm room.

Evaluate the college health plan carefully, as it might be more expensive and less comprehensive than keeping your student on the parents’ insurance until age 26.

Set up a Skype account so that you can actually “talk” with your student periodically. It is so much better to see them “face to face” to evaluate how they are doing, rather than trying to read between the lines over the phone. On a similar vein, I have learned from many parents that they hear from their student more often if they leave it to the discretion of the student when they want to call versus the standard Sunday evening ritual so many of us grew up with. I will get random calls when they are waiting for their laundry to spin or walking between classes and have five minutes to kill. Usually, I am all too happy to drop everything I might be doing for a quick chat.

Mental health services are available for all students. You do not need to have a psychiatric condition to avail yourself of their services. If your student has struggled in any way in high school, set up a few sessions as soon as school starts with counseling services, as freshman year is fraught with challenge.

And, finally, find out your student’s schedule for finals early in the semester, so that you can obtain relatively less expensive airfares that are offered months in advance. Take it from one who knows — it is not pretty trying to find a reasonable flight before Christmas in December.

Joan Franklin is the owner of MI College Support, an independent college counseling practice.