That includes how much it will cost for health insurance. The new health care reform plan is making it a little easier, but parents still have to weigh their options.
All night study sessions, germs spread through dorm rooms, college students are exposed to all sorts of illnesses when away for the first time. Whether 20 or 2,000 miles away, most parents want to know health care follows them.
Colleges do offer health care plans but those plans are notoriously expensive, with little coverage.
"Much like anything else, you have to read between the lines and look at the fine print," says Dr. George Kikano is in the Family Medicine Department at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
He also has two kids of his own in college. In his opinion, the college health insurance plans should be a parents' last resort.
"For many colleges, they have been making money off of student insurance policies."
A recent study from the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy found that colleges were actually making a profit margin of ten percent off of their plans, plans that didn't cover existing chronic illness, preventative services and had low benefit ceilings.
But the new health care reform law now allows those students to stay on their parent's plan until age 26.
"From my perspective, any time a kid has the option of staying on the parents plan, they're better off staying on the parents plan."
Dr. Kikano says, for families it is most likely cheaper to keep a child on the corporate plan. And with the new health care laws, chronic conditions are covered, as well as any major illnesses.
Parents just need to make sure if their child is more than 20 miles away, they know which physicians are covered in case of emergency.
"Kids in college need to make sure if they are out of state out of town, the parents plan would cover physicians that would be considered out of network. So, if you work in Cleveland, and your kids are in Cleveland, for the most part you should not have an issue."
WKYC-TV