helicopterPOP

No, parents don't get to choose courses for college students. But they can give advice and offer suggestions...as long that's truly what's offered, with respect given to the student's wishes. Threats to punish are NOT OK.

...a father overly concerned with his son's college education (present company excluded, naturally).

Among other things, this is a place to post in digital form the sort of stuff earlier generations of parents clipped from newspapers and magazines and put in the mail along with the rest of a college-kid CARE package, like In Defense of Hovering: Why Parents Say They Meddle in College Students' Lives, by Sue Shellenbarger, in today's Wall Street Journal:

How can a parent tell when "the marshal needs to ride onto campus and restore order," as Efland, N.C., college parent Lowrie Beacham puts it. Parents generally should steer clear of roommate, housing and social issues, choices of majors and disputes over grades. David Gabriel bit his tongue when student-housing officials at his son's $40,000-a-year private college assigned his son and two roommates to a dark room in the basement of a converted morgue. The Englewood, Colo., investment-company owner hated the room, but "I wanted my son to be his own advocate," he says.

On cost control and financial aid, parents should take a coaching role. The prospect of a child's taking more than four years to finish undergrad school, which 61% of students do, is more daunting than ever at current tuition rates. Have your student set a four-year degree as a goal. Some students ask their academic advisers to sign informal statements of understanding that they've discussed that goal and the student is on track to reach it, says Susan Fee, a Cleveland college counselor and author. Have your child take notes on advising sessions and date and keep them; ask for a change in advisers if you aren't satisfied.

Ifyour child is among the 60% of full-time undergrads who receive grants or the 47% who receive loans of some type, don't expect his academic adviser to know the financial-aid ropes; it's not their job, and the requirements of various loans and grants are too complex and often private, says Jeanine Ward-Roof, director of student development services at Clemson University, Clemson, S.C. Ms. Fee advises coaching your child to learn them. "Instead of asking, 'Did you go to the financial aid office?' the question should be: 'Tell me what happened at the financial aid office. Who did you speak to? What questions did you ask?' " Ms. Fee suggests.