It’s back to school time … do you know where your kids are?

A new poll says they may not either.

In partnership with the College Parents of America, we surveyed current college students to find out what life had been like during their freshman year.

Here are some quick stats from our poll:

  • More than 50% of the students we asked said they hadn’t felt confident in their ability to find their way around their college town before heading to school their freshman year.
  • More than 60% said they were not familiar with the location of businesses or buildings (with more than 1/3rd of this group saying it took more than 3 mos. to figure it out)
  • More than 50% said they would not have been able to locate the police station in an emergency
  • More than 40% said they would not have been able to locate the nearest hospital
  • More than 40% said they got lost during their first year and 1/4 of these said it had caused them to fear for their safety

And don’t think that just because your kid is staying in-state means they know their way around. 45% of the students who said their school was within 200 miles of home still weren’t confident about driving around town.

If you think that your kid has a plan to get acclimated to their new college town, think again. The #1 way students said they found they way when they were lost? Waiting until they hit a landmark or other location that they recognized. The 2nd most popular (not so scientific) method was to depend on someone else in the car to lead the way.

So you ask them not to drink and drive, remind them not to text and drive, and just in general, encourage them to be safe drivers. But how do you ensure they are confident navigating their new stomping grounds?

James Boyle, president of College Parents of America, sat down with us for a few minutes to give us his best advice for parents. You can listen to the conversation here:

jim-boyle_college-parents-of-america

A few tips include:

  1. Give your kids some sort of GPS technology so they can find their way around, especially in emergency situations
  2. Before or on moving day, take some time out to pinpoint the most important places and take a test drive with them
  3. Put together a “lost” kit for your student’s car that includes a paper map, reference and emergency numbers, a prepaid mobile phone (or phone card) and a prepaid gas card

TeleNav is also offering a Back to School special for TeleNav GPS Navigator. From now through the end of September, parents can purchase a full year of the service for $89. Once activated, students can get GPS navigation directly from their cell phone. If you’re interested, visit our online store and use this promotion code: Back2School2009.

Click here to access full results from our poll.