180 Activities, One Welcome — How Barnard Gives Every First-Year a Schedule That Feels Built for Them Jun 25th
A five-day welcome with more than 180 activities should feel like chaos. At Barnard, it feels like an invitation.
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For parent & family programs

The parent and family app that cuts the worried calls.

Your team handles the worried parents, the missed deadlines, the schedule that changed since the mailer went out. Give families the answer on their phone and your office gets its summer back.

Trusted by leading parent and family programs at top U.S. colleges

Why parents call your office instead of finding it themselves

The orientation packet is 135 pages. The schedule changed since they got it in the mail. Mom can't get into the student portal. So she calls your office. Multiply that by 4,000 families and your phone doesn't stop ringing from June through September.

Stop the worried-parent phone tree

Parents don't need your phone number. They need the answer on their phone at 11pm. Give them that, and your team gets its time back.

Kill the 135-page family packet

Printed in April. Stale by July. Re-mailing costs a fortune. The schedule lives in the app where you can change it in 30 seconds.

The answer in their hand. Not on your phone.

“We use Guidebook to welcome families for Family Weekend, offering event schedules and insights into Wildcat traditions.”
Logan Adams
Director of Orientation & New Student Services, The University of Arizona

Key features for parent and family programs teams in higher education

The parent and family choice of leading American universities

Guidebook powers parent and family programs at over 75% of the top 50 U.S. colleges. Large state flagships running orientation for tens of thousands each summer. Liberal arts schools handling family weekend for a few hundred. The campuses that take parent communication seriously run on Guidebook.

75%

of top 50 U.S. colleges

Zero

printed family packets to reprint

1 app

for orientation, family weekend, and every deadline in between

Worried calls down. Confidence up.

Parents don't need access to everything. They need three things: a current schedule, a person to text, and proof their kid is okay. Give them that in one app and the worried calls drop. The retention conversation gets easier too.

Family weekend, mapped to your campus

Drop-off parking lot. Hospitality tent on the quad. President's reception in the chapel. Tailgate at the stadium. Every family-weekend stop pinned to a real map, so parents stop calling your office for directions on a Saturday morning.

From "get ready" to "stay close"

Get ready: move-in maps, family weekend RSVPs, deadline previews. On campus: real-time updates during family weekend, push notifications for the parents' association meeting. Stay close: end-of-semester messages, tuition deadlines, summer storage reminders. The worried calls drop and the family-engagement signal goes up.

See which families need attention before fall

Average time in app. Items tapped per session. Comments and likes on family posts. Which families engaged early, which never opened the app, which clicked the FAFSA reminder twice. The retention signal your office can act on before fall registration.

Leading parent and family teams partner with Guidebook

University of Arizona

University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona wanted to make Family Weekend more memorable and easy to navigate for families and supporters.

With Guidebook, they created a Family Weekend app that put everything families needed right at their fingertips. Guests could easily check out the schedule of exciting events, dive into Wildcat traditions, and find the best spots to eat on campus. The app also connected them with key campus resources and made it simple to stay in touch after the weekend through social media.

Using Guidebook turned Family Weekend into a smooth, enjoyable experience. Families felt more connected, not just to their students, but to the entire campus community. With real-time updates, easy access to information, and a direct link to the university, they made sure everyone left with great memories and a stronger bond with the Wildcat family.
University of Arizona

University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

With Guidebook, each unique audience - Freshmen, Transfer students, New Graduate Students, and Families - has its own orientation guide. Students see pre-orientation checklists and tools to connect with peers. Families receive information about on-campus resources and joining the Parents Association.
University of Texas at Austin

Coastal Carolina University

Coastal Carolina University

Coastal Carolina University

Coastal Carolina University uses Guidebook to power a fully paperless orientation experience for one of its largest incoming classes yet (with over 70% of students arriving from out of state, many for the very first time).

Inside the app, students and families can:

- Navigate an unfamiliar campus with interactive maps and turn-by-turn guidance.
- Follow real-time schedules that update instantly when plans change.
- Stay on separate family and student tracks to keep parallel programming clear.
- Access next steps like family weekend registration and pre-arrival task lists.
- Download the app right at check-in via QR code.

The result is a more confident, connected, and campus-ready incoming class (and the analytics to prove people are genuinely using it).
Coastal Carolina University

What EDU teams have to say

“We went from 200 hours and 5 staff members to just 25 hours and 1 person - compared with creating a website and printed programs.”

Kristin Sargeant

University of Edinburgh

“With Guidebook, we use an audio tour guide to help prospective students navigate campus, learn more about university offerings, and feel part of the campus community - even if they’re unable to visit in person.”

Steven Kelly

University of Calgary

“With Guidebook, administrators are able to create the app themselves without any IT support and non-technical content creators can easily upload and publish content.”

Meredith Aden

University of Memphis

“With schedules frequently changing, we needed a flexible solution to accommodate updates in real time. The team would print 40,000 programs to hand out at the events, which were costly, bad for the environment, and once printed, couldn’t be updated with constant changes.”

Open Days Team

University of Manchester

“With Guidebook, we use an audio tour guide to help prospective students navigate campus, learn more about university offerings, and feel part of the campus community - even if they’re unable to visit in person.”

Steven Kelly

University of Calgary

“We went from 200 hours and 5 staff members to just 25 hours and 1 person - compared with creating a website and printed programs.”

Kristin Sargeant

University of Edinburgh

“When we started we yielded 40%. After implementing Guidebook our yield grew to 82%. We believe Guidebook had a strong impact on that growth.”

Andrea Crilly

Indiana Tech

“Our app costs 29% less than printing, and our student yield increased by 105% once we began using Guidebook.”

Andrea Crilly

Indiana Tech

“With schedules frequently changing, we needed a flexible solution to accommodate updates in real time. The team would print 40,000 programs to hand out at the events, which were costly, bad for the environment, and once printed, couldn’t be updated with constant changes.”

Open Days Team

University of Manchester

“With Guidebook, administrators are able to create the app themselves without any IT support and non-technical content creators can easily upload and publish content.”

Meredith Aden

University of Memphis

“With Guidebook, we use an audio tour guide to help prospective students navigate campus, learn more about university offerings, and feel part of the campus community - even if they’re unable to visit in person.”

Steven Kelly

University of Calgary

“We went from 200 hours and 5 staff members to just 25 hours and 1 person - compared with creating a website and printed programs.”

Kristin Sargeant

University of Edinburgh

“When we started we yielded 40%. After implementing Guidebook our yield grew to 82%. We believe Guidebook had a strong impact on that growth.”

Andrea Crilly

Indiana Tech

“Our app costs 29% less than printing, and our student yield increased by 105% once we began using Guidebook.”

Andrea Crilly

Indiana Tech

“With schedules frequently changing, we needed a flexible solution to accommodate updates in real time. The team would print 40,000 programs to hand out at the events, which were costly, bad for the environment, and once printed, couldn’t be updated with constant changes.”

Open Days Team

University of Manchester

“With Guidebook, administrators are able to create the app themselves without any IT support and non-technical content creators can easily upload and publish content.”

Meredith Aden

University of Memphis

The family app that ends the worried calls.

Move-in, family weekend, deadline reminders, the answers parents need at 11pm when your office is closed. One branded app means the family who'd otherwise be on the phone is finding what they need themselves.

FAQs

[faq] Q: How does Guidebook reduce parent and family phone calls? A: Guidebook gives families one branded place for the answers they usually call about: move-in details, parking, schedules, family weekend, maps, support services, deadlines, and FAQs. When the answer is already on their phone, your office gets fewer avoidable calls. Q: Can parents and students use the same Guidebook app without seeing the same content? A: Yes. Guidebook can support separate family and student experiences inside one branded app. Parents can see family schedules, campus logistics, safety information, and support resources while students see their own orientation or campus-life content. Q: How does Guidebook help during family weekend? A: Families can see schedules, maps, parking details, event locations, speaker information, and real-time updates in one place. If the reception moves or parking fills, your team can push the update directly instead of waiting for families to find the email. Q: Can Guidebook support parent communication beyond orientation? A: Yes. Parent and family programs can use Guidebook for move-in, family weekend, deadlines, billing reminders, regional events, support resources, and year-round updates. The app becomes a calmer communication channel, not just a welcome-week tool. Q: How does Guidebook help first-generation and out-of-state families? A: These families often have more questions and less campus context. Guidebook can put practical answers, maps, contacts, deadlines, and support resources in one place so families feel more confident without needing insider knowledge. Q: What can parent and family teams measure in Guidebook? A: Teams can see app opens, schedule views, FAQ engagement, push notification response, map taps, and survey feedback. That shows which questions families had, which updates reached them, and where communication can improve next year. [/faq]