Every year, thousands of teenagers move from the comforts of home to unfamiliar colleges, where they will share bedrooms and bathrooms with strangers, struggle with homesickness and temptation, and take over responsibility for their own education.

That can be a bumpy transition for kids whose parents have always managed their lives, sheltering them from mistakes and acknowledging their every accomplishment. Even self-reliant students wrestle with missing family members and friends and adapting to less-structured schedules when they arrive at campuses.

"It's kind of hard to find your own bearings, to figure out if you can go out with your friends or if you need to stay in your room and study," said Daelan Blankfein, 18, of Westlake Village, a freshman at Pepperdine University in Malibu. "It can be tough."

That's why colleges such as CSU Channel Islands in Camarillo and California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks are now expanding their orientation programs for freshmen.

Instead of a one-day introduction to campus life, many colleges now provide several days of workshops covering issues that include managing money, preventing date rape and studying abroad.

Beyond that, they host dances, concerts and trips off campus so students can make friends among the strangers they're now living with. Some colleges, especially private schools on the East Coast, even offer outdoors orientation events before school starts, where students spend a week or more backpacking, hiking or kayaking in the wilderness.

"We're starting to realize a one-day orientation doesn't really fulfill their needs for their transition," said Jaimie Hoffman, coordinator of new student, orientation and transition programs at CSUCI.

This year, CSUCI has launched a program designed to help students feel connected to the college from their first day on campus. The program, Be a Part From the Start, offers nine weeks of workshops and social activities tied to a student's personal development. One week focuses on health, for example, another on creativity.

"If kids get connected to the institution in any way, they're more likely to stay," Hoffman said. "Even if they just attend an event, they're more likely to persist."

While orientation is primarily for students, colleges are expanding their programs for parents, too. One of the colleges' main goals: gently encouraging parents to let go.

Today's parents are much more involved in their children's lives than in the past, college officials said. Some parents want to continue that connection even when their kids head off to college, which is pretty easy to do these days, thanks to cell phones and e-mail.

However, many moms and dads don't limit their involvement to their kids. They don't hesitate to call college officials when something goes wrong.

"I talk to more parents than kids these days," said Angela Naginey, director of student life at CLU. "They call about everything, no holds barred.

"I get My son is a senior and his roommate is being mean' or My daughter's bed is uncomfortable,' " she said. "Gone are the days when parents dropped their kids off and said OK, you're on your own.' "

While that involvement might be comforting for both parents and students, kids need the chance to solve problems on their own, officials said.

That's why colleges invite parents to sessions like those hosted this fall at CSUCI, called Letting Go and Letting Grow and Filling the Empty Nest.

"We're telling parents they're not leaving their child; they're moving on to a different part of their lives," Hoffman said. After their orientation is over, parents are encouraged to say goodbye to their children and head back home.

But colleges continue their efforts to help freshmen feel connected, often with some sort of seminar that lasts through the first semester or even the first year.

CSUCI has its University Life and College Success Seminar, which helps students get familiar with the campus and deals with such issues as test-taking, healthy living and time management.

Pepperdine has a Great Books program in which students are clustered in a course for two years, reading classics from Eastern and Western literature.

"It's terribly important to take out the fear factor," said Andrew Benton, president of Pepperdine. "They will be away from home for probably the most extended period of their lives so far. We want our freshmen to be comfortable."

Some colleges are even adding programs for older students, helping them deal with sophomore slump or life after graduation.

CLU offers an evening program for incoming sophomores to learn about other options for their education, including internships and study-abroad programs.

Sophomores also learn their mixed feelings about college — specifically, questioning whether they're doing what they want to do — are normal.

"Freshmen, they get this hand-holding," Naginey said.

"Sophomores come back and it's, Here's your key.' It's a little bit of a letdown."

CLU also has a program for seniors that it calls Disorientation. The idea is to help seniors make the transition out of college so they learn about renting an apartment, buying a car and finding a job.

"Now it's time to leave," Naginey said, "and that can be the next stressful thing."