Most American students enter college at a time when they are still forging their identities and seeking a place in the world. Yet many or most of today's students are increasingly dependent on their parents and stay more firmly connected to previous support networks via the "electronic tether" than did their predecessors. In this article, the authors argue that the current professoriate needs to devise new ways to advance the intellectual development of traditional college-age students who are ever more tethered to their parents and high school support networks. More specifically, the authors suggest that curricula must be designed to move students toward ever-greater intellectual autonomy and self-confidence, obviating by design the need for dependency on previous mentors. Their claims emerged from a yearlong, campus wide study of what they have come to call "individualized learning," a way of reaching students where they are intellectually and developmentally and bringing them to increased intellectual autonomy.