According to an article from Inside Higher Ed, two colleges, i.e. St. Norbert College and Pacific Lutheran University, will offer students an extra term or two without charge.
Do you know this is a fair measure to make up for a less than ideal on-campus experience due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Do you know of any other colleges that offer to do the same?
I’m an incoming First-Year at Brown, and because the school’s divided the academic year into three semesters and freshmen won’t be on-campus until the Spring and Summer, all freshmen can take one class (4 semester credits) for free during the Fall.
Some other schools I’ve heard of are Columbia, that is allowing students to take up to 40 credits (normally 36=18 credits/semester) over the Fall, Spring and Summer; Princeton, that isn’t giving students extra credits but is decreasing tuition by $5000 this year; Yale, that is offering all freshmen who are remote for the Spring (due to de-densification,) up to 2 classes for free during the Summer; and USC, which has a “scholarship opportunity” to take some classes for free during the Summer.
For other schools students are interested in, I would recommend incoming students check their college’s COVID-19 Response page, on which the “Academics” section usually details specific programs the college might have created for the upcoming year.
Now my 2 cents: it doesn’t replace starting college on-campus for your entire year, however, due to the circumstances, it is beneficial to be able to take a lower course load during the Fall and Spring and take a course during the summer instead.
Hope that helps!
Could it be that both colleges have students who (a) have difficulty finishing in 8 semesters, and (b) run out of money* after 8 semesters and drop out completely only a semester away from the finish line? The extra tuition-free semester may help some of these students graduate, boosting the colleges’ graduation rates and other associated outcomes.
*or scholarships or financial aid
Stanford has announced it will have four full quarters this 2020-2021 school year and you can choose which quarter of the four that you want to to take off, calling it a flex term. During the flex term, if you have already completed two quarters during the year, you can participate in Stanford funded research or Cardinal Quarter funded volunteer opportunities AND (announced last night) also take class(es) up to 5 class units tuition free (not using one of your financial aid quarters) during your flex term quarter. I am really excited about the 5 tuition free units!
That seems odd, since it would incentivize students to take fall and winter quarters as normal in order to gain the extra stuff in the spring or summer. At most colleges, enrollment is front-loaded during the academic year (i.e. fall quarter or semester has the highest enrollment), so colleges would want students to take off terms in the fall to balance out the enrollment. Or is it that they are offering the free extras in spring and summer because those quarters normally have more free space in classes?
Knox College in Illinois and Beloit College in Wisconsin are also offering a tuition-free fifth year for students who are enrolled full-time in all quarters/semesters of 2020-2021.