Have newly accepted students and or parents heard anything more from their schools after they have signed their contracts and have their email confirmation that they are enrolled for the 2020 fall semester? Now that Covid-19 has changed the “normal ways” schools would interact with new students.
Other than receiving our Acceptance letter and FA information in the mail and our school shirt and book, and a phone call ( congratulatory) and email to my child, we have not heard anything from our school. I know remote learning is the main focus for their current students. It is great to know they are prepared for such an unprecedented event.
They sent us a student acceptance website location to view school policies, take virtual tours, to learn more about the school.
It is just silence now. Are their anyone else experiencing this? Maybe after 410 more communication will ensue…
Cate had a live Q&A with the headmaster and has sent updates about what is going on (more general than the enrolled students emails I get for my older child who is a junior at the school). I think they are planning to set up virtual meet & greets for committed students, but not sure yet.
You will get a lot more communication over the summer. Besides the fact that it’s still prior to the deadline to enroll, BSs are in the midst of transitioning to distance learning and have even more than the usual going on. No doubt they are heavily focused on enrollment, but information will roll out later on.
To @comtnmom - I know you and your kiddo are excited @ BS - CONGRATS!!
This is a unique and very confusing time for the admissions folks at all schools. Please keep in mind, also, that it is not even April 10th yet!! Also, most of the BS’s would have just been kicking off their Revist Days about now.
In an effort to manage expectations, I will share what our roll-out experience was a couple of years ago during “normal” times.
April 9th - kiddo clicked the “send” button accepting admission to the school of choice.
April 10th - Kiddo received an email from the Director of Admissions “Dear Kiddo, so happy you made the BEST choice of your life…”
Followed by an email to parents @ sending in a deposit$$
April 10th-May 1st - Parents & Kiddo received an email with information about a temporary link & PIN for access to information, as well as communications about sending in final transcripts and taking placement tests. Also links to the ONLINE school handbook. Please note: Some schools send you a printed handbook and course catalogue upon acceptance. Our school went “Green” a few years ago, so most information is online.
April 15-May 1 - A welcome letter from the parents organization with information about the school.
May 1 - May 15 - A link was sent for Kiddo to take placement tests in Math & Foreign Language.
May 15-May 30 - A package of ONLINE information was sent with PDF’s of health forms, emergency contacts, permission slips, contract that we are turning over our kid for the next 4 years, etc.
May 30 - Students receive post cards from their “Green Key” welcoming them to the school community and providing contact information for chatting over the summer.
May 30-June 6 - Summer reading list was sent out via email
June 15 - Email to parents asking for the first of many large checks$$
No big communication over the summer - unless you are missing forms in your file - especially health forms. Some parents had receptions for incoming students - we are in the swamp, so no invites - guess they don’t like fried gator!
July 15- August 1st - More information about orientation dates, packing list, etc.
August 15 - Kiddo receives email with the set up link for the school-assigned email that will the official “call sign” for the next 4 years. Friendly tip from more experienced parents on CC: Do not use your school email for SAT/ACT and/or college applications - have a different email because your kid will receive a deluge of emails, spam, junk and you don’t want that crowding up the school email full of important stuff - like assignments.
Our school does not release the names of roommates until the day you arrive. Other schools do send out this information usually in mid-August.
Golfgr8…Thanks so much for this information…I have copied it into an email from my wife and I to use as our reference check since we are new to BS world. Stay safe and healthy!
I forgot to add some helpful information @ organizing your documents and information during this time of COVID-19. Many doctors offices are closed and you may not even be able to make a check-up appointment yet for over the summer. In the meanwhile, do pull together your student’s existing health records - including the immunization sheet and latest school/state forms. Those of you with student athletes may have these handy.
We made a 3-ring binder with plastic pages and inserted all important documents that the school will need. This included copies of immunization records, last medical check-up form, copies of the insurance card, list of any medications and prescribing doctors info, and the final school transcript. Having this information in one organized binder helps!
We brought the binder with us when dropping off Kiddo first year. Huge relief when we were told that the BS didn’t have a copy of the transcript or insurance card. Even better was that look of “I told you so” that I gave to DH!
OP, without COVID19 you most likely would not get much communication immediately thereafter. We got the ‘congratulations, so excited to have you’ when we accepted early April.
And nothing again until late May. (Placement tests).
And then mid-June (results of placement tests and elective/schedule requests).
And then late June (health forms/insurance/emergency guardian assignment forms).
Mid-July (preseason athletics invitation) quickly followed by new student move-in/orientation schedules
Mid-August (confirmation health packet complete, contact and travel method approvals, waivers, etc)
Late August (preseason schedule from coach). -I actually think we were driving across the country with DSs belongings when we got this one.
As @CTMom21 and many threads have indicated, many families have not committed yet and many will wait until A10 to do so. So to get much information before that date even without a pandemic is generally unheard of.
We’re a bit anxious. What if the COVID19 situation is still bad and there are travel restrictions in the end of August?
My daughter is an international student, who just got accepted to a boarding school in New England. For her, the important thing is to live and study in the US. I think we’re not going to pay $ 65 000 (or a day student tuition) per year for online learning.
@FinnMom I understand the anxiety, and agree that the tuition will sting all the more for online learning. That said, another parent here made the comment that they’re in it for four years, so a semester of online learning wouldn’t be enough to dissuade them. I think that’s a wise POV to ponder.
@FinnMom I am very sympathetic here. It would also of course be tough to even do the virtual classes if a student is in a substantially different time zone.
If major league baseball can consider play in May --in part thanks to little risk for young athletes, surely teens in September-- who, yes, can be carriers but are not really at risk shouldn’t be affected. Quarantine the schools - they are boarding schools after all - and get on with it. A problem for day students but manageable.
Otherwise the logistic holds “no in person school til there is a vaccine” and it’s not just the first half of next year at risk.
@Trebuchet, there are kids who have been affected of Covid-19 and have DIED!
Babies and toddlers have been effected. And you’re not considering, yes these kids/teens will be carriers, who will be around adults who are in the risk zones, who happen to be their teachers etc!
No human is immune, no matter the age!
And we certainly don’t want ‘carriers’ to congregate at a boarding school no less,then we will never get rid of it!
And no let’s not get on with it when it comes to people’s children and their health!
It’s terrible to see the deaths. There is always risk, but extremely little for healthy adolescents. If there is any group that should be able to resume it’s boarding schools. Test and quarantine to campus is a very viable path for most of them.
If however, balancing these risks in the public health trade off, we don’t believe we can…then is this isn’t a one semester issue. It could be a two or three semester issue since it appears very unlikely to have a vaccine before then. Concerns about paying 65k to join some zoom calls are well founded.
@Trebuchet, In a perfect world that prepared for a Pandemic their would be enough test to go around, but for the moment their isn’t. So testing baording school kids will be the last thing the schools or government will be doing. Unless the schools will use their endowments to pay for such testing! Or the wealthy parents will pay to do so!
And if they can’t test public schools for them to also go back to school. Or even college kids. It’s not going to happen!
I am with @Trebuchet on this one. China has been able to stamp this out so why are assuming that schools can’t resume come September? I would absolutely be willing to sign a waiver and allow my kiddo to go to boarding school in September. We can start slowly with parents who are more than happy to send their young healthy kids to school and see what happens. While, yes there are some young people who die, the rate for them is actually less than the risk of fatality for skiing, especially if they have no pre-existing conditions in which case it’s actually around the rate of the seasonal flu. It’s tragic but some young people every year die from flu too. We still send our kids to school during flu season though and we don’t close down ski resorts because there’s a risk of death.
There’s actually a renowned epidemiologist who has modeled and studied outbreaks for 35 years who actually says that the best way for us to deal with covid is to open up the schools and let the disease run its course. Children are the best protection as nature has made them really resistant to complications from respiratory infections like COVID. The old and sick would need to stay home for about four weeks but then in four weeks we would get past this. Social distancing, masks etc. would be a thing of the past in very short order. And for people who worry about hospitals being overrun, that wouldn’t happen as it’s the old that are causing this burden on our current system. Even if everyone under 50 who is healthy went out tomorrow, there would not be enough cases to overwhelm it. Eventually when enough people get the infection and have immunity from it, the old can go out and feel safe. I can’t provide the link here but you can look for perspectives on the pandemic #2.
I also wonder why people seem to think that schools would only be closed in the fall? If we are worried about a second wave, wouldn’t this wave be more likely to occur when COVID itself seems active which is probably during the normal flu season ie. November to May? Also what about schools not being open for interviews, tours etc for perspective students? How would that hurt their bottom line? It would be a real shame to not have schools open in the fall and I really don’t see the need for it. Universities should be open too. However, note that I do NOT think all the kids/faculty should be on these campuses. Any that have pre-existing conditions or people who are likely to interact with others who may be old, sick or frail should stick to online learning only until there are enough people who have developed immunity. It’s probably a four week delay for them though rather than possibly 2 years or more for a vaccine - also not sure why there seems to be an assumption that an effective vaccine is inevitable. It might happen but we still don’t have a vaccine for the common cold.
One other point I should make is that we can actually let the disease run its course now or in the very near future since we’re starting to see the numbers fall. If young healthy people can go out and about, we can start opening up more and more businesses like restaurants and bars and just let the disease run its course so by September everyone would feel safe to go, even international students.
@vox_nihili, no ONE said school can’t resume, school can resume by September or (even sooner, if possible to make up time lost ) if we all practice “Social Distancing” and follow Common Sense Guildlines. Have everyone on the same page to stamp it out quickly. Yet if others do what they want to do and don’t follow a little common sense, we shall be in the same boat again. The Chinese people in China listened and STAYED HOME and followed the guildlinces for weeks! Hence the outcome they have today. Yet still taking precautions even now!
I think boarding schools face somewhat unique problems from the rest. They have kids coming from all over the world. They can’t really be quarantined because you have faculty (who often have spouses working elsewhere and young children in public schools) and staff (both custodial and cafeteria staff is quite low-paying and living elsewhere being exposed to anything at anytime), plus the day students, and then you have exposure every time students leave campus. To quarantine them, you’d have to kill sports (no games anywhere), any debate or robotics or whatever competitions, and would actually have to ban kids from leaving campus, which would be huge change because at least at our school most kids go at least into town every weekend, and a lot go elsewhere (club team practices/games, family, musical training etc.). I don’t think you can do a workable quarantine at all (the staff is the least manageable piece, as you can see with the many infections at otherwise quarantined nursing homes and other eldercare facilities). And with the communal living and shared bathroom facilities, once virus is there it will spread like wildfire.
IMO, You have to accept that there is a possibility someone brings the virus to campus, even if you take all reasonable precautions. So the question is, what is your plan if/when that happens? Unlike at public school, you can’t just send the kid home for parents to take care of, and unlike with college, you are dealing with minors who are not old enough to be left alone to self isolate. So you have to have the facilities and staff and be willing to handle taking care of sick kids, and also facilities to isolate and monitor any students who were exposed. Now if you are lucky most of the kids would be local boarders and you could make the call to parents to take the kid home (much like they do with the flu) but some of the kids live across the country or abroad and you cannot take a sick child on the plane, so this is not an option even if they parents were willing to come get the child. The school has to have a viable plan to deal with positive cases, locally whether on or off campus. And communicate it to parents and the entire community before the year starts.