Amherst is among one of the few colleges who are keeping COVID issues under control. Their size and location are helping as well . I’m not sure if “bubble strategy” is going to be sustainable or desirable for long. It probably gets really lonely for students having social or mental health issues, specially during dark winter months with limited outdoor activities.
thx @meddy. for those who don’t subscribe to fortune but would like to read the article, here is legal free access:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elite-college-building-covid-bubble-110000645.html
None of the juniors and seniors are on campus so they can control Covid issues better than other colleges who allowed all students to return.
Yes and the $ they invested in testing sure helped.
@meddy Juniors and Seniors expected this spring on campus and freshmen and sophs go home? Any talk at all about trying to have all students on campus?
Bates has got a nice bubble going too, though I don’t know if students are not allowed to leave campus.
https://www.bates.edu/fall-2020/covid-19-dashboard/
@homerdog No, not that I have heard. I can’t imagine how they would pull it off unless by some miracle all this Covid fizzles out. D18’s class is the larger one of 492 students which caused headaches and triples and the Sophs are only 470 students. However after that monstrous hit their budget took, maybe a few full pay Sophs wouldn’t be so bad? 
Bates has good numbers but some kids are housed in a hotel that requires a bus to get to campus. So, those kids are definitely leaving campus. Not sure about others.
@Meddy i have yo wonder about spring sports. If they are a go, that’s a problem for Amherst and Bowdoin if lots of athletes in certain grades aren’t invited to live on campus.
Amherst does has a limited number of seniors on campus this semester.
I think it’s unlikely the Nescacs are going to bring back spring sports. The travel will make it risky for them. Even though all the Nescacs seem to have Covid on their campuses under control, the virus is overall not under control in the country as a whole. More new cases per day now in the U.S. than when these schools announced their plans last June. I think that’s going to make a return to sports very difficult
@wisteria100 Yeah. You’re probably right. And I think spring on college campuses are going to look exactly like fall if we are lucky.
Yes @wisteria100 at the townhall they mentioned bringing back seniors graduating in December. I have wondered if they added to those. Maybe Seniors needing lab time?
From the Amherst email to families: those students who could not be here in the fall will have priority in the spring.
So if all the juniors and seniors not on campus in the fall decide to return then yes, the frosh and sophs would be online for spring unless all students can return to campus. No talk of all students on campus yet - probably too early to make that decision.
Not sure how they would decide which frosh and sophs will be there for spring if some juniors and seniors decide not to return. Full pay would make no difference as all full payers are still full payers whether they are online or not. No tuition discount given for online learning at home. Only discount is not paying the room and board.
I am very doubful NESCAC will have spring sports. For the reason posters have said above and they are not huge revenue generators for the colleges (ie SEC and Big 10).
@purplemama They have some thesis writing seniors on campus for fall
Bowdoin just let us know that the decision about who to bring back to campus will be made “closer to Thanksgiving”. I bet Amherst will be on that schedule too. Bowdoin pushed the beginning of the semester to Feb 8, two weeks later than usual.
@homerdog @casablanca @wisteria100 I inadvertently left out mentioning my own D18 returning in the spring! Juniors of course are scheduled to return. Amherst has given me such hope that if the Fall has gone this well, I’m hopeful for the Spring.
My senior moved back on campus today…exactly 11 months to the day after he arrived home last March. I understand the “covid bubble” strategy but after seeing similar size colleges bring all their students back last fall it is disappointing to me he was not able to be on campus his entire senior year. Let’s hope they can have a successful spring semester and fun graduation on May 30th!