College Decisions, Financials, and Corona Virus

Parents Forum
1

Anybody reconsidering their decisions based on everything that has happened these past few weeks.? My S20 has not decided yet and many factors including distance which was not an issue before are starting to weigh in.

My OSU sophomore has to move out of the dorms on Sunday and her school like many others is going online until the end of the semester. I feel terrible for her and for everyone going through this. As disappointing as it is, health comes first and there was no other way to approach this. Incredible for sure.

I wonder if this is also going to change actual yields, enrollment, and deferred/waitlists situations for many schools. As unsettling as this is for us, this must be a logistical nightmare for every single school as well as their admissions dept.

2

In a critical state of limbo. My son was holding out for U of Michigan decision before committing to any offers. Deep dives have waited. Follow up visits have waited. Audition-based scholarships are on hold (orchestra). Now my son is feeling anxious about committing without the follow up visits. As a parent this makes me nervous. Realistically, I don’t think the universities will reopen my May 1.

Advice…should a decision be made without all of that? Do you have reliable resources for non-biased information (e.g., College Board, US News & World Report)?

3

Good luck. I can only suggest that until recently, generations of students chose schools without the benefit of visits. It was ok.

Also today’s resources of virtual tours, student produced day in the life videos and on line resources there is a lot of information available.

I would do a deep dive of all of these when you can.

4

I will have a 2021 freshman. This is already making me onerous financially due to the stock market. There went college savings.

I have a current college sophomore. We are now paying a lot of money for a laptop experience.

This is everyone’s worst (almost) nightmare. Students, parents, and colleges. I feel for all.

Agree with Privatebanker. My 87 year old mother saw her college for the first time the day she showed up for freshman year. She loved every minute of it. Back then there were no videos, webpages…nothing. Bloom where you are planted!

5

Markets will recover. This correction was expected. CV was not.

As mentioned there is so much information online and social groups to find out information. I have a junior in engineering there and still on campus at Michigan and I am a regular on their thread if you have questions just PM me. You should have some concrete information on 3/27/2020?. BTW

6

One thing we are now asking my S20 to also consider is the financial health of the schools. Forbes published an article back in November giving colleges a financial grade (before CV). You can do a google search to find the study) - there is an interactive table for you to look up the grade assigned to each school.

Whatever their financial situation was then, it is only worse now with CV, given the R&B refunds, anticipated loss of revenue from summer programs. and possibly lower yields with less international students.

His top three schools are graded C, B, and B+ while the school my daughter is currently at got an A grade. Interestingly enough, my D’s school is refunding 50% of the semester’s R&B fees while the C school my son is interested in is only refunding 20%, even though they were both about halfway thru the semester. They probably aren’t in a position to be able to refund half.

That C school is a well-known school with a good rep and would also be the lowest COA for him, but I am now hoping he ends up choosing one of the other schools even though they will end up costing more.

7

@Lemonlee can you send a link to that article for the rest to see ? Thanks for this post!

8

@trippfolsom I think this is it. If I remember correctly, it’s a bit glitchy.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2019/11/27/dawn-of-the-dead-for-hundreds-of-the-nations-private-colleges-its-merge-or-perish/#2061224e770d

9

Thank you.

10

From that page:

11

At the beginning of March, our eldest son got accepted for transfer to an in-state private school. This is the only school he wanted to continue and pursue his bachelors after he finishes with his associates from our local cc this coming summer. Now with his FA we will be paying an additional 10-12K on top of what we set aside to help him financially. Thats a lot of money! We do not want him to take out any loans. Plus we have another kid attending another private LAC. So that in a way gave me a pause. Then the pandemic happened. With most colleges doing online classes, and there’s no end nor slow down for this virus (as someone in healthcare), I have a feeling this will continue until next year until majority of our population gets herd immunity. There is a possibility of online classes continuing in the next semester or beyond. Is it worth it to really put that commitment payment down when everything else is uncertain especially the economy?

I am trying to weigh in things at the moment. I am going to explore the following:

  1. Pay the commitment down payment, wait for the FA appeal, and also wait for how colleges plan to open in the fall 2020 esp if we are still dealing with the pandemic. If schools plan to continue to teach classes online, then is it worth it to spend 24-26K/year? If this is what most schools are doing in the fall, my next option is-

  2. IF allowed for transfer students, I will have my son defer for either spring 2021 or Fall 2021. Have him take a gap year. I would suggest he work but how can he when our current economy is shot due to the pandemic?Well, I guess he can as he is picking up small online projects here and there. That’s another thing that worries me, the financial impact to every family bec of covid19. Or,

  3. Have him take online courses/degree for now.

This is really a tough situation for everybody. We are facing some uncertain times.