There were meningitis outbreaks on college campuses and the response was vaccine mandates everywhere. With Covid, people are still fighting them.
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Presumably there are high risk students at your Dâs school. It would be so interesting to talk to them and compare how they feel about their collegeâs Covid rules versus a high risk student at a school with stricter protocols. Hate to say it but those answers might be swayed by politics.
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My son lives off campus this year (he was on campus last year in a townhouse where they were allowed 10 guests), but the majority of upperclassmen live in campus housing. Living off campus this year has no bearing on his social life. The parties he goes to are in on campus housing (most sophomores-seniors live in townhouse style campus housing) or to off campus bars. However, as a fall D1 athlete, he didnât even have the opportunity to do much âpartyingâ as he had games/was traveling every weekend until Thanksgiving.
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So parties were allowed in campus townhouses during 2020-2021. Wow! See that was not happening at Bowdoin. No parties or get togethers were really allowed at all during that whole school year.
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@homerdog, I mistyped, they could have one guest per resident, so eight people max in addition to the residents. Not really âpartiesâ going on. My son and his roommates typically hung out with another townhouse of girls. They were not going to or having parties last year.
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Thatâs nice though. And, for kids his age, he already had a group of friends to hang with. For freshmen, this was tougher.
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Well said, mine is having a fantastic âtraditional large universityâ experience. I remember when us 21 parents where saying that a schoolsâ COVID policy was very important to us for the final decision. I said that being as an AUTO merit chaser, we did not have that luxury. I am happy D ended up where she did.
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I donât disagree it was tougher on freshmen. My initial post was in response to your statement that juniors were mourning what they thought college would be.
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@homerdog my daughter went to a small Lac with 1300 students. They had to live 3/4 years on campus but off campus was like 1-2 blocks away⊠Lol. Her classes were largely discussion and yes that suffered. But she found a way to enjoy herself with her friends. They went on hikes to study. They actually had a boat house and took out kayaks with her friend group and studied on the water on nice days. I went out once to experience it. Canât believe they actually did this⊠. Lol⊠My point is they found ways to deal with it during less then ideal situations. . She nor my son had a typical graduation. But she got together with friends (their bubble) and made food and drinks and had a ball during their pre filmed graduation. We flew my sonâs girlfriend in as a surprise to him to be at our home during his remote graduation. His last 1.5 yearâs was remote. Totally less then ideal. But he and his friends were all able to become creative and actually solve some issues to move forward.
The sky isnât falling everywhere. When I talk with kids on campus they seem to be OK. When I talk to their parents⊠Not so muchâŠ
Miley Cyrus, of all people, last night summed it up nicely⊠. âWeâve all learned how to expect the unexpected, and rather than see it as a problem, letâs see it as an opportunity.
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Ha I think parents not doing well because we are writing the checks for experiences that do not match what we agreed to pay for.
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My junior is in an LAC in southwestern Michigan. The only time they went fully remote was after spring break freshman year. Sophomore year was on campus with a mix of in person, hybrid and remote classes, mask mandates, lots of testing etc. Fall of junior year was fully in person, with an indoor mask mandate and surveillance testing was limited to unvaccinated students. Weâre waiting to see if there are any changes for spring semester but have not yet heard of any changes. So while itâs been imperfect, it hasnât been too bad. It helps that most of the students live within a dayâs drive so they can isolate at home if needed.
My D is in grad school in Philly, living off campus in an apartment with her fiance. So her experience is similar to the commuter experience described by @ucbalumnus. She moved to Philly 2-1/2 years ago for a job, so she has an established network of friends there, both in her cohort and outside of school. Her Fall classes were in person and it looks like spring semester will start remotely. While thatâs disappointing for her, she isnât too worked up about it. The City of Philadelphia has its own indoor mask mandates and requirements to show proof of vaccination at restaurants. D and her fiance cancelled their NYE plans and are fixing almost all their own meals at home in their apartment anyway.
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My kidsâ college experiences are their experiences, not mine. I think itâs one thing to not want to go back to fully remote teaching, but other than that, my kids are at/have gone to colleges in three different parts of the country. Each is having/had a different experience than each other, and all of them are quite different than mine was or even dhâs (heâs a service academy grad), irrespective of the pandemic.
There was no way for me to predict what might happen when they left for college and whether any single event might alter their college experience. Iâm fortunate that my kids have appeared to be quite resilient in spite of everything. I tried very hard for my own kids to make sure I did what I could to help them deal with all the hardships they faced rather than focus on them missing out on some sort of preconceived notion of what their âcollege experienceâ should be.
I realize many kids are suffering from anxiety and depression and agree that going back to remote classes is not a good thing.
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Thatâs good. And we spoke frankly to S19 about the semester where his grade wasnât even allowed to be on campus and he agreed to take a gap semester. During that semester, he felt good about his choice but now he feels even better about it and has no hesitation to do it again if we knew up front there would be a very Covid-affected semester coming up. Unfortunately, for this spring, he has to make a decision on imperfect info and will just hope omicron flies through quickly. I did read a number of stories that say omicron should peak in mid Jan now and Maine is already on the downswing.
Our S spent his last almost 2 years taking remote classes. While not the best he got the education but not all the experiences we had hope for. But I think the education is the most important part, he has plenty of time to have new and exciting experiences as he starts his careerâŠâŠ
Lol. Maybe thatâs the point⊠Lol. I canât tell you how thrilled we are to be done with the checks⊠LolâŠ
I wish everyone a better year then the last oneâŠ
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Very well said and agree.
The thing is that the experiences are of equal importance to us and to our kids. College isnât trade school. Building relationships with fellow classmates and professors will help the kids their whole lives and deepen their learning experience too. Nurturing relationships like that has proven more difficult.
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My oldest sonâs hs senior year went virtual suddenly in March of 2020 just like almost everywhere else. It was certainly less than ideal but given the circumstances it made sense. Not a fun way to end a high school experience.
Approaching the start of his freshman year at our state flagship he was informed that instruction would be virtual. He made the mature decision that it wasnât worth it for him to be on campus, alone in his dorm room taking classes remotely. He chose to do his freshman year from our home instead. It wasnât ideal but it made the most sense on many levels. I was certainly glad to not have to pay room and board for an inferior experience.thst my son chose to not participate in.
This past semester the instruction was in-person and things were mostly normal. My son gladly went to campus, stayed in the dorm with roommates and had a great start for his sophomore year. Weâre not sure exactly what spring semester will bring yet but hopefully it will be as close to normal as possible again. Omicron started flying through campus in the last days of finals. Perhaps it will mostly blow through our area before classes start up again in the last week of January. Many of his friends have recently tested positive. He is boosted and even with direct exposure to now symptomatic friends he has tested negative multiple times.
I think spring semester will be a challenge for many areas. Omicron is such a different animal. I hope all of our kids have the best experience possible. Hopefully colleges can make decisions early on and give students a chance to make choices that fit their individual needs/desires.
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I agree, but it is what it is. Thankfully, our S was able to finish his classes with no issues and then choose from a handful of outstanding job offers. The friends he made in his pre-covid years remain strong.
So, if your experiential options are slim better to focus on academics and future options.
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Pandemic is always unpredictable so we have to operate on imperfect information. We all have to make the best out of a bad situation in a pandemic. For a student, itâs a valuable lesson to learn how to adapt. Like @Rivet2000âs son, my S took mostly remote classes for nearly two years, but I donât think he missed a beat in terms of his education. He took all the classes he intended to take. He interacted with several professors frequently and remotely on research projects and his thesis and published papers. He even did internship remotely and concurrently with classes (and heâs still doing it now and will continue until he graduate).
He certainly would have preferred being physically with his friends more frequently during that period. They used to go out on most weekends before the pandemic. But I somehow get the sense that they cherish their relationships even more as they get back together again. The pandemic isnât going to last forever. The Omicron wave is intense but likely short-lived. A few weeks of remote learning or grab-n-go meals arenât that big a deal, IMO. His college offers, pre-pandemic, an experience outside of academics as good as any, but that wasnât our reason to send him to that college.
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