D has 25 kids in her AP Stats class, all sports both indoor and outdoor with cheerleaders, marching band, after school Robotics, academic, etc. clubs are all in person with mask. Appox 35-40% of the student body is online. Mask with not much distancing is what is happening in our high school.
The problem that residential college face is that lots of people, including lots of residential college students, are not waiting for widespread vaccine availability to âgo back to normalâ.
Once everyone who wants a vaccine can get it, then going back to normal no longer imposes a large unwanted risk on others for the most part. The (often unknowing) imposition of unwanted risk on others is what makes the situation so difficult for many people. But when vaccines are available to all who want them, it reverts back to being more of a personal choice about whether one wants to protect oneself from viral risks.
The main exceptions are those who are medically unable to get any of the available vaccines against the virus. Unfortunately, the level of COVID-19 vaccine refusal appears to be high enough that, even if the vaccines greatly reduce asymptomatic transmission, there will be no herd immunity to protect those medically unable to get any of the available vaccines (unlike for some other vaccine-preventable infections, though vaccine refusers seem to be doing their best to break herd immunity for things like measles).
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Gotlieb has been spot on all along. I 100% agree with him that vaccination appointments will be open to everyone by early April - the latest. Only 100 million Americans (16 and up) really are clamoring for this vaccine, another 100 are on the fence and another 100 say they donât want it. Once we get the first vaccine into the first 100, appointments will open quickly.
I think our college students will be able to get them by late March.
I think hybrid college forever may be a thing in colleges with very large lectures but in colleges where most courses are 50 or less, neither the students or the profs want that and adding hybrid options takes away full in person sessions.
Numbers in Mass and CT are going down quickly - thank God. I think itâs the After Christmas deep freeze/no money normal slowdown, plus the Covid shutdowns, plus some effect of people having already gotten Covid + a growing vaccine effect.
If there were ANY hint of my kids college having these types of restrictions planned for the fall - there is 0.0 chance sheâd live on campus. They may was well close the dorms for good, because the rules are getting old and no way will survive the summer.
Edited to add - the CDC will be putting out âlifted restrictionsâ for fully vaccinated people very soon. They need to start the marketing campaign for the 200 million people that are not clamoring for the vaccine and the âyou still have to wear a mask all the time, must distance, canât see family or go anywhere stillâ is not a winning message for the vaccine. Studies released today from Israel show a huge reduction in transmission (negative tests) in full vaccinated citizens. I think we have our answerâŠwe need to get these vaccines in arms ASAP.
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@annoyingmom21 and @homerdog, I agree with you both. In theory hybrid sounds good but the reality is a different thing entirely. D21âs school is open and both students and teachers have the option of remote or in-person. Although I think itâs great that teachers were given a choice, it has resulted in 75% of Dâs teachers teaching from home. This means students attending in-person are in a classroom, masked and distanced, watching their teacher from a big screen. Itâs really hard for either group of students to see and hear their classmates. D21âs school is K thru 12 and teachers opting for remote instruction is even more problematic in the lower grades. Imagine 3rd graders going to school and watching their teacher on a big screen as the teacher instructs from home. The school has had to hire aides to be in the classrooms. As for D21, only 2 of her teachers are teaching in-person, and only 20 to 25% of her class are attending in-person (I think it would be higher if more teachers were present). Anyway, hoping colleges are back to normal in the fall!
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One of the many things I absolutely hate about this pandemic is how ugly itâs been with the mask patrol, punishment police, distance shaming etc⊠the thing I am most looking forward to is getting the vaccine so I can stop having to worry about or think about other peoples behavior and can just focus on protecting myself and my loved ones. Iâm hunkered down for another month, but then that will be it. My parents will be fully protected by then, and God willing teachers and people with other health risks will also be caught up on vaccinations. Iâll wear my mask as required but Iâm not staying home anymore and not avoiding family or gatherings. Everyone needs to make their own choices again.
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Yes, people have given up already, even before vaccine is widely available.
But collegesâ plans likely have the conditional of vaccine being widely available so that all students, faculty, and staff who want vaccine can get it before the fall term starts. In that case, the colleges can go back to normal, because the risk of COVID-19 becomes largely a personal choice (vaccine), rather than an involuntary risk that is imposed on you by someone else nearby. But if there are still vaccine shortages, then it becomes a much more difficult situation for the colleges, particularly residential ones.
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The vaccine shortage will be completly over by early May. There is no question. The only risk is variants, but I feel good about what Gotlieb is saying about boosters and less chance of variants because of less circulating virus.
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One side effect of the harsh dorm rules has been that many more students are living off campus, and do not necessarily want to return. Princeton, which was always 98% on campus, now has 700 students living in the surrounding county
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"The school has had to hire aides to be in the classrooms. "
Donât even get me started on that. Teachers are home but low paid aides can get âexposedâ to students instead. Everything that is wrong with our society - right there. I get it for severely at risk teachers, but there are not as many as are actually doing this. I know teachers have daycare issues of their own - itâs a vicious cycle. Luckily, my state and the states nearby have been decent with at least partial in person for elementary and high school. Whatâs happening in Virginia - where hundreds of thousands of students havnât seen the inside of a classroom since March 2020 is appalling. The doors are firmly shut in entire, very large, districts. those poor kids.
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And liking it. Once you get used to the freedom of living on your own with friends, dorm life loses its luster. Letâs face it, the majority of college students who live on campus do it only for freshman year. Most kids that go to large state schools move off campus sophomore year.
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I completely agree that more students will be moving off campus next year at many schools. At my sonâs school the difference in quality of life between those living on and off campus has been dramatic. On campus kids have been subject to very strict rules regarding pods, where they can eat, how many people they can be with, etc. Off campus kids are leading normal lives except they have to wear a mask when they go outside. None of his friends are planning to live on campus next year.
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Now that Spring semester is starting, would be good to see which schools have which classes back on campus, here is a list:
Stanford (Sophomores and Juniors only)
Princeton (Freshman and Seniors only)
Harvard (Freshman only)
UVA (all classes)
Duke (all classes)
Williams (all classes)
Pomona (Freshman only)
Amherst (Freshman, Sophomores and Seniors only)
Bowdoin (Freshman, Sophomores and Seniors only)
Middlebury (all classes)
Wesleyan (all classes)
Tufts (all classes)
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I think Bowdoin has sophomores, juniors and seniors this spring.
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Amherst started out by inviting all but sophs back, but evidently so many students stayed home or rented off campus, there was room for sophs who wanted to live on campus to do so.
Haverford and Bryn Mawr have all classes back, as they did in the fall.
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Bowdoin has no freshmen this semester. Itâs sophs, juniors and seniors.
Well that begs the question as to how next yearâs seniors are going to be evaluated in college admissions. Our kids have very few things going on at school yet, in other states, kidsâ ECs are in full swing. Doesnât seem like an even playing field.
And, did Newsom really say that, if we are going to keep schools closed to keep the virus 100 percent at bay, we should tell people? Thatâs rich. Heâs the one keeping campuses and public schools closed. He must think the pandemic will be under control for fall I guess since the UCs and some other CA public schools have already come right out and said kids will be in school this fall.
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Penn invited all students back to campus but gave on-campus housing priority to freshman, sophomores, and seniors.
Many students who wanted to live on campus could not because there was no room with the new density requirements. Others, feeling the student campus compact was too restrictive, opted to rent in West Philly. Most of Dâs friends kept their leases from the fall and plan to continue living off campus junior year too.
The differences in how the states are handling athletics is putting 2021s and 2022s who arenât playing their sports at a tremendous disadvantage in athletic recruiting too. I help underprivileged athletes through the recruiting/admissions process and it breaks my heart (In Illinois there have been few HS sports played since winter 2019/20)âŠsome sports are just getting going now, but it is likely too late for some of the 2021s.
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If you really try to list all schools this will be a very long list very quickly.
I believe that most large publics are open for all grades, with the exception of those in CA. The amount of in person classes can vary greatly, even from person to person at the same school based on my sonâs experience.
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