Bates, which was originally planning to bring students back in early January for Short Term, has now cancelled Short Term and will not bring students back until early February for Spring Semester. Says the experts they are in touch with suggest the COVID situation will be much better in February than early January.
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Interesting. More in line with when Bowdoin is coming back. Bowdoin moving in on 2/7.
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@homerdog Same is true for Amherst. Due to scientists forecasting a second wave over winter, Amherst already planned for the new J-Term to be remote, and for spring semester classes to start on February 3.
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My daughter is planning to go back to Haverfordâs campus in January. Her school invited everyone back both semesters but she decided to remain home and judge by fall. That said, something that seems to be different for spring is that in the fall the school sent everyone a free pre-arrival covid test. In the spring it appears students have to figure it out on their own.
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Kenyon did really well for almost the entire semester. Only first years and sophomores were on campus and there were a lot of restrictions. Right at the end, positives started to pile up. Personally, I think itâs b/c they actually started testing faculty/staff the last 2 weeks. I want to say a grand total of 3? 4maybe? students tested positive.
The plan was for only juniors and seniors on campus spring semester but they made the choice a few weeks ago to allow sophomores as well. Weâll see if that actually happens b/c Ohio isnât doing so hot right now. My gut feeling is that all 3 classes will go back, or none of them will.
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Not sure if this has been posted before:
https://www.ratecoviddashboard.com/ratings
A Yale professor ranks the COVID dashboards of 323 colleges.
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Interesting. Dâs school (Susquehanna) got an A, while Sâs school (Quinnipiac), which I felt was infinitely better, wasnât rated.
My own personal spot check is in line with their grading. The schools that received Cs generally displayed less information and barely resembled a dashboard; just a weekly announcement of cases and maybe a running cumulative total. Little to no bracketed information. My pet peeve is that not only was Wesleyan not included, but not a single college with the name Wesleyan in it was included. Thatâs hard to do!
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I understand people like more information, but Iâd much rather have a better institutional response than a good dashboard. UNC Chapel Hill is rated higher than Duke for their dashboard - we saw how well that worked out for them.
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Interesting article on student enrollment for the Spring semester from the Williams Record:
@TennisParent I was surprised by 130 first years deferring. My D is in good company. I would be interested in finding out how many are athletes. My D is not nor are the three other classmates we know who also deferred.
Not sure of the breakdown but earlier surveys suggested that a disproportionate number were first gen students for the fall semester. Spring sports are still in the plans so you would think more athletes would have confirmed to be on campus.
Huh? There isnât going to be NESCAC competition this spring. Not official yet but pretty close. There will be modified practices.
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D shared last night that the majority of her classes would have been remote for next semester if she were on campus. (Sheâs working around her coop next semester)
That is not what the university intended but a shift based on covid numbers.
S19 is going back this spring. Got one class that is for sure all in person. Two of them are all remote (both of his math classes). And a physics class thatâs partly in person each week. Bowdoin left it up for the professors to decide if they would teach in person, gathered that info and then figured out a schedule with the classrooms available. There is also some hope that some classes could move to having more meetings in person towards the end of the semester once they can use the tents more. Too cold in Feb!
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Iâm going to vent a little about online class expectations. S just got his final grades. One prof graded them very severely on class participation. This was in a zoom class where you had to put up a virtual hand and wait to be called on. S said he attended every class and frequently put up his hand, but was rarely asked to speak. The prof gave him a 30% in class participation which dropped his final grade an entire letter grade. After getting a 94 on the final which he thought was going to make his grade a B+(he had a bad first exam in the class), he ended up with a C+ because of class participation. This is for a class in his major. Kid is really bummed.
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@me29034- That would seriously rankle me. And when I say ârankleâ I mean a whole lot of other emotion, too.
@me29034 I would send a polite email to the professor stating that he attended every class and raised his hand, yet was never called on, so what could he have done any better. He could also raise the issue to the department head if the answer is not sufficient.
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I have tried to get him to write the prof. I even drafted an email for him. He says the prof is a jerk and doesnât care and it wonât do any good. Apparently he is not the only student this has happened to. There is a group chat for the class where people are all really upset.
CU Boulder just sent out an update.
First month of school â Jan 14-Feb 14 will be remote with the hope of resuming some in person classes and activities Feb 15. Students living in the dorms will not move in until then. Room and board will be reduced. There will be follow-up Jan 14 to either confirm/adjust.
Students who do not call Boulder their permanent home are being asked to stay at their permanent homes until in person instruction resumes.
Spring 2021 commencement will be virtual.
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