Not all are offered 4 years. It is a perk offered to students who are at the top of their list. Don’t quote me on it, but it is something like 10% of kids plus nurses and athletes who are offered 4 years. It is a nice perk to have, but I was warned that many with 4 years housing still go off campus junior year because they want to live with their friends (and most of the other juniors.) Still, it is nice to know you don’t have to live off campus if it is concern! It is also a vote of confidence that the school views your D as a really good fit.
D20 was stopped by a family with an admitted student this weekend who had tons of questions for her. At the end they told her that the school should offer her a job as a tour guide, lol. I think talking to random students is a nice way to solicit unbiased/honest feedback. She really enjoyed speaking with the family (as I think many students would.) Congrats on the 4 years-it is a something your D should be proud of!
BC is offering tours to admitted students in April, but only have a finite number of tours available. I am a BC alum and D21 is an accepted student there as well. The tour, i believe is only outside ( no building access) but we should see campus vibe during the tour. Some kids are offered 4 years housing, but most are just 3. There is an área just off campus where all the juniors live and the bus that runs from Newton Campus also does a loop through the offcampus area. Basically a figure 8 with campus in between both áreas.
@helpingmom40 Not sure how I stumbled upon your post/reply but I am so very sorry your daughter has had this experience. It breaks my heart and I have a lump in my throat. I love that she realizes this is not “normal/healthy/fill in the blank” and she clearly has a great support system
As a professional in the field, I can tell you unfortunately she is far from alone and my wait list is a year out with no end in sight. The damage I am seeing 24/7 is off the charts. It’s a flat out crisis folks. I wonder how much was simply a poor match or correlation to how her school handled COVID with any balance ? And when I say “handle COVID”, I mean how did their policies effect the students on a daily basis not how many cases did they have. This has been so under appreciated. People will look back and see clearly the damage done by miscalculated reactions beyond and frankly more profoundly (due to breadth) than deaths from the virus itself.
I think it’s true that a lot of freshmen suffered this year. They didn’t have the normal orientation to meet other students and then remote classes and tough Covid guidelines made it hard to socialize. But schools that took this route also kept Covid at bay compared to the schools that let it fly and I have zero problem with schools that ran a tight ship this year.
Unfortunately, the year was not even close to a normal year for the students at these schools and I understand that not everyone could take a gap year but that was probably the best move for freshmen this year. I’m betting that Colgate (if that’s the school in question) allowed unlimited gap years from students. I know there wasn’t a lot to do for most kids at home this year but it beats spending a ton of money for a freshmen year that was no where near normal and probably will affect the whole rest of their college experience.
I understand the significant damage you reference but please consider not calling it more profound than the impacts of the deaths. There is no need to make one terrible tragedy worse than another and there are people reading this who may have lost people close to them and/or spent a year as a health care worker fighting death every day.
I said “in breadth” and stick to it as I AM working in the field tirelessly to counteract, heal and prevent the damage (including self harm and suicide) which is more widespread than the virus itself. Each case has many tentacles which is what I am referring to.
I’ve been following this with interest from the start. Many overlaps with my daughter’s search. I’m betting that she’ll go to a larger Liberal Arts school and that she’ll get over the climate issue and will go Colgate with Richmond second. I’m thinking that Davidson is too small. If she goes medium sized Uni, it’ll be BC over Lehigh. Congratulations on the great results!
Actually, some schools that held in person classes at least several times per week managed to hold Covid numbers down better than those universities that were very restrictive, because kids just moved the parties off campus and then Covid spread rapidly. My son’s school and some others required students to make a pledge as a moral obligation to look after the community. Again, different experiences at different schools but highly urge you to check out the Covid dashboards at each school and to research how student - admin relations were handled. Unfortunately, I’m not convinced all will be back to 100% normal for the fall semester.
I’m not sure I understand your first sentence. Those schools that had in person classes and “moved parties off campus” didn’t “hold Covid numbers down”. You said it yourself, Covid spread rapidly. Not good for the community. We have a S at Bowdoin and I’ve also been keeping tabs on all of D’s schools regarding their Covid plans. It’s just my opinion, but I’d rather her be at a school that tested regularly, had a lot of restrictions and kept Covid at bay. Like I said earlier, maybe not great for the students but better for the spread of Covid and, at the schools on D’s list at least and at Bowdoin, the freshmen could have gapped. These schools were all clear on the restrictions for fall.
Fall will be normal for Bowdoin and for the schools on D’s list. Maybe not at some schools in CA or for some larger universities that found remote courses worked for them and will continue a bit of that but, for the schools our family will have a relationship this fall, I feel confident.
Some great initial news coming out of the CDC about Pfizer/Moderna vaccines and their effectiveness against asymptomatic transmission and variants. Definitely feeling more hopeful.
And with NY announcing a plan today to open up vaccines to 16+ on April 6, something like 90% of the nation’s 16+ population will be vaccine-eligible by May/June. That covers incoming freshman not only with late birthdays, but also ones who skipped a grade or two.
Sorry about Vandy, but she has great choices! Bring your walking shoes to Lehigh. I remember pulling up to the campus parking lot by the University Center (lot is long gone now) and my mother, who had visited BC, Holy Cross, Georgetown, Lafayette, and scores of other campuses with me, took one look at the long staircase up to the UC, and said, “I won’t be going along with you.” They call it South Mountain for a reason! Have fun.
Congrats on a very successful application season! The list was great and your daughter had amazing results. It sounds like she did a tremendous job and put a ton of effort into her applications and research. Can’t wait to hear about your trip!
I hope Admissions at Colgate is open so you can at least stop in and grab some fabulous Chipwich ice cream sandwiches. When we toured with D20, my S23 went back 3 times for them. In all, he must have had 4 ice cream sandwiches! He hated being dragged along on the tours (he’s not a LAC fan), but still calls Colgate the highlight due to those ice cream cookie sandwiches.
