For us, it has definitely been worth it, but I think it depends upon the school, and the kid. My son is a junior at Denison, a smallish Midwest LAC. Denison sent its students home for the latter half of the spring semester of his freshman year and held classes remotely the fall semester of his sophomore year. Like most schools, the remote-from-home semester was not perfect, as the school was scrambling to put things into place, some teachers did not flourish in that environment, etc. But it was OK, and good, creative teachers found ways to make it work in interesting ways, even for my son, who was participating from Japan. The remote/hybrid semester was fine - my son went back to campus and enjoyed the semester a lot. It helped that the campus was still open and he had many opportunities to interact with his professors and his fellow students even in the remote environment. Denison was creative, erecting big heated tents where people could gather in a socially-distanced way, building an ice-skating rink, etc. The track team (and other teams I assume) also continued to practice in a relatively normal way. I think all of this helped the school get buy-in from the students on masking and other policies like limiting guests in rooms. From spring semester 2020 on, things have been pretty normal, although track meets were modified to avoid big crowds, etc. The number of cases at Denison have been consistently low, and we are very grateful to the school for the obvious effort they’ve put into finding the right balance between keeping people safe and providing the college experience people anticipated (I should add that OSU’s medical team, based a half hour away, have been a valuable resource and source of guidance for Denison.) We haven’t heard yet what the school’s plans are for this upcoming semester, but based on their performance so far, we expect it will be OK.
So that’s the school part of my answer. But even though Denison’s handling of the situation has been exemplary, I’m sure there are students who haven’t been as happy as our son. I wouldn’t say that he is easy-going, but it seems that he has looked upon all of this as an interesting experience. The things he really cares about - and that definitely includes being on campus - have largely been preserved, and there is a feeling that he, his classmates and teammates, his professors, school administrators, etc. are all going through this together. I honestly think that these strange couple of years will be a source of strength for him in the future.
On the other hand, his sister, who is two years younger, thrives on remote learning. She was studying at an online high school when the pandemic struck, meaning nothing really changed for her, and she is going to start a B.S. program at ASU’s online university next month. The traditional college experience holds zero magic for her. We were very happy with Laurel Springs, her online high school, and, so far, ASU Online seems brilliant. As always, the best answer will be different for different kids and different families.