I understand. I’ve always wanted to be able to kick the tires. In the absence of a visit, I suppose you’d have to rely on other people’s reviews, Google Earth, and school’s own virtual tours, etc.
3 Likes
Of course. I have to wonder, though, when considering schools, how far up the list of importance is seeing them? If a student has two schools they think they like best, doesn’t they one they can visit win out?
And, specific to LA, are people worried that those schools are less likely to be open in the fall and is that something that affects their decision?
Your second question is probably somewhat easier to answer. I don’t expect colleges in LA are any less likely to open in the fall than colleges elsewhere, because more people in LA (at least one-third by some estimate) are now immune (at least short term) than anywhere else, even without the vaccines. The wildcards are the variants, but there’s some evidence that LA has already experienced one (or more) of the more transimissive variants.
1 Like
A well-planned visit can help answer some of the questions on your list about the colleges. We created such a list prior to our campus visits and tried to get their answers on those visits. A lot of other things can be done without the visits, though. Depending on your priorities, a visit could be crucial or secondary. We were most interested in the details of academic programs, so departmental visits were very helpful.
2 Likes
True. In D’s case, she’s somewhat undecided on major. She thinks any of her schools will work for her academically. It was the same for S19 and he just went with where he felt the most fit and part of that fit was location and the actual campus. That’s the only experience we have with choosing a college so it’s hard for D that she won’t get full-on admitted student days like her brother where his light bulb went off and he knew.
2 Likes
Admitted student days were very helpful for my son as well. Virtual ones would never be the same. Hopefully colleges can at least improve the experiences this year.
2 Likes
We live on the East coast and my D has applied to 6 CA colleges. In 2019 we toured 4 of them. If she doesn’t get into her dream college (USC, UCLA) we will have to tour them again since she doesn’t remember them that well and we didn’t see 2 of them.
We won’t go until April once she knows where she was accepted. I hope that colleges let us walk around the campus since I agree that you want to get a sense of the college before committing. If we can’t go there in person we will have to rely on virtual tours. She has her heart set on CA
1 Like
@homerdog As you know we are in the same boat, but opposite coast and concerned about not seeing schools and areas in person. I suspect that we are in the minority though and many kids are willing to go without seeing schools, especially if accepted by big name, personal reach schools, or schools granting good discounts.
I think there is a stronger possibility that the big public CA schools will remain closed this Fall. They are also more likely to just scrap a whole semester at a time. Schools like SCU and LMU will be under more financial pressure to reopen for freshman IMHO. Still, if Biden passes relief they might have a buffer to stay closed for fall semester.
The governor and the County can make rules. The governor has been one of the more restrictive ones but is under tremendous pressure to adapt. My understanding is that LA county is somewhat less restrictive than Santa Clara. It’s a huge county though so the school might pay for problems spiking elsewhere in the county. It’s really tough to say at this point with the variants. Bad as it was in LA there’s no herd immunity.
Another consideration is the weather. There is much to do outdoors here in California year round. So if your only option were remote off campus, you could do worse.
If it’s hard for us, I wonder what moderately selective enrollment managers are thinking about yield for OOS students? Will they work this into their shaping if the variants take hold?
1 Like
I agree. The AOs at schools that restrict visits have to be freaking out just a little. I have an idea. I’ll drive to your east coast schools and send video and report back and you can sneak onto LMU’s campus for me! Lol!
3 Likes
Too bad we didn’t see LMU. I’ve written to you before about how impressed I was in February with SCU. The students were so friendly and happy. Blissfully ignorant of what was already blooming there at the time. I loved it. Sigh…
1 Like
It seems like SCU and probably LMU would try to open for Freshman in single rooms as soon as they could. But they have the disadvantage of being lumped in with large urban populations vs a more rural Northeast school.
LMU’s President released a video saying they would be back to dorms and in-person classes for fall. It’s so hard for me to believe anything, though, because the news seems to be saying not so fast and that we don’t know what fall will look like yet.
1 Like
What did LMU do last year fall? SCU canceled at the last minute I believe.
I don’t know the timing but no one was allowed on campus and classes were all remote for fall. Same as now.
They really are stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think they need to say they will be open and if they can’t it’s really not their fault if not allowed or reasonable with the variant. If they say they don’t know if they can open families might pass them over for saying it.
1 Like
My hope would be that, if they still say they will be in person on May 1 but then have to change that, they will allow gap years.
1 Like
I think this underestimates the degree to which politics is a factor in the decision to reopen. And California has handled things pretty poorly, including the extended debate over vaccine prioritization. So we now have Gov Newsom under threat of a recall, not least because he hasn’t lived up to his own admonitions re dining and schools (he moved to a different county where schools were open so he could send his own kids back in person). Although he might decide to open up more to try and regain popularity, my gut feel is that he will attempt to shore up his base by continuing to take a hard line on restrictions, especially if most of the population remains unvaccinated through the summer.
All in all, I’m not at all confident things will be sufficiently back to normal in CA in time for schools and colleges to be fully in person in August. In particular I think de-densifying will still be required and so I doubt all students will be allowed on campus. Online class options will presumably also be required for vulnerable groups.
2 Likes
This is such a mess! 
(States the obvious)
I think we planners and over analyzers need
S to sit back a wait a bit for things to play out.
2 Likes
The UCS have already said they will open all their campuses for the fall.
Even if the pace of vaccinations doesn’t improve from here (which is highly unlikely), the US as a whole is on track to have 66% of over 18s vaccinated with both shots by August (current rate of vaccination is 1.35m per day, according to the Bloomberg tracker and there are roughly 210 days til Sept 1st. My math is very back of the envelope, but still). Add that to the number of people who have already had Covid, and we are at or over the herd immunity threshold.
I think it’s highly likely that LA campuses will be open for the Fall 2021 semester. It’s true that the CA vaccination program has lagged, but CA has still delivered the most vaccination shots in absolute terms of any state.
Variants are a wildcard, but even with the South African variant, current vaccines seem to provide a good measure of protection against severe disease and death (though I’ve read differing accounts of this.)
I would be worried if my child was intending on studying in the Fall in the EU, where the vaccination roll out has truly been a debacle.
Of course, none of this helps @homerdog and his daughter with theirdecision 
Btw, I do know students who have applied and been accepted ED1 to the Claremont colleges without an inperson visit-. Two drove out and walked around the campus to check it out even though it was closed. They posted pics on the newly admitted students insta for those others who have not yet been able to see it.
3 Likes
The UCs announced that on the day they announced that spring quarter will be virtual, so they could give students and parents something positive to look forward to, especially those being required to pay OOS fees for virtual learning.
Our school districts are also saying they will be in person in the fall, but when you dig deeper it’s clear that is still with de-densification so in fact they don’t have the ability to allow all students on campus.
2 Likes