If your child is admitted to an expensive though excellent private college and it seems likely that instruction will be online will you suggest a gap year. If so what would your child do?
My feeling is that if it is unsafe to attend college in person, it will also be unsafe to work, volunteer or travel – the activities that usually comprise a gap year. That’s not much of an answer, but it’s what would make me not consider a gap year.
I somewhat disagree as the idea of a gap year during a pandemic is not the same as a traditional gap year to get valuable work experience, travel, do research etc. The reason you would do a “gap year” now is you don’t want to have 4 years of private college where 1 or 2 semesters are online. So you delay the start of college for one year hoping things will be better in a year.
I also don’t look at the gap year as “staying safe”. it’s more about not “wasting” 1 or 2 semesters of college by online instruction. If my D20 did take a gap year she would work part-time (current hostess at a restaurant that will use masks and social distancing) to save some money for college and likely volunteer for a professional services job like marketing or law or some other area which interests her. She could also take a class for fun, learn to bake and cook, learn a musical instrument, or create a vblog or utube channel. There’s many things someone could do during a gap year.
Btw - I don’t see any residential colleges being open in the fall and if/when they do online in the fall, it will be easy for them to take the conservative approach and continue it into spring. Colleges are big business and want your tuition dollars so they will string us along for a couple of semesters. A “gap year” might be one way to counter the heavy use of online instruction for the 2020/2021 school year.
It is not about “wasting” college overall, but about “wasting” the premium that one pays for the residential college experience that most college students do not normally experience (as commuter students living where they lived before college). So the talk about gap year seems to be heavy on these forums where students and parents are paying a premium for the residential college experience, but is probably less common among commuter students who just want or need to get on with their education, especially during a time when working is less available.
Also, the scenario where colleges are closed to in-person education is likely to be one where restaurant employment (beyond primarily take-out restaurants, perhaps) is hard to get; even if there are no governmental orders limiting restaurant business, fear of COVID-19 will limit the number of customers willing to go to restaurants.
The bigger issues IMO is if the university will even allow for the gap year, and how that could impact aid.
I don’t think you’ll see many universities allowing for gap years without making students re-apply and risk losing their spots.
My D is a co-op student and many students were talking about staying at their jobs in the Fall if school stayed online and switching their co-op terms. The university has already put up road blocks to doing that.
If these colleges allow that many gap years, there will also not be space for next year’s incoming freshman class so it is unlikely they will allow it as stated above.
Even commuter students don’t want online classes, it’s not just an issue with students living in dorms. I went to a community college and enjoyed the in-class lectures and time after class talking with my professors, studying in the library with fellow students, joining clubs on campus, and even supporting our local sports teams. Online classes have their place but are not really optimal for high school or college students. It’s a very watered down educational experience.
Heck online is bad for just about everyone and everything. This past week I “attended” (through Zoom), a friend’s mom’s funeral, my SIL kid’s bar mitzvah, a virtual easter egg hunt, and a boyz happy hour. It sucks not attending these life events in person and its only been a month! Online can never replicate in-person meetings and gatherings. Never…
However, the community college student paying $1.5k tuition + $1k books is less likely to complain about paying a premium price than the intended residential college student paying $50k tuition + $1k books.
You better hope that an effective vaccine becomes widely available as quickly as possible, or some other mitigation like an effective treatment that greatly reduces the bad effects like need for hospitalization, long term damage, or death. It isn’t really under the colleges’ control (except for the few where there is COVID-19 research going on).
I’m really confused about what your point is?
I will be shocked if most colleges are not back to in person classes by Fall. My opinion.
My friend the chief ER doctor in our town agrees with you, @USMA87, and expects to send his own kid to a residential college several states away from home in August. He sees no reason for colleges to stay closed.
Colleges will reopen. The classes will probably be some online and some in person. There is just too much money at stake.
There will be “best management practices” that colleges will follow. There will be masks and social distancing. There will be outbreaks. There will be kids quarantined or banned from campus. Some schools will handle it better than others.
If you don’t like the situation you can stay home, but it won’t be a gap year.
stay at home
Not many colleges will be able to fiscally survive a completely online fall; with all the resulting gap years, withdrawals, refund demands and lawsuits. The economic incentive to find a way to reopen with restrictions will be powerful. I do think most colleges will offer online attendance in addition to traditional attendance, for those who are at risk or simply not comfortable with attending in person.
The colleges themselves don’t have a clue yet. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/will-colleges-reopen-in-the-fall-coronavirus-crisis-offers-only-hazy-scenarios/2020/04/22/a124edae-83d3-11ea-ae26-989cfce1c7c7_story.html
Have to disagree. D21 (homeschooled) had nothing but online Spanish courses middle school through tenth grade. Took online AP Spanish in 10th and did very well on the AP exam. Tested into 300-level Advanced Spanish at our local state college for in-person dual credit for fall junior year, took that and another 300-level course this spring and has no trouble getting A’s. The professor last fall told her she was more mature and better able to handle the material than anyone else in the class (college juniors and seniors). She will spend next year there as a high school senior taking the highest level Spanish courses, the ones only the Spanish majors take. Again, her prep before testing into the advanced college courses consisted 100% of online learning. Exactly zero students at our local public high school take AP Spanish in 10th or go to the close state college for advanced Spanish instruction, even after all their middle school and high school in-person instruction.
I can say the same about two online science courses she took. She took online AP Chem and AP Bio using home lab kits and did just fine…I have a science degree from an Ivy and I can attest to the quality of those courses - they were difficult and they were taught extremely well.
Absolutely everything depends on how the course is taught. Are there multiple weekly live meetings? If not, are there 24/7 discussion boards with live appointments available and lots of TAs? Does the teacher/professor love his/her job and is he/she dedicated to the students’ learning? Are the lessons clear and well-organized with lots of options to turn to for extra help (videos, tutorials, appointments with the teacher, live help, study groups meeting both live via Skype/Zoom and online with discussion boards)?
There are bad online programs out there – just like there are bad in-person classes. And there are excellent online programs out there - just like there are excellent in-person classes.
General statements about which is better cannot be made. It all depends.