Without getting into all the scientific reasons why we are not comfortable with vaccine mandates, I am curious how 2021 families are handling these university decisions that have come out after the May 1st deadline to commit?
We will 100% reverse our collegiate choices based on any school requiring vaccines as we are not comfortable with our children attending school with a 100% covid vaccinated population. Therefore we are having to significantly widen our university options through the upcoming admissions cycle to specifically target those schools who are not requiring it this year as we try to “guess” what the rules will be next year for 2022 freshman.
How are 2021 families handling this? If you’ve chosen one school that has issued a mandate, can you go back and select an alternate school who is not?
This is not a post to spark controversy. The foundation of science is based on theories proven or not proven. Pandemics and viruses are ever evolving and no science is “set in stone” as many have been led to believe.
If you choose a school that subsequently issues a mandate, you have the same choices anyone has when they decide the school they committed to is no longer an option. You try to gain admission to some other school. Maybe other schools that your child was accepted to still has room. Maybe there are other schools that are still accepting applications.
It isn’t like a movie theater where, if you decide you don’t like the movie, you can ask the manager to use your ticket for a different movie. With very few exceptions, colleges are independent from each other. If you decide against the college you’ve committed to, you have to hope there is space for your child at some other college. Another student who doesn’t mind or is actively looking for a 100% vaccinated population will be happy to take their place
You could try to defer for a year and hope that the mandate is lifted at some point.
I don’t know what percentage covid vaccination you are comfortable with, but even without a mandate, there is likely to be a lot of vaccinated faculty, staff, and students.
And neither you, nor what you read define what these theories are.
I am sick of people that don’t have anything common with science to think they can define what science and scientific theories say. It is time to call all nonsense out.
I imagine you’re going to have a hard time knowing what a particular college might do. I think you’re on the right road by looking into what they are doing this year and possibly being able to project from that. Many community colleges around me seem to, as of now anyways, not be requiring vaccinations. It’s going to be a slimmer selection at the University level.
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by a 100% covid vaccine population… Most schools I am familiar with are mandating vaccines but do allow waivers for religious and medical reasons. Based on posts on a parent FB group, several students at the school my D will attend filed the waivers. I would be surprised if that option goes away. I’m not sure if that is acceptable to your family.
As others said, there is not much to do other than research the policies followed this year to get a sense of a college administration’s approach.
You could carefully track the statistics on where bad covid breakouts are occurring, then apply to those colleges. The possible downside to this approach is that those schools might learn a lesson for next year. On the other hand, if they haven’t learned yet, maybe not.
It seems unlikely that any college or university will be 100% vaccinated: there is a small, but non-trivial proportion of the population for whom the vaccine is medically contraindicated. Those people- who can be students, staff, admin, or faculty- will have exemptions certs. There is another proportion of the population who do not choose to be vaccinated for genuine religious reasons, for whom many universities give exemptions. And there is yet another proportion of the population who are anti-vaccination in general and/or anti-covid vaccine in particular for their own reasons (political, social, uncertainty, etc), some % of whom will find a back door way to get an exemption. Put those three groups together, and include the % of Americans who are covid-vaccine reluctant and it seems unlikely that your student will be in a 100% vaccinated environment.
Of course, only you know what % vaccinated population you are comfortable with for your child’s educational environment. Also, schools / unis that do not require vaccination (there are some that are very clear that they will not, and there are some states that have mandated that public universities may not) my still require regular testing.
Focusing your college search on public schools in red states is likely to be a good strategy. Some private schools in red states will likely not mandate the covid vaccine either. Are you ok with mandates for other vaccines?
Most schools require some vaccines prior to covid so your best bet is to look at schools that do not have any vaccine requirements otherwise I would expect the covid vaccine to be added to the list at some point.
No political agenda at all, and no real criticism with this or other advice in the thread…but it is so sad that we’ve come to the point in the US (and elsewhere) where we are guiding our kids for education with things like red states, blue states, conservative, liberal etc.
Does this sound like the “United” States of America? Not to me.
My children have medical exemptions for all vaccines due to predisposed illnesses. My concern is to have them around so many vaccinated people everyday. Given that now so many children are being forced by certain universities to get it at this point means that those student population #s will go up from say 50% to closer to 100%
We have done extensive research and have data sets of exactly what the protocols are required at each of the schools we were looking at - and I doubt any of the schools who are not requiring them this year will add them next year - but the hope is that those who are requiring now will retract the mandate for 2022. Even so, it will still be a concern allowing my kids to go to those schools even next year given that ~75% of the student body would potentially still be problematic for them.
Troubling for many children, but given that my children are top 1% out of a 900+ student class, close to perfect SATs and will be pursuing a technical engineering degrees - it’s pretty devastating that so many of the schools fitting for them we will be ruling out.
Vaccinated students will not be continually harboring spike proteins after vaccination – the vaccine induces spike proteins, which are then recognized, neutralized, and destroyed by the immune response. Your students will likely encounter far more spike proteins (attached to replicating viruses that can make them sick) at colleges where the students and the rest of the college and surrounding community have a low vaccination rate.
Of course, if they want to play COVID-19 lottery, they can go to college in states like Alabama or Florida, where the state governments disallow colleges from requiring COVID-19 vaccines.