@SailAway24 oh gosh I’m so sorry. Honestly, I think most colleges are going to look like W&M this year. She’s not alone.
Can she defer? Would she consider that? As someone who was loving her experience, maybe she’d like to preserve that and just graduate in 2024.
I think a lot of kids might have a better daily life by staying at home .and parents save on room and board…but it’s so sad and I could see why she would still want to be closer to her friends on campus. 
Thanks, @SammoJ ! D19 was on cloud nine at W&M. It’s a great fit for her and feel free to pm me if your S21 has any questions.
@homerdog , I am encouraging her to think about deferring. She was really thriving in discussion-based classes and in her Spanish literature/film classes, which are hard to replicate online. Plus, I loved seeing her branch out with the adventure trips since she really grew up as a typical suburban kid . . . She was so looking forward to leading the freshman orientation trips (backpacking, rock climbing etc.). There’s also the possibility of doing a summer semester instead of this fall one (It looks like W&M is going to have a regular semester next summer, if they can).
Well, D19’s college in upstate NY just announced that anyone coming from a state on NY’s “Mandatory Quarantine” list will not be permitted on campus until their state comes off the list. We are in GA, so that could be a long time coming. Remember in elementary school when all the kids would lose recess if one or two students were acting up? That’s where we are.
^ That’s too bad and doesn’t make much sense. What if the state came off the list only a few days or a week before school starts? Why not just have everyone self-quarantine for two weeks upon showing up on campus?
@JBStillFlying That had been the plan until today’s about-face. The school is starting a phased move-in in September, with the goal of having everyone back by October. So finger’s crossed, GA’s numbers will be there by then.
@Acersaccharum Interesting! We’ve been asked to test before arriving, and D19s school also plans to administer rapid tests on all “on-campus” students. Still not sure D19’s fall plan anyway. Even Atlanta seems tame relative to Houston, but maybe that’s a familiarity perspective. Don’t think I realized you were in GA.
@peachActuary73 is your D thinking about taking a semester off?
@homerdog - Still weighing options.
*Go to Houston. The 1 decent stat is that Rice’s zip code has double digit Covid cases and 1 death. (Funny, I was originally bothered by the fact that Rice’s surrounding community was the most obviously affluent of all the school’s she visited)
*Stay home and do online only. There is also a homeschooling part-time job opportunity that goes with this option.
**Georgia State with no guaranteed credit Xfer. Homeschooling job also applies.
@Acersaccharum what if they were to go to NYS two weeks ahead of time and quarantine on their own expense? My son goes to school in NYS and we are thinking of sending him to a relative in NJ two weeks ahead of time (we are also in GA)
@sdl0625 are you sure your S needs to quarantine? I just listened to a Bowdoin town hall and Maine’s rule is a negative test or 14 day quarantine. Is that the same as NY? Bowdoin kids were just told that, since they are getting a test the day they come to campus and then in their dorms until the next day when they get results, that counts as their test to enter Maine. No quarantining needed according to Maine. As for parents, if they come to Maine, drop their student and leave Maine without staying overnight, they are all good.
That doesn’t really make sense. The colleges should already have the possibility of students to quarantine on campus, so why aren’t they simply requiring that? If the college is not set up for students being quarantined after being exposed, they should not be opening up at all.
^ UChicago is doing mandatory testing AND a 14-day in-room quarantine. Students will move in a week early and then the first week of school will be online. After that time, those who have registered for in-person or hybrid courses may show up to class.
The college is planning for testing upon return, and quarantine for positive cases and contact cases. However, they indicated that they cannot provide enough housing for “Mandatory Quarantine” which is essentially an ‘on-paper’ requirement - meaning that regardless of test results, these students need to be isolated.
All NYS schools need to have their plans approved by the state and I understand that some are allowing Off-campus quarantine at the student’s expense, but that is not part of the plan at D’s school. Let’s say the average cost of a hotel room in her town is $129/night. That would be an extra $1800 just to get back to campus, where the living/studying conditions will be difficult at best.
Our D17 goes to Muhlenberg, and they’re currently requiring students coming from states on Pennsylvania’s list (which is the same as New York’s) to quarantine for 14 days before they come to campus. (And Muhlenberg will put them up in their quarantine location as part of their housing contract, so yay! for schools with deep pockets.) We do worry that they might get stricter, though, like your kid’s school did.
Alaska’s not on the quarantine list, but we’re steadily moving up the per capita stats, so we’re considering sending D17 to hang with family in New Jersey more than two weeks before classes start so that there’s no danger of getting caught in a quarantine situation, because then she can legitimately say she didn’t come from a covid state no matter what.
The capacity of the on-campus facilities that colleges are planning for quarantine presumes some fraction of students are exposed or test positive during the school year. Most colleges in the quarantine-required state likely don’t have the capacity for all OOS students at once.
@SammoJ This is exactly the case - not enough housing for all affected OOS students. My D is at Ithaca and Cornell is putting students up in hotels, like @dfbdfb’s D. We have several family or friends in the northeast who would be willing to house her for 2 weeks beforehand, but it sounds like the college is not allowing that, today at least. As ever with this pandemic, stay tuned… things could change in a week.
@Acersaccharum we have been in a holding pattern with S19’s school in NY but finally found out the plans, although more details are coming. The latest is that all students living in states not on the mandatory quarantine list are to get tested in their home state at the beginning of August. The test is supposed to be timed, if possible, to occur approximately two weeks prior to your scheduled move in date. They then request that students quarantine for the two weeks prior to arrival on campus to prevent any exposure b/w the time one takes the test and arrival on campus. Of course, this means trusting that students will actually quarantine. Already, some parents are complaining that their student needs to work right up until moving back to campus b/c they “need” the money. I get that, but there needs to be some common sense here and realize there are going to be some sacrifices made in order to make it as safe as possible for kids to return.
For students coming from states on the quarantine list, the college is asking them to arrive approx two weeks prior to move in. They will be housed off campus in small apts/hotels with kitchenette. The school will pay for their housing and food. If parents would like to stay and quarantine with their student for the two weeks, they are able but will then need to find alternative housing.
We are not NYers but are coming from a state (MD) that right now is not on the quarantine list. S19 will take the test and then quarantine for the two weeks as requested before we take him to campus.
I wonder just how many kids attend Ithaca from states on the quarantine list? It’s unfortunate they are unwilling to bear the cost of providing space for them to quarantine for two weeks.
It seems that colleges are now starting to set up guidelines that make it harder to come to campus. For the NY schools, that’s also being decided by the governor. We are starting to see a trend that colleges want fewer kids on campus even if that’s not the exact statement. If it’s harder to quarantine, etc, they will have fewer kids and then containing the virus will likely be easier. Some schools are also giving details about student life, too, and saying - if you cannot abide by these rules then it’s best to stay home.
@4kids4us Its interesting that this note from the school does not give explicit “at-home” quarantine rules for these OOS students. So can D keep working to make more $ until our state is off the list? Then what? Does she quarantine at home, or at the school, or both? So far Ithaca has been slow and thoughtful in their preparations, so I think we’re still waiting on the final word. Even Cornell has asked families to wait until the last minute to make travel plans if possible, noting that everything is subject to change.
I think the problem that many schools are having that already announced plans, is that these plans were put together a month ago and assumed everything would keep getting better everywhere in the country. Now they’re faced with some major hotspots and half the states going in the wrong direction. What do you do if you’re a school in the northeast, and most of your students come from the northeast? The most common sense thing is to restrict students coming from hotspots.
For some of these big flagships there are potentially a lot of kids. Let’s say you have 30,000 undergraduates on campus and 75% are in state, and your state has been doing well. Let’s say half those OOS kids are from “good” states. Easiest thing to do is let the 27,500 from good states come to campus as planned and restrict the others. It’s too bad they can’t just do a two week quarantine after arriving back in town.