The first week of classes for S19 went pretty well. He seemed to be working many hours/day on homework. He hasn’t left the house/yard in the past week (except when I finally convinced him to go with me to the doctor so he could start an antibiotic as he had been sick for about 6 weeks). I am glad that he hasn’t even brought up trying to see friends. He has been mostly communicating with college friends and playing some video games with them at night. I’ve been making a lot of vegan food for him and we’ve been back to playing Jeopardy in the evenings (we have a big pile of recorded episodes since he’s been away).
D17 started online classes today. She has expressed numerous concerns since she’s an English major and all of her classes are discussion based. They’ll just have to go along the best they can. I’m trying not to think much about the future as it is depressing to me.
——On a different (and stressful) note, who out there is worried that fall will be online? We are not interested in paying expensive tuition for online classes and I’m feeling a bit sick about this. Do we think colleges will even expect parents to do that?——
More numbers in Coronavirus cases, I am getting worried about Fall semester or even Spring semester, too. My son just started taking online classes this morning that started at 6:30AM. He attends a private music conservatory majoring Performance. He sounded like those online classes suck. No in-person directions, no ensemble rehearsals / performances. They all have been canceled. But all of other private music conservatories are in the same page. He loves his school, education, faculty, friends and a town so he will definitely go back as soon as he is permitted. It has been a very heartbreaking experience as a freshman but he will get through.
I also understand that his school is working very hard to continue providing best “online” education possible. However, I saw the $2000-2500 increase in tuition / R & B for next academic year in website that made me very sick. I wouldn’t ask a school to give a tuition discount for last 2 months of online classes (without in-person classes / ensembles which might be at least 1/3 of whole curriculums) but I wouldn’t like to get charged even more for next year because his school isn’t doing whole curriculums in this semester. We will wait to see some refund on housing / unlimited meal plan and next semester / academic year bill. But without jobs (and toilet paper) in Stay-at-home order, it makes me feel very negatively.
The thing is that the country cannot stay at home for a year. That also means high school and college students. If there isn’t a good treatment ready by August, the USA will need a plan as to how to function as a society while also being able to tamp down on any outbreaks. It is possible - until mid 20th century, outbreaks were a known part of life, and yet schools were not shut all year round, nor were colleges.
I don’t disagree. But virtually no chance there’s a treatment by August, so these decisions will have to be made in the absence of a treatment, or vaccine.
Adding…I also agree with those who are posting about potentially paying big tuition bucks for fall should there be online learning…D19’s school is doing mandatory P/F. Our full pay family would really have to think about that…lots of money, less effective learning, P/F grades. Gah.
I was thinking that housing selection might be crazy next fall, assuming they return as usual. Typically 1/2 the junior class at many universities go abroad either fall or spring semester. I know if my kid was scheduled to go abroad this fall I would pull the plug on that. Universities may have more kids on campus then they typically do. Could be a hassle with picking classes too.
@RightCoaster
With the “natural course” scenario, assuming 50-60% of population for reaching the “herd immunity” and a mortality of 5-10% (UK to Italy), this gives roughly 13.6 million deaths in US. The majority of deaths will occur in the elderly, 60+ with mortality of 10-20%, and 55-64 group about 3%. So our demographics post-covid19 will become much younger. This number does not include the “collateral deaths” from car accidents, other emergencies, strokes, heart attacks, baby births, which could not be treated while the hospitals/ambulances are filled with coronavirus patients.
Texas Lt. Governor made a news saying “No one reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren? And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in,” Dan Patrick said.
Either way who gets to make the call?
@payn4ward I have not given a lot of thought to that “ natural course” scenario, I had just read about it and thought it was a rather interesting topic.
I’ve purposely just been going around with my head mostly in the sand, trying to pass time and keep the family functioning and safe. I try not to watch too much news because it was quite overwhelming and there is a lot of political discourse mixed in with facts, partial facts and fake news. I just like simple facts, data, graphs.
Here in MA we have schools shut down, businesses being closed, social distance expectations etc. The problem is there is not a total shutdown, so there are plenty of people still shopping, running errands, taking public transport etc. That is not really stopping the spread of the virus, it’s kind of prolonging the whole scenario. .
Regarding schools, if your child’s high price top private institution has to require the kids to study online in the Fall, and you opt out, they probably won’t be going back there ever I’d imagine. That’s kind of terrible. I think we’d probably stick it out, at least for another year. My older kid only has 1 more year left. Son19 really likes his school, and I have to think that in a year all things will work themselves out and things go back to normal. I think son19 would be Ok with the decision if we had to move him to a different online school or something, but I know he would be fairly disappointed.
I honestly do not think schools are going to get away with charging full tuition for fall semester if it’s online. I’ve talked to a number of parents who have 2019ers who are full pay and they all say they would not do it. They’d have their kids take a semester off. And I think colleges will have to let them do it. They don’t want to kick students in good standing out of their school. That would be a PR nightmare. They can’t have those people just drop out permanently because they need them, in some cases, to help cover financial aid for other students.
There has to be a more creative option they are considering.
For us, housing selection is postponed while the department is dealing with packing what was left behind in dorms and some dorms being converted to possible isolation use, etc, and parents’ and students’ complaints.
Re: Fall semester housing problems, I know several colleges like Tulane, Duke etc. traditionally have many students study abroad in the fall as not to miss spring Mardi.Gras and NCAA basketball, respectively. Could create a housing nightmare if these kids decide to stay on campus in the fall.
I have a D20 and I’m very concerned that her first semester (year?) will be a complete “shxx show” if she even gets a foot on campus, what will the rules be about “social distancing” in class, school clubs, sports, cafeteria, gym, common bathrooms, parties, etc.
Maybe we will have things somewhat figured out by mid-August?
I am not sure if it is even possible, but if my son’s college starts in late September with shorter winter break or late end-of-school year, it would help a little to deal with this particular virus.
Right now, whole people in the world are focusing to fight with this virus to get it under control. And we all are working hard by social distancing. But it is very uncertain it becomes safe by mid August.
Also, I have a question about health insurance…My son whose school is 3000 miles away from home, continues being in our home-town health insurance which he has an access in his college town with same policy / payment plan. Would it be wise to switch to his college student insurance next year (which is about $500 / year cheaper than our current plan) if this virus (or new virus) seems going around? I want to make sure that he would seek and get help quickly if bad virus goes around at his college / dorm.
So we decided to bring D19 home after Mississippi State announced it was definitely moving to online classes for the entire rest of the semester. Flew her up yesterday (Monday), and despite cancelled flights and rebookings and baggage issues and so on, she got back (and didn’t need more than three legs, which is the minimum to get from there to here), and has spent the day working on yesterday’s and today’s classes.
Under the terms of local emergency ordinances having someone come in from out of state puts the entire family into quarantine for 14 days, but honestly we were pretty much living that life anyway with the k–12 schools closed and both my spouse and I working from home after our offices shifted entirely to telecommuting after possible virus exposures, so that isn’t any extra stress.
Our S19 flew back to our home in Asia last Friday and began online classes at Denison this week. He is lucky in having signed up for all early morning classes this semester, meaning he can still join them in real-time without staying up all night. He invited me to listen in on one of his classes last night, the first time this particular class met remotely, and it was very interesting, not so different from a live class in terms of the interaction between the professor and the students. Each of his teachers seems to be taking a slightly different approach, so I am curious now to drop in on some of the others. S19 is getting ready for the housing lottery and fall class registration. He knows there is a possibility normal life will not begin again by September, but we agree it is best to forge ahead. S19 really loves his school, and we have a lot of confidence in Denison’s president, Adam Weinberg, who has been extremely focused and thoughtful on the question how best to deliver a true liberal-arts education remotely (he has sent a couple of videos to both students and parents over the past couple of weeks). Although it’s painful now, I have to believe our kids are also going to learn a lot that will help them be effective when they venture out into an increasingly digital world.
Well both boys are home and will do the next quarter online (how does one do architecture studio online?). All this just became horribly real with the death of my brother in UK. He had underlying respiratory issues, but still a horrible shock. He was allowed no visitors because of the Current state of events, so was alone, and my sister in law is stuck at home on a shelter in place order. Horrible times.
So sorry for your loss. Heartbreaking.
@Britmom5 that is so horrible. So sorry
@Britmom5 I’m so sorry.
@Britmom5 I’m so so sorry for your loss.
@Britmom5 So sorry for your loss and the circumstances.
@Britmom5 So sorry for your loss