I think we’ve approached this subject a bit but I’m really wondering when colleges will be making decisions about how to handle the fall semester! I’m sure it won’t be until after they get a grip on their incoming freshman class but they will have to make a decision in the summer and not too close to the date of return. I also wonder if most colleges will make the same decision (whatever that is) or if they’ll be a range of decisions that colleges make. S19 is sure they are not going back to campus in the fall now. He’s been reading everything he can get his hands on about the virus and he just doesn’t see it. Now thinks his cohort will graduate in 2024!
Early to speculate, if kids can’t go to college in the Fall that means we have bigger problems for sure.
Just to add to the brainstorming…What if some colleges open and others don’t? I could see some schools that open taking transfers basically up to the first day of classes if they have space…for example, if some internationals are no shows. So, if your school is only online, and you don’t want that…easy peasy to transfer!
I also think about athletics…if the fall sports season is cancelled, that will have an even bigger effect on class of 2021 recruiting (and beyond) than did the cancellation of spring season, notably due to the size of football recruiting classes.
D19 has a cough, it is more of a mucous type cough and not dry and no fever so far. She has been slightly sick with a cold then this since Mardi Gras. My MIL just came over and DH met her outside and talked with her. She is older and had cancer twice so even though she is in good health now it’s probably better that she not come inside but she keeps showing up anyway. He told her D has a cough and now she is freaking out texting me non stop telling me to get D tested. I told her she did not have a dry cough and she just keeps saying some people have no symptoms and I need to take her. I don’t have the energy to explain that unless she is more sick then it is better to just keep her home and away from people.
We have not heard anything about getting money back from school yet. D just had dorm selection this week and got the dorm and floor she wanted so she was not happy to hear me wondering about what will happen next fall!
MIT article suggesting we could be on a two months on/one month off social distancing situation for over a year. That would be interesting for colleges. Ugh.
@momtogkc S19 has had a cough on and off for over a month but it’s loose and he has no other symptoms. Can still run half a marathon on any given day. If your D was at Mardi Gras, though, I might just keep some distance from her. The news out of LA is not good and lots of press about how Mardi Gras might have caused the next hot spot. That being said you’d know soon enough when you see if she feels any worse. Tons of other colds and viruses out there for sure.
None of us have a crystal ball, but I wonder how many professor /teaching spots will be open or in limbo in the fall because of this? That will likely play into decisions on schools being open in the fall along with the trajectory of the virus.
While I am pessimistic about summer sports, summer camps, summer travel, and in person summer classes, I am cautiously optimistic about fall activities. I think it is too early to guess.
We are at the end of week one with live Zoom classes. I have both a freshman and a senior home. Classes are going very well. All are live videos where you see prof and prof sees you. Classes definitely are not as hard/rigorous as they would be on campus. My D19 is making the best of it. Enjoys her “single” and her free time between classes. My S16 is a college senior - Class of 2020. He really is trying to make the best of it but is definitely fustrated. The other night he was like “Mom I’m 22 currently living at home, taking online college classes in my bedroom. I should be hanging with my friends from the last four years and enjoying all the spring senior activities”. My heart hurts for him. Bentley does graduation with a bang. Senior formal ball in Boston, 4 day senior trip to Atlantis in Bahamas, and then back in time for baccalaureate and commencement. All cxl’d. We aren’t even sure if graduation will be rescheduled. My heart just hurts so much, I have been looking forward to seeing him walk across the stage for 4 years.
So because I am trying not to dwell on how bad we all feel here at home - I am going to share a funny You Tube video because we need laughter these days. Check out this video of a Zoom class (I have no idea what college it is). My D said it went viral this week (what irony). Anyways keep your eyes on left of screen. Look for girl not in either corner but in the middle on the left. It is so relevant since all of our kids are taking Zoom classes this week…
DD’s mood has improved since classes started this week- gives her some purpose to her days. And she got a kick out of “passing notes” in class yesterday via Snapchat…
Last night we were doing a list of questions about each other and one was if DD could go anywhere, where would she go. My answer was a national park, camp, or Disney World. DH said college- and he’s right.
I’m so sorry for your loss @Britmom5.
So far, Zoom has worked for me - most of my students have decent connections at home, or have decent phones, and, since they are working on team-based projects, the teams are in contact with each other and I can check in on students who miss a class through their teams. My kid starts classes next week, so we shall see how that works. Only a couple of classes are being run on Zoom, while the others are more along the lines of the older online class models - not video. On the other hand, my kid has been having meetups and parties with her friends from HS and from college on Zoom and on FaceTime.
I really don’t think that the college will stay online over fall semester, though I think that perhaps some will develop some type of hybrid course, which would allow students to either attend in person or attend online. The technology exists, it just has to be adapted and adopted.
I’m also wondering whether the smaller, and/or more isolated colleges (many LACs, Cornell, etc) will have a policy of students only being allowed to return to school if they have tested negative for the coronavirus, and if the outbreak is no longer detected in the college area. It would also require the possibility of quarantine in the college.
Overall, any coexistence with the virus until a vaccine is found would have to include a lot more responsible behavior on the part of adults. No going out an partying in an area which is in an outbreak, no ignoring the outbreak and attending church, wedding, etc, no sending your possibly infected kids to school for fear of ostracization, and so forth.
It is also possible that some colleges will simply cancel the fall term or begin a month later, and continue into the next summer.
@Reebtoor, as a faculty member, I know the answer to your question: Not a lot, but still enough to cause havoc.
@MWolf I think we’ve already seen that we cannot count on people following directions for social distancing so the colleges will have to have other ways to ensure that they don’t get an outbreak. I am feeling more and more like kids won’t go back. I just can’t see it. No vaccine for 18 months and the country has been really pathetic at testing. I doubt we could have everyone tested on a campus and would it even matter if guests come and go from campus? In my brain I’ve moved on to try to decide what S19 would do if faced with a fall online-only option. I want him to have six more solid semesters of college life. However that’s achieved, I think that’s our goal now.
There might never be a vaccine, developing vaccines is hard. Lots of viruses out there that we have never been able to make an effective vaccine for, and some that have taken a decade to get right.
I don’t know what will happen with colleges in the fall, but I agree it’s an important consideration for us…not sure we will be full pay for an online experience, especially if the online tuition isn’t discounted (it hasn’t been for the rest of spring semester). And if the online is only C/NC for grades (as Bowdoin is this semester) that is another big drawback.
If some schools are open, and some only online then it will be even harder of a decision…hopefully schools will be flexible in allowing transfers late into the process. Maybe a gap year will be in order, who knows. I haven’t brought any of this up with D19, don’t want to add to her anxieties.
Okay, a non-Covid question. S19 took an intro philosophy class that, it turns out, is taught by a pretty esoteric doctoral student. The teacher’s syllabus says quizzes and tests will be based on lectures and reading, but they usually include material that comes out of…nowhere. There is a TA who has held weekly sessions who shrugs apologetically.
The problem is worse now. Teacher pre-records lectures so there is no opportunity to ask questions, and S19 is pretty angry that he has a B for no real reason, other than material he has never heard of. Teacher not responding to emails.
A B isn’t the end of the world, and he could accept it if that is what he earned. That’s not how he feels. He could withdraw (W on transcript), but it means taking a course this summer to have enough credits to keep his scholarships. I’m not sure how a W looks, plus it would cost money. He and friends are thinking of going over teacher’s head to department head. I can’t imagine that will be particularly successful. Thoughts?
@homerdog Good points. I think that, if faced with an online-only fall semester, D19, and many (if not most) of her friends will “Feb” themselves - take off a term, and graduate with the class of 2023.5.
@homerdog and @MWolf wouldn’t schools then face the same problems as if so many freshman wanted to take a gap year, and wouldn’t they turn down some (most) of those leaves of absence?
Edited to add: it isn’t something my daughter could do, as she has to maintain full-time credits to keep her scholarship. I’m just thinking of how small haverford is, and how much of a financial blow it would be to have a lot of people sit out a semester. It would definitely affect which classes she would take though. Some just aren’t conducive to online learning, and she’d probably only take electives.
@milgymfam Well, yes, but I hope colleges will grant leave of absences for students in good standing before they grant gap years to kids who haven’t even been on campus yet. I just read the rules for leave of absences and it is a bit worrisome. Kids who want to take time off generally fall into a handful of categories on Bowdoin’s website and, of course, none of them have to do with a pandemic and online courses. Looks like it’s quite a process to request an absence.
And nothing at all is said about how they allow gap years.
This is going to leave Bowdoin (and I’m sure many many schools) in quite a predicament. Parents are going to be asking to have kids take time off or to pay less for online instruction. Colleges can’t afford to lose students or even bristle their feathers since they depend on alumni giving and want to graduate kids who felt they were treated well. Maybe they could have a model that costs less. I’d almost rather they consider that option than have everyone come back to school in the fall knowing that, by November, they could be sending them all home again until Jan and then collecting full tuition.
@SammoJ I think, once you’re in college, you sometimes get good teachers and sometimes do not and that’s the way the ball bounces. This isn’t high school where you might be able to file some sort of complaint (although I don’t hear much about that ever happening either). I think your S will just have to get through that philosophy class and move on!
Haverford has the opposite issue- their leave of absence policy seems quite easy and generous. I wonder if they’re going to have to change that quickly. They just got around to letting students know what was happening in regards to student work and refunds for room and board. Since we barely pay anything out of pocket we aren’t getting anything, of course, but many students will be getting a half refund. They’re also paying each student worker a stipend equal to what they earned so far this semester. Sucks for my kid as her campus job was just really picking up for the semester and she’d only worked one party so far, but it was still a nice gesture. I’m thinking of these small schools (both D19 and D20 have pretty tiny colleges- Haverford and Goucher), and wondering if they’ll survive if all the freshman want to defer and all the rest of the students want to take a leave of absence. I would guess Haverford would survive better of the two, but who knows.
I dont get if we can come up with better testing and better treatments that reduce the death rate why kids cant return. i know this is NOT the Flu , but the reality is, even with a Flu shot available , people get the Flu and Die from the Flu. My oldest since being at college has had a bad Flu and Mono. I would like to think that by the beginning of summer we would be able to open up things again as we would have a rapid test (just approved) and some of the treatments are looking promising to make this less of a risk, and it would exist like regular flu by fall. That is 5 months away.
If kids cannot return in the fall, then the country has bigger issues as employment will likely be over 50% and we will be in a Great depression.
The idea now is to flatten the curve so that the hospitals can deal with this, and clinical trials can take place, and the studies on how immune one is after having this can also take place.
I am following all the social distancing rules as I should, but personally I am almost at the point where if I knew I would be immune after having this for a while, (as well as my kids), and we are relatively healthy , how bad would it be if we got it “over with”. I am not there yet, but if two months from now I cannot leave my house still, I may. I know this is not a popular opinion, and there are those with underlying conditions and other populations to take into account. BTW in America there is a real issue with college kids whose home life is not rosy. Where there is Abuse. Having to go home is putting their lives in danger with alcoholism or drug addiction. Where will a battered wife go to now?
@milgymfam Congrats on Goucher and being done! Of course, given the circumstances it probably doesn’t feel done.
Rice did virtually the same thing financially, but I feel like that refund is going straight to food. I’m trying very hard not to think about the fall, but I’m in the camp of not paying top dollar for an online experience. Started researching coding bootcamps for D19 in case summer is a wash, though.
@peachActuary73 Lol on the food comment! S19 is eating us out of house and home and trying to just grocery shop once a week is rough. Twice now, I’ve made it six days but just barely.
S19 is pretty busy with his classes and was planning to use spring break to drum up a job and talk to some Bowdoin alums but, you know, virus. He will have to think about summer at some point. Some sort of coding camp isn’t a bad idea. He’s mathy but really does not like computer science. He’s feeling pressure to take one or two computer science classes at school but maybe he could figure out what’s most important for him to know and just take some sort of class in the summer instead. That way he can use his Bowdoin class slots to take the classes he’d really prefer to take.
Share what you find out about any bootcamps!