- I was referring to the college level. This is simple Math. College uses the FA rebate from housing/dining to fund the technology. If student was self-funded, then student uses rebate from housing/dining to fund the technology. What am I missing?
As an addendum to the above, our k-12 districts around here tend to already have the kids on chrome books or I-pads so the transition to online learning shouldn’t have been so bad. However, not sure what they do for those kids who would normally do their school work in the tech or media center and now must use whatever internet is available at home.
The studies that measure how much your lifetime earnings are compromised from missing so much school are pretty clear. At some point schools and businesses have to reconsider re-opening so as not to harm students and their families permanently. People die from economic depression as well, and not everyone in a “non-essential occupation” can work from home.
@tkoparent Responding to your speculation that Harvard may not have had a choice in kicking all students off campuses due to a Massachusetts policy. Not true, as Amherst College allowed certain students to stay on campus and I believe Williams did as well.
An interesting thing my daughter told me last night is that some of her friends are looking at living off campus next year. This is pretty rare at Haverford, but these kids are worried that singles will become forced doubles with no one able to do their planned semesters abroad, and they’re not willing to chance that since the rooms are pretty small already, for the most part. Haverford has pushed off its room draw and fall course registrations, so most kids don’t know their room assignments yet. My D has an accommodation so had her room set awhile ago. She know there is no way they’d fit a second set of furniture in her room, so she’s not worried about it. I think that’s most singles at her school. More likely, the suites (a lot of rooms are singles in suites) will have their shared private common rooms turned into rooms- those could definitely be doubles.
@milgymfam doesn’t seem prudent to be signing leases now, though, when the kids don’t even know if they’ll be back in the fall.
@homerdog I agree, but I guess these kids plan to live near school even if it’s virtual. They can also (or rather their families can) afford to put out the money. It will be weird if school does go back and more kids live off campus- that’s just so far from the norm at Haverford.
I think this is going to happen at a lot of schools. Many students (especially at schools where there is a high proportion living off campus) are already locked into leases for the coming school year…so they may as well live there.
In some schools/locations this might not impact the surrounding area much, say NYC, but other places say a school like Lehigh, there could be lots of students around the campus area, even if classes are remote.
^ I have two kids living off campus and both are still in their apts. Didn’t feel the need to call them home; they are happy where they are and enjoy being near campus even if living through “shelter-in-place” and remote learning. It would only be more crowded here at home and more disruptive to the learning process. Also, their chances of catching Coronavirus would have been markedly higher had they joined the crowded masses at the airports for hours as a time in March. I truly wonder how much of the current spike we are seeing in recent hospitalizations and deaths was contributed by airline travel in March.
My D already has her off campus apartment for next year and will be moving in mid August, regardless of whether classes will be in person or online. Of course we are quite lucky that she has a single with her own bathroom and that the surrounding areas (Binghamton, NY) have 5 well equipped hospitals should the need arise.
I read a NYT article that discussed the differences kids face with online learning due to their backgrounds, it happened to be about students at Haverford @milgymfam. I think you can read NYT articles having to do with coronavirus for free right now, thought you guys might be interested.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/us/politics/coronavirus-zoom-college-classes.html
@JBStillFlying, I’m trying to figure out the best way to phrase this, and so I’ll go with blunt: You clearly don’t have any idea how college finances work.
Most colleges and universities don’t have the financial cushion of a Harvard. Heck most of them don’t have the financial cushion of a Washington State, or even a University of La Verne.
The median college endowment in the United States—and this is before the recent drop in the stock market, which hit college savings quite hard—is $65.1M. That sounds like a lot, but given the massive cashflow at even smaller colleges, that isn’t really enough for a single year most places.
Most colleges are paying out the money they receive in one year during that same year. So please stop talking about what colleges can do, as if it’s a simple matter of repurposing cash that’s simply sitting around.
(Now, as for what they should do? Yeah, we can have that discussion. But colleges are for the most part not the reservoirs of wealth that the conventional wisdom believes they are)
D19 had a fever last week, became progressively more tired and congested over the last few days.
Went to the doctor Monday…strep test negative, doc wasn’t worried about Covid-19.
Went back to doc yesterday because her tonsils were so swollen she was gasping for air (maybe TMI?!)…positive for mono. Doc says she was likely exposed 4-6 weeks ago at college.
I feel bad for her, but so glad not coronavirus.
@Mwfan1921 at least she gets to recover from mono at home.
I agree, and now happy for mandatory P/F grades!
Hope she gets better fast, @Mwfan1921 !
Oh no @Mwfan1921 ! Hope she feels better soon!
S19 has been coughing (a big old phlegmy cough) for about six weeks. No fever. Not all day long but enough to be annoying. Plenty of energy. One of his college friends was diagnosed with pneumonia a few weeks back during spring break. I called our doctor and they wanted to set up a virtual appointment to determine if he should come in, but he pushed back and said he didn’t need to see a doctor. Ugh! I called the nurse back and asked if I should insist and she said to try over the counter meds first to break up the cough even more. With no fever, she wasn’t particularly worried. Makes me think I got good free advice from the nurse that was likely going to be exactly what the doctor would have told us for a fee.
He’s been taking Muscinex. Neither of us are worried but it just made me think more about what kind of symptoms would be enough for us to venture into a doctors office with everything that’s going on. I can’t stand going there during regular times since, even when the kids just go for vaccines, they sometimes end up with a cold the following week that we always blame on going into the office.
Thanks for the well wishes.
Sorry to hear about your S19 having some symptoms too.
I was scared about the doc’s office too, but they screened her over the phone, and said come over for a drive-up appt…we parked, the doc came out, did the rapid strep test. Negative, said go home.
I pestered them yesterday to see her again because she was clearly worse, and this time we went inside the office. Everyone has to wear masks (they have some) and there were no other patients in the waiting room. Morning appts are for well visits, afternoon for those with illness. They brought us into a room right away. Felt safe and clean in the offices, glad they are open.
- Um, actually I do. But you don't need to have "any idea of how college finances work" on this one. When a school shuts down a dorm and kicks everyone off the meal plan, they owe families a refund for the remainder of the year, and tech is as much a qualified education expense as food and housing, esp. if it includes things like internet bandwidth requirements for remote learning. What I was referring to earlier (FA rebate from housing/dining) refers to 100%-funded students (say, from an institutional need-based grant or scholarship); in that case, the school's housing/dining rebate goes back to the scholarship fund from which it came and, of course, is doled out as needed to help with tech. COA calculations don't suddenly go away because the school changed the learning environment mid-way through spring semester.
@JBStillFlying some schools are sending money back to students who are on full grants/scholarships. Haverford is mailing us a check for a partial payment refund for room and board that was paid for by institutional grants. It’s not the full refund but that was their decision to do.
@milgymfam, that’s helpful to know and probably a more correct practice than what I said. Schools that offer full-funding (including covering room, board and supplies) enrolled the student on the condition that those funds be available to pay for your education. Remote learning will still have related expenses, even if they differ in amount or category.
In general, colleges and universities are taking a huge hit to the endowment and potential lost revenue as students opt to gap or take a leave. State institutions will have the additional concern about cuts in the state subsidy. There will be hiring freezes and pay freezes, and possibly even pay cuts. YMMV by institution. That will impact next academic year - possibly in a huge way. For the remainder of this academic year, schools are hopefully continuing to honor the agreements already in place with the student.