My S19 is a freshman Finance major and currently in a Biology (not intended for majors) class and is kind of glad it is online because he did not like labs. I think labs are now just watching the ta do the lab on a video online.
Since my D committed pretty early, she was able to get her class schedule set early. Of course, who knows what will happen if they go online. She’s in a 5 year BS/MS program so her schedule was pretty much set before she began. She just got to pick a few required liberal arts classes. Everything else is already set in stone. She likes her schedule though, with 17 credits she’s done by 2 most days and only one class on Friday 
check with schools about how many courses they will let you register for. Tulane is only allowing ALL students to sign up for 16 credits, because they feel that might have many of their junior year abroad students on campus and want to ensure everyone has classes. They are allowing for 3 waitlist classes to be signed up for. They say this will give them a better idea of what is needed, when they make final plans for fall.
My daughter is in a Honors and special dual degree program at Tulane and the Honors kids registered before even current upperclassmen. Plus the dual degree program massaged her schedule to make sure she got the best teachers.
Same concerns here for my Boston-bound D20 
My D20 has committed and will “attend” in fall, whether online or in-person. She has a very generous scholarship which covers 90% of tuition - I might feel differently if we were full pay for Zoom university…
S20 was doing some course planning last week. Denver will have some online sessions in June, so he hasn’t gotten too serious. Of course I have his freshman year mapped out on my computer…just in case he asks for help. 
The University of Minnesota has decided to freeze tuition heading into the 2020-2021 year. This is across all campuses and applies only to undergraduate credits. The announcement hit the news about a hour ago.
Apparently, some regents expressed a desire to consider a tuition reduction, which will be discussed at the next Board of Regents meeting in May.
Interesting update from Purdue’s president regarding fall semester-
Could other universities follow this lead?
Hi, all.
If your kid’s college president makes claims about safely re-opening August, here is a a short list of questions for which you should get answers to your satisfaction before feeling confident about your student returning to that campus (and before paying for a full semester of tuition, room, & board):
- Has the county in which the school is located seen a sustained drop in # of new COVID-19 cases reported per day for at least 14 days? This is particularly important if social distancing restrictions in the country have been eased.
- How much testing is being done in the county? At a minimum, testing should be at 152 tests per 100,000 population per day, with a positivity rate < 10% (ideally half that).
- How much testing is being done on campus? To accomplish what Daniels proposes at Purdue, one could argue that the entire campus community should be tested every two weeks. At Purdue, that would be 3,571 people tested per day.
- What is the specific plan for contact tracing, isolation of cases, and quarantining of suspected cases.? Most critically, will isolation/quarantine be a) optional vs. mandatory; and b) at home or in a centralized location? Mandatory/centralized is more effective than optional/at home, but very hard to implement. (Please note that Daniels uses the term "quarantine" to mean both isolation and quarantine, which does not inspire a lot of confidence).
- How will residential life and dining services be adapted to minimize density and social contact? (Do not spend a lot of time worrying about or asking about class size, scheduling, online teaching etc; or about large sporting events or other group activities. These are important for transmission, but if density/contact in dorms and dining halls remain the same, they are second-order concerns.)
- What specific plans are in place to protect those in the community at higher risk: older adults and those with underlying medical conditions? (That includes your child's roommate with asthma, her 68-year-old academic advisor, and the dining hall worker with Type 2 diabetes). Daniels plan for Purdue indicates that those at higher risk will be asked or required to "work remotely" (does that apply to students? to custodial staff?) or otherwise remain apart from others. It's ok to ask how that will actually be operationalized and enforced, and about equity concerns.
- What indicators/thresholds would trigger campus re-closure, and how will the data for those indicators be collected and communicated?
For context and credibility: I’m a public health researcher at a T20 institution, follow the COVID-19 pandemic closely, run a public-facing social media outreach initiative related to the pandemic, and am quoted/interviewed regularly in the media about the pandemic. I’m not making this stuff up.
Thank you very much for your excellent post @Itisatruth and thank you for your important contributions at this time to this country. I have an S20 with an underlying medical condition and am highly concerned about colleges not following best practices at this time.
@itisatruth thank you for that post. I would have loved to be able to have all those questions answered before she even finalized her school choice, but we all know I am not getting that wish. My greatest concern is the testing piece. What if an OOS university (or it’s state ) requires testing and will not allow travel there without it? Are we any where close to being able to have enough testing by August?
We are stuck in a box where her top IS option (with large scholarship) wants an answer by 5/1 but her OOS preferred school is not announcing anything until close to what your questions list requires until June at earliest. When I called the number on her scholarship award letter to inquire about any flexibility on the acceptance date for the IS scholarship, I was told the student needs to discuss that with financial aid. I am all for students advocating for themselves but I think this is a far beyond what a student should be asked to manage right now. DD needs to believe fall will be on campus for now. She is still processing things like that the yearbook will be either half empty or full of virus related pages.
There is an article in today’s WSJ summarizing what several colleges have announced thus far. I did not link it here since likely behind a pay wall. Search “The big question for colleges” and it will likely come up. I know they do allow a few free articles.
My DD registered for classes (she is in honors so gets to sign up early). She signed up for 17 hours- more than she will likely want if she is on campus but about right if she’s not. She also headed the advice that someone posted here and avoided lab sciences in case of distance learning.
She is hopeful and wants to start her college journey on campus but is realistic enough to plan for the reality it may not happen.
An email came today from UC Irvine-
“ it is not possible for us to know at this time whether the current public health crisis will allow us to maintain normal operations in student housing and residential life when the fall quarter begins. Consequently, we are not offering a housing guarantee at this time.”
Just few days ago my daughter had a dilemma between UC Davis and UC Irvine. Chose UC Davis cause it’s closer to home. So glad she did.
Same here. If the school is online, S20 could manage 18 hours. He attended honors info session earlier this week, and they made it sound like he won’t be permitted to take more than 15 hours his first semester. He should be able to register in May. I am really thankful for priority registration as he is a computer science major, and classes fill up fast.
Posted this on another thread, but thought it might be useful here as well.
Hamilton is having a town hall now for admitted students and families. Sounds a lot like the Amherst session the other day that @ChemAM discussed. President Whippman mentioned the NESCAC colleges are all communicating and meeting regularly. It sounds as if they are coming up with the contingency plans in consultation with each other, with some modifications given the various locations. Best case is school starts on campus in the fall with significant adjustments, worst case is remote learning extends to fall. Then there are a few scenarios in between. Lots of discussion about consulting with local medical facilities and health authorities, coronavirus testing availability, figuring out housing quarantine possibilities, etc. They seem to be doing a lot of research and planning. Glad to see them thinking about the details that @Itisatruth mentioned.
Also made clear that the criteria for taking a gap year has not changed. Coronavirus is not a sufficient reason. If students are applying for a gap year they need to have other plans in place that demonstrate an opportunity for exploration and growth as usual. No hypotheticals.
They are still looking at what will happen with tuition if students cannot return to campus in the fall. Obviously, no one will pay room and board, but no decisions have been made about tuition reductions.
DS20 comMITed to MIT today!
Congratulations @fretfulmother MY S20 is choosing between Princeton and Stanford - what a tough choice!
Congratulations, @Octagon! My son chose MIT over Princeton after a lot of difficult discussion. Ultimately, it made the most sense financially and location-wise, and probably also curriculum-wise, but P had been his “top choice” since he visited in middle school with his older brother (who went to P and graduated last year). (My son was rejected from Stanford! It was brutal this year 
)