@ljasnau sorry to hear that your student’s time on campus was so short. I encourage you both to watch how things go at UNC Charlotte as she is making a decision about a transfer. We will move my DD20 in there on Sunday. We are still awaiting some details in a housing memo but this is what we know as of yesterday.
They have learned a lot from watching other universities and we are hoping they can be on campus until Thanksgiving with the procedures they have in place.
@Cheeringsection I’ve been watching UNCC. We have a neighbor that is moving in this weekend as well. I like how they are starting the semester off in single rooms. I think most colleges should have done this from the beginning. Good luck to your daughter it’s an exciting time, it’s just a shame it can’t be what we consider as being normal, but the kids will adapt…their much stronger than us parents:)
It’s ok, all online classes so I am concerned that the education isn’t as strong as it normally would be. He’s happy, making friends, getting along with his roommate and all that good stuff! Covid dashboard seems pretty good but who knows. I still haven’t booked the Thanksgiving flight because who knows what will be happening then. He registered to vote in his new home state.
Daughter’s school sent out plans for Spring semester. Starting two weeks later than originally planned, no Spring break/days off, racing for the finish-line this school year. Numbers are still excellent (Covid-wise) so we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will stay that way.
We pulled the trigger on an inexpensive, one-way ticket home for the Thanksgiving end earlier this semester and getting lucky with good Covid management at her school makes it a super win. Not sure if we will try to get another good air ticket or just plan on driving her back after Winter break. That is still definitely wait & see (price will probably be the biggest determinate).
Son isn’t too happy living at home and doing classes online. Most of his classes are asynchronous and he is teaching himself. Looks like his university might also be online for the spring. Would love to hear from parents whose student’s college is on campus with at least some in-person instruction. Please let me know which colleges with engineering programs are doing well. TIA
@jdhmom My son is an engineering student at Quinnipiac. He is having a fairly “normal” freshman experience. He has hybrid classes, so half the time they are in person and half they are online. Profs have office hours. He is enjoying himself and doing well. Dining halls, gyms, library are open; clubs and club sports are happening. The engineering department is new and small, but the school has 100% job placement for engineering and is #1 in the country for employment https://www.qu.edu/schools/engineering/career-development.html#:~:text=As%20of%202020%2C%20Quinnipiac%20University,following%20graduation%20by%20Zippia.com. So far they have had only 2 corona cases and both have been commuters. Testing 20% randomly each week. We have friends at Clarkson and they are also doing well so far.
My son is doing first year engineering fully online as well, but living on campus now. They delayed move in so the first couple weeks were spent taking the classes at home. He’s a lot happier on campus. He’s managed to find a small group of friends to hang out with and he likes exploring the new area. Dining was a cluster the first couple weeks, but getting better, gyms and libraries are open, but not sure how much he uses them.
So far, the covid cases haven’t been too bad, but it’s a huge school in a major metro area (Minnesota) so I imagine it won’t be long. The dashboard hasn’t been updated since 10/1 when there were 54 of the 603 isolation/quarantine rooms in use, and I suspect that will spike at the next update.
I wonder how transferring will go this year. My kid is doing on line from home so not attached to friends/environment. I think for some students that stayed home it might be easier to throw some transferring apps down to see if they can get into some schools they think are more desirable (from whatever reason). Would they be more transferring apps this year? What do you think?
Son is seems to be doing great at University of Denver. Leadership has learned what not to do from CU Boulder, so life has been about a “normal” as you could expect this year. DU started wastewater testing last week, so he had to get tested as there was a positive at his building. No positives on his floor!!! DU’s rolling positivity rate has been between 1-2% recently, which has allowed campus to stay in the “green”.
He seems to be making lots of friends and has been taking advantage of the beautiful weather to explore the Front Range. He went bouldering with a friend and is going to try climbing at a gym.
Classes are easy, so that’s good. He is not a STEM major, so is avoiding the 8 am Chem and Bio classes that I remember from college.
OK, this is totally anecdotal, but when my S20 and I toured University of Denver, the tour guide actually said “our classes aren’t that rigorous here.” LOL. I think it was in the context of maintaining a GPA for merit or something. He was a construction engineering major, which I understand to be a hybrid engineering/business major.
My son is at UC-Davis and had a housing contract for a single room, but decided to do first quarter from home. All his classes are remote anyway. Seems to be going fine so far (less than 3 weeks in); he’s trying to create some separation from us by not sharing much.
My D20 is 100% remote from Loyola Chicago and is not happy about it. They haven’t announced plans for spring, but I don’t see it happening. We might do an apartment in Chicago for spring if dorms don’t open. I wanted her to just defer when they pulled the on campus experience, but she was afraid she would be too bored. It’s tough watching all of her HS friends having semi-normal college experiences.
@FourAtShore did you receive the email from the UCD chancellor today? They are doing well and expect to open the dining commons for indoor dining on Monday and will open the ARC (rec center/gym) on Nov 1.
I feel like I’m back to last fall waiting decisions to come out. My daughter has decided to transfer to UNC Charlotte from UNC Wilmington for Spring semester. She applied as a transfer student on 9/30/20 and now the wait begins. They are saying 6-8 weeks for a decision which makes me nervous. She has decided to find an off campus apartment with someone she knows but it’s going to be down to the wire if they take so long. Freshman are not required to live on campus in Charlotte. I hate she will lose the on campus experience but right now there really isn’t any kind of experience, her 3 weeks in Wilmington has her wanting to be out on her own. The reason for transfer is that UNC Charlotte is much closer to home. It is about 1.5 hours away as UNC Wilmington is 3.5 hours away.
Good luck to your DD20 with her transfer application to UNC Charlotte @ljasnau ! The updated academic calendar just came out yesterday: classes beginning in their assigned instruction method on January 20 and continuing in that manner until March 28.
Spring Break will be March 29-April 3, and then all classes will resume online for the remainder of the semester. Classes will end on May 5, and exams will continue through May 13.
Also take care with which apartment complex as some have had some issues. There is a UNCC sublet page on FB with lots of info.
@homerdog Sorry for the delay in responding, I haven’t been checking out the 2020 forum very frequently. I think there are three factors. 1) He is a diligent student, and has great study habits that I don’t think are common for first years. 2) He is not a STEM major so his load is not filled with math and science. 3) He got lucky with professors. He registered at the end of the cycle with limited options, but when looking through ratemyprofessor.com and speaking with his friends on campus he has many of the top professors in each class. He also carried quite a few credits into DU, but wasn’t able to get into the upper division classes. It sounds like he may have status, and should have more success getting into some harder classes. FYI, he is double majoring in Econ and International studies.
FYI, we don’t ask for specifics on grades, just how are classes going, so we didn’t know what “classes are easy” meant. We did visit in person last week and he did let me know that he’s rocking a 4.0 after mid-terms!!
If you have any specific questions of DU, and I mean anything, don’t hesitate to ask. As parents we have been thrilled with how his experience has been this first year, and he echos that feeling.
