I’m with @carlson2. We’re driving so no plans to cancel. We don’t get break until the 3rd week of April so I think we’ll be good. D is also supposed to be going to Italy in July with school, so keeping fingers crossed things get back to normal before then!
@homerdog I don’t see any campus closing to prospective students. Coronavirus can make you crazy if you follow it minute by minute, but honestly, the very, very vast majority of the country is running business as usual.
I think colleges are more worried about kids going out of the country and not being able to come back from Spring Break or international kids not being able to go home in summer than 20 - 40 random guests per day coming to visit the school. The admissions staff probably comes in contact with that number of people on a trip to Target.
@homerdog – Davidson has sent out a couple of email on COVID-19. They cancelled a college-sponsored trip to Italy over the break. They are asking any student, faculty or staff who travelled internationally over the break to report where they went to the college so that if they need to self-quarantine they can.
They talked about how they are monitoring the situation for summer study abroad programs. My D is still planning on studying in Spain over the Fall, starting in early Sept. and we’re reading the fine print about cancellation and deferral policies. . .
It will be a headache is she can’t go b/c she’s doesn’t have housing on campus for the Fall. Her study abroad is through CIEE so it’s possible she’d go to another site. Who knows!?
Our trip plans are still on as of now - we leave in 9 days. So far no sign from the schools we’re visiting that anything is being called off…glad most of our flights are Southwest so that we can cancel if needed, and we made sure to have hotels and cars that can be cancelled as well (though we may need to give either 24 or 48 hours’ notice for some)…when I booked, I was simply thinking that winter travel to Chicago, Wisconsin, and Boston could be dicey because of weather, so I made sure not to take any pre-paid lower cost options that weren’t at least a bit flexible.
We have 2 more schools scheduled in May (schools on trimesters so they are still in session then), so we’ll see where this takes us by then and whether Spring weather helps to contain things. Husband works for CDC and is full steam ahead at this point on the travel plans for us unless schools deny us access…I’m guessing we may not to see dorm rooms, but that’s okay.
Of course, I guess it’s possible that any of us could end up in self-quarantine mode if it turns out we’ve been in contact with someone with the virus…you never know when that could happen! But as of now, we’re still excited for the visits.
U of Washington has cancelled tours and info sessions through April 10 at least. According to a friend whose S20 was just accepted, that includes accepted students days.
“Campus tours and admission information sessions will not be held March 6 – April 10.”
@3kids2dogs i want to believe that but MIT cancelling admitted student days makes me wonder if other schools will follow suit and start cancelling kids coming to campus.
As of now, we’re still going. H is taking S and has 4 flights, I’m taking daughter with 3 flights, and NY is one stop. I, too, don’t know when else the kids will get to go if we cancel. D is looking at some LAC, including all women’s colleges, and needs to get a feel for if she even wants to go that route.
This outbreak reminds me of when we had the “swine flu” and our older S got it before everyone else at his school. There was lots of hysteria. I’m not downplaying this virus, but it would be easier to make decisions with more data. The death rate could be much lower than currently surmised given the comparitively low testing rate in the US.
The main concern I have is they’re now saying the spread “could” be airborne (can travel on air stream and infect people over 6 feet away) compared to the flu (only person to person droplet transmission). This makes plane travel vs a car trip more concerning, at least to me.
We sure don’t want any of us, and especially the kids, to end up quarantined. That’s a lot of school to miss.
Well, I guess I’m wrong (MIT and University of Washington). I don’t know what to say except that it seems like an over reaction and I am not going to give it once ounce of worry for the schools we are visiting.
We’ve officially registered for all our tours, so hopefully the schools will contact us if anything changes; we can then ask questions about doing our own walking tour - perhaps admissions will send a video link to the information session and possibly more detailed information for a walking tour. If they literally close the campus to outsiders, I’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
@3kids2dogs Today I’m going to try to be more like you and not worry about it. What can be done anyway? I think, because your D21 is your oldest, you’re not privy to all of the worry coming from older college kids. S19 really thinks there’s a possibility that they won’t be allowed back on campus after break is over and will be expected to do some remote learning. No one really knows what’s going to happen.
It’s also nothing but a happy day here because S19 is landing in Chicago soon. Yea!!!
@homerdog - enjoy your time with S19! My D16 is turning in her thesis today, and I am both proud as punch and a little sentimental about it too.
S17 is at Rowan. Not a care in the world! LOL He did have a class canceled yesterday because the prof has had a cold - department head told her to stay home and cancel. Bought him an extra 5 days to study! His girlfriend is on a sports team and they still plan to head to Florida on break in a week at this point.
If they cancel the SAT next weekend I may officially lose my mind.
@NJWrestlingmom I am with you on that.
S18 at Richmond, and his only concern is where he’s going on spring break! We didn’t get him a ticket home (and now they’re way too expensive) and a couple plans he had fell through. Last I heard, he thinks he might be going to Nashville, where the tornados hit! He’s not the least bit concerned about COVID-19, and he’s just coming off the flu. Kids.
U. of Washington just cancelled in-person classes until March 30!
@AlmostThere2018 ok so Washington state is kind of the epicenter and cancelling classes through March 30th includes their spring break. I can’t imagine colleges whose kids just came back from spring break then around and go back home. Or at least I hope not!
Trying to find a silver lining. If this happens at Bowdoin, will we get money back for dorm and food for the time S19 would be stuck at home? Lol.
Yes, I agree Washington is epicenter. I think two things will drive school/work closings. First, once more testing kits are avail we’ll get better sense of how widespread this is getting and, second, how many serious complications/deaths are resulting. I read WP article this morning saying a 2nd strain of the virus is spreading the most but seems less serious than the original. They are hoping the complications/mortality drops from 20%/3% to something much lower, maybe even closer to flu levels – or at least to that of ‘bad flu’ years like 1957 and 1968. Still serious but not nearly as bad as the first weeks in China when mortality rate was much higher.
And of course the more mild cases there are, the fewer are tested so some of this can’t be known easily…
Fingers crossed…
Oh, my. I read on a couple of college websites that they are asking those signing up for tours to take appropriate precautions and considerations before showing up to tour and also that no overnight visits would be taking place. I imagine this is a day by day decision. Stay healthy everyone!
Well Rowan just announced that no spectators are allowed at tonight’s women’s basketball NCAA game in Amherst, MA. Feel bad for all those parents that made the trip, bought tickets, got hotels, etc…
D21 has interviews scheduled at a bunch of colleges from now until early summer (Everything we could schedule to this point). One is an overnight at a college in CO at the end of this month. Very curious to see if they will all happen…
We’re supposed to go to Virginia Tech’s Spring Open House in two weeks, really hoping they don’t need to cancel.