As always I appreciate comments, positive and negative.
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I believe the answer is mid March 2020 when S19 called me at midnight and asked what was really going on and whether he should be loading up his car and leaving before they shut down state borders.
Here’s my take on ED, FWIW.
I don’t think numbers will be down that much. There will be much hand wringing and gnashing of the teeth. Lots of ED decisions won’t be made until the last minute. But especially in this year where selective admissions are an even bigger crapshoot than normal, the boost will be too hard to pass up.
I also think the reality is that there is a good chance that visits will continue to be limited even in the spring. We really are back to 1985. I said it a few pages ago, but I think that for many of these kids, ED or RD, the first time they physically set foot on campus will be on move in day. And if that’s the case, you can make a somewhat blind decision now about as easily as in April.
There are a few places that I would not be ok with her decision. At Oberlin, Smith, Wesleyan, etc I feel like she would really need to try to get to know the vibe of the place, partly because I question how well she would fit in there. NYU would also be a problem, because I think a semi-rural kid should at least spend a weekend in the City before making the leap to go to a college without a real campus in downtown manhattan. Northeastern is on her list, but that’s one I think she needs to see if at all possible before she commits because it’s different than anything she is familiar with. Amherst (probably any of the NESCACs actually) I think is a bit more mainstream and generic. I’m not saying that as a negative, just that there doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming culture that gives most students either a love or hate feeling. A theater kid or a football player or a member of the robotics team all can probably find their tribe.
S19 was an athlete, and tbh I think even in a normal year non-athletes are flying blind. He had access to pretty much whatever info he wanted and could line up meetings with whoever he wanted to talk to. He spent time with his potential teammates and fellow students. Through his sport, he knew many guys on the teams recruiting him, so he could get their real opinion of the school and the team away from the coaches. At one lower academic school, the coach lined up a sit down with me, son, the coaches and the dean of students to assure us that he could still get the same quality education he would get at an Ivy. That experience is much different than sitting in on one class and meeting with a current student selected by admissions to be their representative.
We had a few trips this spring/summer planned, then canceled. Normally that wouldn’t be in my budget, but I’m sitting on a bunch of airline miles and have a free companion on SW this year (which has been a colossal waste, unfoturnately). Even if we could do visits now (and we could to Tulane, which is high on her list) I’m not super excited to get in a plane and stay in a hotel at the moment.
Not quite 1985, but in 1994 I went to NYU Law, having spent less than 24 hours in NYC on a HS trip 5 years earlier. I’m not saying it wasn’t a culture shock, it was. But it all worked out and I would probably do it the same way again.
