@3kids2dogs The district doesn’t allow students to flip flop between being completely virtual and hybrid mid year. If you’ve been exposed and have to quarantine, you can attend virtually. This is a little different b/c we’d voluntarily be going out of state. My guess is that the school didn’t put much thought into this topic, and I am not aware of anyone asking the district the question.
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Do you need to go now? Can you wait a couple of months? Decisions don’t have to be made until May 1. April might be better for travel.
D21 went to Maine during fall semester and is going back again next month but she’s chosen to be all remote and just does school from the hotel on weekdays. The quarantine and/or negative test rule didn’t count for those under 18 and she’s not 18 yet.
@H0llyw00d I am the type who would ask for permission/find out what is involved if your D goes on out of state visit. I would think that the school would want to be accommodating and allow her to go virtual on return if there is any possibility of having exposed to covid/traveling out of state, but that is just an opinion. I’d like my D to visit some of her out of state schools but am concerned about whether it is worth exposure during this time of covid. She has only visited the in-state flagship which is a great school that she does dual enrollment full time virtually, but she wants to go out of state to a warm weather climate. 2 of her top contenders were scheduled for visits last spring but we had to cancel because the covid-19 situation was shutting things down all over the country. I thought we would have a chance to visit in summer/fall/spring of this year but in many ways the situation seems worse.
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@homerdog We wouldn’t go until late March/early April. She is still waiting to hear from one of her top choices and won’t know until the end of February.
@1Lotus, I too like to be transparent and have already composed an email to the Superintendent but did not hit “send.” I am sure many other students feel the same way. Some of them won’t care about missing school and take the unexcused absence. My thought behind reaching out to the district now is to give them time to discuss and develop a plan assuming the world remains as it is today. Their policy in years past allowed students to have an excused absence if they were college touring. I want to do the right thing for everyone, but this is a very gray area. I take this pandemic seriously, but it is tough to wrap my head around making this big of a decision without having a good sense of whether my daughter will thrive in each school’s environment.
@H0llyw00d It sounds like we have similar thoughts on this. Good luck with your decision!
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So why are you composing an email right now? By late March/early April, these kids have almost graduated. We will hopefully be going on more than one trip during that time frame and we are just going to go. Even if D was in school, I would be calling her out and saying we are going on college trips. Kids used to miss school even before the pandemic. She would have to keep up and make sure she had everything from her teachers, reschedule tests if necessary, etc. In this case, I wouldn’t say anything now, tell the teachers a couple of weeks before the trip, follow Covid guidelines. Maybe test when you return home and the go back to school.
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@1Lotus Same to you!
@homerdog That is essentially what I’m wrestling with. Do I get ahead of this now, knowing my plans to allow the school district to think this through and proactively set guidelines for all seniors, or do I just let them know a week or so in advance that these are my plans and have her show up virtually and make up the work until she can safely return to school? I know I can just let them know for my own kid and not worry about anyone else. I just thought by raising the idea of college visits, they can start thinking about the reality of kids making their own schedules and what, if any, impacts there will be.
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Everything changes so rapidly that I would wait and see. You can always send an email in early March if it seems necessary.
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Dont forget the “opportunities to do research as an undergraduate.”… and “we have 350 clubs but if they don’t have a club you want you can start your own if you get 5 other students”…”I always feel safe on campus and there is the blue lights system” and “the main library has 5 floors and it quieter as you go up and the top floor is silent”… and the campus tradition “that if you stand under arch and kiss the guy/girl you will get married” or something similar.
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We did this with D21. We went in November to WV, VA and NC - at the time NJ had a quarantine rule. I told the school, she got excused absences for the days because seniors get days for college visits, and she attended virtually for the quarantine period. She was set to go back after quarantine, but decided at that point it wasn’t worth it, so switched from hybrid to 100% virtual. Wasn’t a big deal. She does have to stay virtual for a whole marking period once officially switching, but if she’s going out of state, I’m sure they’d prefer you just go virtual until she’s cleared to go back.
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Thanks everyone! I am going to wait and see where the world is at in March! Be well and good luck!
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LOL - wasn’t there a college tour bingo topic on the forum at one point where people put their favorite repeated sayings?
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I agree that it is not always possible. She had to write why the particular college essay for most of the colleges. Only thing that she could repurpose was why major in some cases, and if they needed anything related to community service or volunteering. Now that she is so burnt out, she is just sending some of them almost half-heartedly.
OK - that’s less restrictive than my kids elementary school. They say that if you are hybrid and you travel, that you cannot attend virtually on your in person days while you are traveling or while you are quarantining (if required). I think the rationale is that they worked hard to establish a safe hybrid environment and want by to avoid parents just pulling kids randomly for a skiing week or trip to Disney or something. There is an all remote option where you can attend school from wherever and do those ski weeks etc. But if you choose in person school, you need to be in person, not in person when it’s convenient for you.
Sounds like your school is better. You could ask and the. If they say no, your child will only miss a day or two of school, while you are in your trip, which is what he or she would have done anyway during a normal year, which I could live with.
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Agree. With the major one, you can repurpose to “why that college.” They also ask about community and what you can bring to or take from the school’s community so it’s perfect.
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Over 31,000 EA applications for UNC-CH.
https://www.unc.edu/posts/2020/11/16/2020-early-action/
I’m not even sure UNC has fully committed to going back to in-person learning this Spring or for Fall 2021. If you’re OOS, that means paying a lot of tuition for remote learning and potentially rent if your kid stays in Chapel Hill. I know there are many current students (both in-state & OOS) who are living in apartments & hotels around campus, doing remote learning. I know of a couple of OOS parents/students who are seriously considering transferring out of UNC to schools that are at least doing a combination of in-person/remote. It’s a hard pill to swallow, paying $$$ for remote learning.
Even though we are in-state applicants, if my daughter is lucky enough to get in, we will definitely be considering whether UNC will get back to in-person learning. 7 of her 9 colleges are at least doing a hybrid, with students on campus and in dorms.
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@CollegeNerd67 Yep, all stuff to consider no matter where he ends up, but he has to be admitted first anyway, and UNC for any OOS is a long shot so I’m not holding my breath.
I have two other college students right now and both are at school, one the school has brought them back, has a combination of hybrid, in person and remote experiences, rampant testing and contract tracing program and had very few cases. It was very successful first semester. The other, she avoided getting Covid, her classes wound up all being remote, but she was able to have a fairly normal semester being on campus living in her sorority. Made sure she was regularly tested and as cautious as can be.
I looked at the COA for UNC and relative to those two schools, I feel like I would be getting off cheap, sadly. If my kid stayed home and were remote, it’s even cheaper than our flagpship state university which is pretty sad. But, the whole covid thing is definitely something that will factor into his decision anywhere. Thing will definitely be better next fall, and most likely back to normal by next Spring worst case, but again need to get an acceptance first, hope to have some other options and then go from there!
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My daughter was deferred from MIT class of 2025. This was actually welcome news, as opposed to a rejection, and has helped her finish out the rest of her applications. But now it seems we’re supposed to write a deferral letter? Does anyone have advice for a letter to MIT specifically, and also if there’s anything else we should consider for these covid times?
@SammoJ, I’m so sorry to hear about your family’s health ordeal! I hope you have all rounded the corner with the worst of it behind you.
D21’s list was 15 schools. She applied to 7 EA and got into Middlebury ED. She was pretty deep into the apps for the other schools as most had at several supplements and additional honors college application requirements. Of those, she had visited 5/7. She panic-added two at the end including Colorado College which she had always liked but didn’t really want to be that far away. But the free app won her over and she ended up getting accepted with a leadership scholarship. Of the remaining 8, she had visited four.
I admire the dedication and perseverance of all the 21s and their parents in submitting so many applications. I think casting a wide net is a great strategy and there will likely be many excellent choices from which to choose in the Spring. Also no regrets or what-ifs! Whatever works for any given family is what’s best. Best wishes to those buttoning up the last of their apps. What a crazy and unpredictable cycle this has been!
Our New Years Day fire pit was extra special this year, as we used D’s ACT prep books as kindling. Verrrry satisfying! 
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Here is what it says on MIT’s website:
The only update you will be asked to send is the February Updates & Notes (FUN) Form (we will send you an email letting you know when this form is available). In the FUN Form, you can tell us things like:
- Your midyear grades
- Anything new that has happened or will happen before we review RA applications, like new awards, activities, work, etc.
- Anything about your circumstances that have changed since you submitted your application that you think we should know about
Note: You do NOT necessarily need to fill the form with new updates. If you’re only providing your midyear grades, that’s totally fine.
( I couldn’t get the quote function to work with their formatting)
Our plan is to look at the FUN Form and see what we can add to help boost the app. Honestly we don’t have anything meaningful other than grades.