All of the football coaches (D3) recruiting my son basically said “It does me no good to recruit someone who cannot stay eligible.”
He has decent grades 3.75 weighted but a not great SAT (1160) but there is still a lot of merit $ out there at these high sticker price schools making them similar or lower than in state public.
I thought this decision was going to be easy, being constrained by financials and all that, the cheapest one would be the obvious choice, but damn near every FA offer S21 has is within a few thousand dollars after all the wheeling and dealing LOL so we are now back to square one
Exactly. That was more my point. My daughter goes to UT where here classes showed completely in person even on Aug 1, and then slowly one by one they reverted to remote. She didn’t really mind because for some strange reason she is able to adapt and handle that ok and can manage her time well, etc. but for them to announce in May or whenever it was they were going back, then that happen, there were many unhappy parents and I think half the student population stayed home. She loved being back so that was a non issue. Her sister on the other hand the school didn’t announce they were going back until late June and then everything was delayed, including the start of classes and registration (which was a week before classes began) which was frustrating for parents but they were able to go back in person, had many in person and hybrid classes and a successful semester with a lower number of covid cases and process something like 35k tests a week of students and staff.
This is something I am definitely keeping an eye on and looking at for my son for the fall and wherever he ends up just have to understand going in. Even if Covid is under control, it will still be a sign how a university handles an emergency. Furthermore, these schools all lost tons of money, even ones with huge endowments, and that’s another concern, will tuition go way up in future years that we just pay for it in soph-senior year unless he goes to one where it’s locked in freshman year, which would be great.
This is so true. In the fall, I will have 3 kids in college. My two daughters will be at private colleges, while my son is at our state’s land grant university. My son will graduate with significantly more debt than my daughters. In-state turned out to be the more expensive option, but there were other considerations for him.
“Even if Covid is under control, it will still be a sign how a university handles an emergency.”
Agree 100%. To me it speaks to the leadership, planning and execution skills of the administration and culture of the university. On a recent tour, one guide shared how at first he was concerned when the university went back in person and had a huge spike at the beginning, but President said we’re sticking to the in-person plan. After brief initial spike, cases dropped off rapidly and semester went on relatively normal by current standards. All his classes were in person and he said he felt very fortunate for that in the end. I think there are transferable life lessons in that.
Honestly, it is very hard to tell how well universities did with the Covid situation unless there was mandatory testing done often. Many students got wise to the fact that if you don’t test, you don’t have to quarantine.
D21 was glad to see her first choice has mandatory testing. D18’s school doesn’t do mandatory testing and little information on how many tests were performed was provided. She will tell you there was way more Covid going around than was reported.
I am with all of you that I would like my son to go to a school that handled COVID “well”. I would be curious to see how everyone describes well…
Mandatory testing?
allowing on campus classes?
Keeping resident halls open?
take out dining only?
etc…
what I fear is another fall where kids are sitting in their dorm rooms, lonely and unable to have any type of social life. I am hopeful that if our kids face some of these rules, at least schools would be better prepared to have outdoor classes, activities that can be done outside (corn hole, etc…) so they can socialize some.
I am hopeful they will have access to a vaccine, but my wish would be mandatory testing and if you are bringing them back to campus at least a few in person classes. I am big on take out dining, but really hate that for kids in dorms.
The one thing to keep in mind is that your child has zero control over their roommate’s behavior or comfort level with Covid. Most of D18’s friends got Covid not through their own behavior, but their roommates.
I’m teaching at a University with mandatory staff and student testing and faculty are required (with very few exceptions based on health conditions) to be in the classroom to facilitate in person learning. But students have the option of attending in person or staying remote for each class.
On average in-person attendance was at 10% or lower last semester across the University and we don’t expect it to be higher this semester. Student choice.
I’d love to be in front of a room of students eager to be in person but they seem content right now with remote participation. I’m more worried about next fall and whether they ever want to be back on an in-person schedule again. And this is a T50 national university.
Wow. I was away from CC for a week and had a few hours of catch-up over the past 2 days to get to the end of this thread! I have to say it was nice to step away from the process a bit to enjoy the holidays and time with family. But now I’m back in the frazzle and will probably stay here until March! When I will be using the info gleaned here to help guide my D in her decision. The most recent conversations about the handling of covid are particularly insightful.
To share a bit of good news from our house, my D got a call from her admissions rep with acceptance to Rhodes College with $32k Presidents Scholarship and finalist status for the full ride Bellingrath. She needed that boost today.
So that’s really weird. I can’t find the mentor signup either. The larger org is Strive for College. I signed up through the “offers” section in my online Amex account. I’d suggest emailing Info@striveforcollege.org to get the link. It does seem odd that it’s not easily accessible.
That is the difference between a school with a good covid plan and one with a lousy plan. Unfortunately I have kids in both types of schools and what a difference it makes.
While they both have dashboards, one doesn’t report positives if the students were testing at other locations in the town or if they went home for the testing as there was no plan in place to have positives reported. With the other school, you couldn’t just leave campus to be tested, there is an app you need to use and get tested regularly and testing goes through the school, etc. It was great. I feel so comfortable sending that one back to school.
@MIP750 I also looked into UStrive after reading your post the other night. I sent an email to request information but haven’t heard back yet. I love the idea of mentoring if I could be of any help.
Whenever I have to figure out what people want, I listen to what they SAY they want and then watch what they DO. I believe what they do.
Especially college kids who are figuring out how to say what they really want and still please adults.
Not suggesting at all that the experience on my campus is universal. But it’s one example of behavior that suggests that the demand and desire for in person learning also isn’t universal.
My college sophomore admits to liking remote classes (except labs). She’s a very independent learner and is great at time management, and likes the ability to make her own schedule. She did struggle with physics this semester initially, because the professor had a heavy accent, and remote made him harder to understand, so she just learned the material on her own. Honestly, I think the parents have a harder time with remote classes than the students.
