I just got an email (to me, the parent) from an enrollment consulting firm with a survey about college COVID policies and our preferences for enrollment decisions.
First, who gave them my email, a college, or Common App? Just curious; this email address was used in Common App as a parent contact email and some colleges have sent various types of advertising emails to it. Second, we shouldn’t be surprised that they are thinking about these things, because the COVID policies do affect the decision (for our family, this is a straightforward question, is campus open with freshmen in dorms and some portion of classes in person, or not). Third, what would happen with the info I provide if I responded to the survey. I wonder if this survey was commissioned by a particular college or will be sold more broadly to this consulting firm’s clients.
I completely hear you and agree. Feel so bad for college 1st years to have such an abnormal/bummer of a year. Did you see the school that actually spray painted social distancing circles on their quad/lawn ? No, no and more no. Our D21 will NOT be down for the same thing so I truly hope things open up and I mean REALLY open up in a safe but meaningful way.
I got it, too. I deleted it. I don’t like unsolicited emails that “assure my confidentiality”. (Yeah, right.) Bc clearly they have gotten my email address from someone for some reason. I Don’t like it!
I got it and recall at least one other. I filled it out. Questions to do with remote learning this year, vaccine comfort, requirement, openness for classes and housing, and demographics. I said you better open up, house my kid, get vaccines.
No doubt it was initiated by College Board … they have to generate new lines of business and at the end of the day they make their money (and a ton of it) by selling our kids info to schools for solicitation/application generating purposes. Further, schools HAVE to be thinking about fall now and the implications of their decisions/plans related to comfort level and desires of incoming students. Right now even many of the “open” schools (or schools in “open” states) have large numbers of faculty who are teaching remotely. One assumes this is until they are vaccinated which should be resolved by the fall term … does anyone really believe if you want/need to be vaccinated you will not have access to it by fall ?
Unless we have a major world-wide relapse due to new much more dangerous Covid variants or something, I don’t see that happening.
My guess is that nearly every single campus will be open for on-campus learning, especially if vaccines are fully available for all adults (the government is saying that should be the case by the end of May). And remember, college students are adults for the purpose of vaccine, it is K-12 students who are not. Pfizer is authorized for people 16 and over and J&J and Moderna are authorized for 18 and over. So they will all be available for college students.
There may still be some lingering effects of Covid measures on many campuses. For example, large lecture classes may be simu-cast virtually. Which has sort of always happened. I can remember 25 years ago all the students who put tape recorders at the front of the lecture hall. There might also be some lingering restrictions on big athletic fan events, like packing 20,000 students in basketball arenas and that sort of thing.
But I expect most colleges to be largely in-person in the fall. They really aren’t going to have a choice if the current pandemic and vaccine trends continue. Doesn’t matter what professors and such think. They have very little power or say over the matter. If they don’t want to teach in person there will be plenty of adjuncts who will be happy to do so.
HI everyone, I was away for a few days and came back to over 200 posts! Glad to see a few more acceptances and even some school visits.
Final update for my D21 as far as acceptances go- 10 applications, 8 acceptances (Boulder, U Miami, USF, FSU, UF, Elon, College of Charleston), 2 deferrals (Tulane, Richmond - went TO for both.) Last week she removed her applications from Tulane and Richmond so we will never know what may have happened which is weird but she had already picked Boulder so we knew it was the right thing to do. We forgot to do that before FSU and UF decisions came out and felt bad about it!
As far as thank you gifts for teachers who write rec letters, we will do something small. D19 wrote thank you notes and gave each teacher a Tervis with the Tulane Angry Wave logo.
We did not get much swag from schools - D21 did not want to buy anything anywhere and all she got in the mail was a hat from Tulane and a few stickers after acceptances from FSU, U Miami and College fo Charleston. I knew Boulder was one of her top schools when we visited so I snuck away and bought a t shirt that I gave to her the day the decisions were released.
Could be, but College Board wouldn’t be contracting with Maguire, and CB doesn’t have college yield as a concern. Maguire’s clients are colleges, directly.
“Last week she removed her applications from Tulane and Richmond so we will never know what may have happened which is weird but she had already picked Boulder so we knew it was the right thing to do. We forgot to do that before FSU and UF decisions came out and felt bad about it!”
^^^This exactly!! Our college counselors at our school sent out an email this week emphasizing that if you know you are not going to a school you should be declining the acceptance or withdrawing your application as soon as you know you are not attending, especially this year! And they emphasized the “especially this year” part. @momtogokc Your daughter 100% did the right thing. Too many kids are sitting with 7-8 acceptances and the reasons they’re sitting them are not always valid. Some want to compare financial packages, but once you have even 3 you can compare financial packages and eliminate at least 1 if that is truly the issue. Kids not declining or withdrawing are just making it harder on the colleges which in turn just makes it harder on our kids.
Regarding the conversation on orientation for fall, I had a kid that orientation wasn’t even until the fall and the other it was in the summer. The orientation can be fun for the students but it’s not the end of the world if it’s online. Remember, last year, virtually everyone had it online and many kids only stepped foot on a campus for the first time well after they committed to that campus. Some kids (or parents) are just going to have to pull the trigger and be pushed to figure it out.
Yes, honestly freshman orientation is the least of my concerns for D21. I’m hugely interested in whether her future school is on in-person or virtual learning next fall. And knowing that in April would actually inform our decision as to which school to attend. Unfortunately, I expect we will all have to pick schools this spring long before we know exactly what fall 2021 is going to look like.
But orientation? She is smart enough to figure things out on her own, with or without in-person orientation. And if they do it through some sort of virtual phone app or something I’m sure she’ll be just fine. It might even be better. UW-Seattle is now doing self-guided campus tours via a phone app that you download and follow around campus like Pokemon. It is probably better than the cattle car parade of 20 students and parents with a student guide that they used to do. You can spend all day wandering around campus following the online maps and online tour and get a lot more information that way.
Who knows ? Maybe they are selling our names to individual schools and/or consulting firms which schools have contracted with to gain the insight they desire … in the same way they sell our students names which they do over and over.
Unfortunately, even if a school says they’re going to be 100% in person next year, like so many did last summer, that doesn’t really mean it’s going to happen. I would really look at how a school handled covid, how it was for freshmen and in the dorms, what activities they had for the freshmen to meet each other, was it isolating or not, etc, and if a school does manage to actually open up full and be successful that’s an extra bonus. Something else to consider is how a school handled the shut down last year? That’s a sign of what might be to come if there is an emergency during the time your daughter is at school. Some schools handled things great, while others did not. Also, find out how remote learning is. Some have a lot of asynchronous classes as a result with next to no contact with professors, some the professors have really stepped up. One of my kids has a professor she had last spring and he did a great job back then but this semester due to all the cheating, which if you may recall caused a lot of debate in my thread, he isn’t even giving exams. His class wasn’t one that she found there to be any issues because she knew this guy dealt with it unlike some of the others. But, that’s the point. He dealt with it and changed what had to be done and is doing things differently this semester (and he did last semester) to make sure cheating is a non issue. That’s what makes him such an awesome professor unlike some others.
Biggest complaint I’ve seen about professors though more so at my other daughter’s school is the asynchronous piece. I don’t understand that. Mine hasn’t had that issue and it would infuriate me too if I were paying.
I’m hoping for all in person for all 3 of my college kids. Right now only 1 has in person classes but that’s because they kicked covid’s butt there with their awesome testing and contract testing. Not all schools are doing a great job all around. But we can all do better.
A lot of schools won’t let you take any classes if you take a gap year (defer admission) and still want to attend without reapplying. BUT I noticed last spring that there were exceptions given by some schools due to pandemic uncertainties (Virginia Tech for example would let kids defer enrollment by a year and they could take courses elsewhere if they wanted to). That might be something to look for (even though you’re all talk )
It’s crazy that EM is a multi billion dollar consulting business for admissions, but it rarely gets mentioned by AOs and journalists. They all admit it’s a billion dollar business though, and every once in awhile I see one of them bought out a competitor for serious money.
btw, I received the email too and filled out the survey.
It sounds like it really depends on the school (size as well) … orientation (I’m talking about the type that bumps right up to the 1st day usually concluding with a convocation or some other tradition) was a massive deal to our other Ds - again, it is likely just school specific so that is the only experience we know - which is why I can’t imagine it NOT happening
It is already starting. Just today the University of Oregon announced that it is planning to be close to 100% in-person next fall. And OR has been one of the most cautious states in the country in terms of Covid-restrictions: University of Oregon to return to mostly in-person classes - oregonlive.com
They are planning to vaccinate students on campus. According to the article:
According to the Oregon Health Authority’s phased approach to distribution, the majority of University of Oregon students are included in Phase 2. The University will offer vaccinations to students in jointly sponsored clinics during that phase of the process.
I expect to see an avalanche of similar announcement by schools all across the country as the May 1st enrollment deadline approaches. No school is going to want to be caught flat-footed without an in-person plan for fall 2021 when all their peer institutions are offering it. I expect a flood of similar announcements to come out in the next few weeks as schools are competing for fall 2021 enrollments.
Fall 2021 with vaccines universally available and Covid infection rates down to background noise is going to be an entirely different world from fall 2020 when no vaccine or reliable treatment was even available, and infection rates were escalating around the country and world.
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