That one goes to UT-Austin. She loves it. Covid was for crap there since they did nothing but she dodged that bullet and was vaccinated in late January since there was hesitancy there. She always tells me that UGA is very popular for kids that don’t get into UT in Texas or that don’t want to go there. I think there is a nice Jewish population there. I know her year a bunch of kids from our school (Suburban Chicago) applied to UGA. Only 1 got in and I can’t remember if she wound up going or not. I have a good friend from college who has another good friend who lives in Athens with her husband. One of them works for UGA. They’re Jewish and love it too. I think like Austin, Athens is a fairly liberal part of the state.
Someone else can confirm this, but I think someone said their applications went up immensely over the last year (or two) because they are just now on the common app. Or maybe I’m mixing it up with Florida. There are so many great schools down there that are all similar, I can’t keep track. I think UGA also has a really good business school which is also why kids go there from Texas if they sometimes can’t get into UT or they go for the UGA Honors program. Or they just go to get out of the state which is why my kids are all out of state. None wanted to stay in Illinois. 0 for 4.
Where else is she considering and I’m sure I’ve seen this many times where are you guys from?
All I can say is trust your kid, there are other like minded folks like her. My oldest is turning 24 and didn’t go to college but is VERY covid cautious but can’t comment as far as college for him. We are very covid cautious at home as well.
My 3 kids for college —
Strict covid policy. Mandated vaccine. Have been open all year to some degree in person, hybrid and remote (more so due to professor hesitancy). Works for most, does not work for all and some freshmen had some issues with socialization. Testing first semester 2x/week mandatory, second semester if in greek, athlete, or other activities meeting in person 3x/week. Once proof of vaccine shown testing requirement is only once/week. My daughter other than being a little lazier with classes that are remote, is having a pretty normal semester. I wasn’t overly impressed with a lot of things academically and large classes, advising etc, but their covid protocols blew that all out of the water. Rush was second semester though which I think was great.
Academic experience last year was by far better than #1, amazing professors, hands on, great teaching, great career planning, advising, smaller classes, not all classes were complete time sucks, couldn’t be more impressed, etc. First semester rush was very stressful though. Then came covid and it looked like things were going to be good, they talked a good talk, but nope. They called it “proactive covid testing”. In other words, we’ll test you when you want to be tested but we won’t push you to get tested. Some really tried to encourage it, but the President’s hands were kind of tied. No plan for the university. Lots of cases in certain dorms, frats were having large parties all semester etc. Some cared more about sports than safety. You get the drift. Professors were amazing during remote as far as our experience but covid handling was really disappointing. No mandate. Anyone was pretty much able to get the vaccine. My daughter’s entire sorority due to same like mindedness is basically all vaccinated with the exception of a few. People do care also. Just heard a story of a social gathering where someone literally walked away from talking to someone in her house when he found out she wasn’t vaxxed and made up some excuse why she wasn’t. She isn’t by choice, not because she hasn’t been able to get it. So ya, people definitely care. Those who don’t will find their own as well. So, your daughter if going to UGA, will find those who care. If she’s vaxxed she will find her own etc.
My hs senior. Our hs is having a vaxx clinic this week for students. The high school I work at is having one next week. Big turnout for both, even though many can walk in to most places these days and get it. My son just got his second dose on Sunday. He’s going to Michigan. Michigan’s mandate right now is anyone living on campus must have the vaccine. He already uploaded his vaccine. Prior to their announcement thousands had already been vaccinated there. There are rumblings and who knows what they will turn to that dining halls and large lecture classes (which are set for remote next fall still) may require vaccines of anyone to attend in person. That would be great but not expecting that. I’m just happy there’s some mandate. When looking for a roommate he wasn’t going random. This was one reason why. Finding someone who shared similar views. I had been engaged with someone recently on FB who told me her son only wore a mask when going into a store that required it. She laughed over that. Said he hates masks. My son wears it every day from 730-3 at school, other than when he leaves for lunch and then again for a few hours more when he plays tennis outside. Yesterday it was 80 degrees here and he wore it outside for practice. No complaints. Even with the new guidelines, it’s not the guidelines here for high school sports and the coach doesn’t want to take any chances since they are real close during practice anyway.
Bottom line - 3 different schools doing 3 different things all in totally different kinds of environments, and while I worry about my kids, especially the one at UT. None have gotten covid. I worried like crazy, I can’t tell you. The idea of what she might have to deal with when my age if she got it was the scariest thing ever to me. The schools my daughters are at the students are pretty liberal but at UT the parents are not which is funny. I am not sure yet about UM.
Your daughter will navigate things based on how you taught her. Have faith in the job you did and her!!
Average salary for family medicine doctors in 2020 was $237,000. And young aggressive doctors can run that up much higher by doing moonlighting. They are doing just fine.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful response!
She’s looking at University of Wisconsin Madison too. I think she’s going to choose UGA (which I think is a great choice for her), but I would be very pleased with a vaccine mandate. We will definitely be looking for a vaccinated roommate!
Re the roommate, it wasn’t even something I had been thinking about as there were so many other traits on my mind, but once the woman made that comment, bam that was it. My son at the time didn’t even care about finding a roommate and was fine going random. That sealed the deal as I think he realized the potential problems. Just as someone else may not want a roommate who is a big covid conscious person he doesn’t want someone that isn’t.
UW is very big here where we live. For some odd reason this year I think around 30 kids from our class are headed there, with more still to commit. My oldest son’s year I don’t even think 10 kids got in! This year I think everyone did. They’ve lost a lot of funding over the last few years so that’s probably some of it - accepting more OOS students. Their tuition is crazy.
Although unlikely considering it’s public and the Governor’s authority in GA, anything can happen with the vaccine there! But I do see every day more and more schools mandating it. I just noticed that since the last time I looked all the Ivies except Harvard are finally now mandating. Last week only 5/8 were requiring it. Another school here in Chicago is now mandating it. Each day more and more. Kemp at least hasn’t signed an executive order forbidding (not the right word) schools to mandate it unlike Abbott and DeSantis.
Notice you say avg salary for family medicine drs. Of course over the course of a lifetime a family medicine dr can make 237k and most are in practice for way more than 30 years making more than 237k bringing that avg up, but for a dr and what people view as making “a lot” of money that really isn’t. Especially when you take into account the amount of schooling and training they’ve had to go through that they’re not going to be able to start making any real money until they’re in their 30’s or so and many will have an outrageous amount of debt that will require them to work for a very long time. Additionally, I sure as heck hope they can make that if they’ve been working 35+ years. Teachers where I live are making close to 175k-200k after 30 years with huge pensions (for 10 months of work) so if a Dr isn’t there’s a problem!
The question is what is their starting salary? Not 237k in primary care! It’ll take a long time to make 237k for most of them and even longer to net 237k a year after paying off the high amount of debt. And surgeons are making way more than 237k on avg! Also, it’s not really that easy to moonlight when you have to take call several times a week and have family obligations. Much easier during residency but afterwards, not quite as much. Easier however, if in a more rural area or near a prison, but still not easy once in a full time practice. I lived that life and one my husband was done with residency, very little time for that.
My wife is a family physician. With the benefits included, $237k is about the starting salary at Kaiser Permanente here in the Pacific Northwest.
Point being, it isn’t the end of the world if you don’t get the surgical or dermatology residency.
I don’t know any teachers who make $200K anywhere. Here in Vancouver WA, starting teachers with a BA make $54k and the salary schedule tops out at MA+90 with 20 years at $103K.
If there are K-12 teachers making $200K anywhere, it is in a tiny number of extremely affluent districts in a tiny number of metropolitan areas for teachers with doctorates or multiple MAs, and their starting salary is 50-60K.
My partner is a primary-care physician and I agree that $200K+ per year starting salaries are common, and around here it is easy to tack on $75,000 to that by working a single weekly no muss, no fuss 8-hour shift as a hospitalist or at an urgent care. There are also many jobs that offer substantial loan forgiveness for working with Medicaid or otherwise underserved populations.
I’d genuinely like to know where teachers make $175-200k per year with huge pensions. My husband doesn’t make anywhere near that, and he’s a PhD. tenured professor. (He would be making far more money if he had simply used his undergrad Chem E degree for a job in industry.)
Our superintendent is paid $250k. Our teachers are paid well but not quite that well. I just looked up the report with the teacher salaries and D21’s teachers’ salaries range from $120k- $160K. Suburban Chicago district.
I suppose that occurs in very high COL areas such as affluent urban suburbs, but the higher pay would also be eaten up by much higher housing costs in such an area. I wonder if the average teacher in such suburbs also lives in the same neighborhoods as the students that they teach, or if they commute to less-expensive areas? Just as there are physicians earning seven figures, there are teachers with high salaries, but I don’t think anyone can say that either scenario is the norm in the average American community. I can definitely say, though, that the physicians in my community can afford a very different lifestyle than that of the average teacher or professor.
We are able to send our D to the OOS college of her choice because she is an only child, because we started her college fund when she was a baby, and because we inherited investments from very frugal parents on both sides. (BTW, Those of you who complain about the high cost of college education, please don’t blame state-school professors )
It’s a mixed bag…younger and/or single teachers living in the city, some live local, some may commute up to 30 mins. All in all, Chicagoland isn’t a high COL area…yes there are some affluent areas, but there are many affordable options for people making those salaries that don’t require long commutes.
Many of the teachers also supplement income by tutoring ($100-$120/hour), or teaching summer school, or working other jobs in the summer. The teachers who tutor really make $$$. At $120/hour with 12 clients, say for 30 weeks each per year…that’s over $40K, cash.
Most of the teachers I know well either live in our district or in neighboring districts (where maybe it is just a little less expensive to live). The ones who live here are all women whose husbands work and contribute to the family income. The male teachers I know do not live in our district but one or two neighborhoods away where the schools are still very well regarded but housing costs are lower. Many of the male teachers I know also have working spouses.
@Mwfan1921, I was only making that comparison because @srparent15 seemed to be saying that a high school teacher’s salary is almost in the same range as the average family physician. Just saying that’s not true in the America that I see (not even for professors required to have a PhD and are qualified for much more lucrative jobs).
Wow! tutoring at $120 an hour! My H could make a killing in the summers doing that…unfortunately, we do not have a population of parents here that could afford to pay that! Just joking a little bit…we are fortunate to live comfortably, we live on a beautiful, historic street (housing costs among the lowest in the country), we have retirement funds, my D can go to the college of her choice and my H can spend his summers bicycling the mountain roads to his heart’s content. Not complaining for ourselves. We elected a low-stress life because we could. But it’s not the situation I see for the average teacher who lives in our area, as compared to the incomes of the physicians. I don’t resent the incomes of physicians (after all, my H’s Ph.D was fully funded, and he gets no emergency calls at night) but just wish the average teacher In our town could better afford to send their kids to college.
Have any of your kids accepted a spot at a school they feel good enough about, but not great? My daughter is in that camp. She is a very thoughtful, practical kid and walked me through the reasons for her decision while at the same time lamenting it. She knows she would be excited and nervous to go to University of Toronto- actually visited, loved the city and vibe BUT has no idea what she wants to study, wants liberal arts breadth and support to figure out her path. She accepted her offer at Macalester, had not visited, believes the support would be there but at the same time is concerned about size and social justice vibe. She says she knows it’s the right choice, but hasn’t given up the U of T spot. Any thoughts or advice?
I wouldn’t expect a mandate at UGA. My daughter applied and was rejected, but had already crossed it off the list before that after speaking with a friend there. Masks were never required anywhere in Athens. Packed bars during the entire year, with notices out front that masks were not required so don’t enter if you have an issue with that. Not my daughter’s jam at all.
My sister is in Toronto and my niece got into U of T and Queens. She chose Queens over U of T as U of T students struggle to keep up GPA and lot of them even give up. Also they don’t assign competitive majors until the second year. So if for some reason you don’t get a good GPA first year, you wouldn’t be able to get the major you want. A lot of first year classes are so big and either done in a big hall or online. With so many negatives she decided against U of T, even though it is ranked high. So I think your child made a good decision. Also my D has chosen Georgetown for several reasons although she feels that she is better for at UVA. Money is the first reason.
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