Some people have made this point…but there may never be a vaccine. Or it could take years or decades to develop. We can’t count on that.
Separately, on a UIUC webinar today the AO said they fully expect to be on campus in August to start the semester (but summer programs will be remote). (AO also said that CS had a 4% acceptance rate…but that’s for another thread!)
Don’t expect the fall semester to be rainbows and unicorns. The virus has every reason to rear it’s ugly face during fall season too, and we might be looking at another shutdown.
We are probably in the minority here. My daughter has a full ride between need based grants and an outside scholarship, and I would still suggest to my daughter to take a leave of absence if school is online in the fall. She just does not click with online learning, something we knew before she picked her college (and why she chose one with no distance courses or online components at all). I also think schools would be more likely to allow a leave of absence from students like her- they’re all gonna feel some financial pain, and kids like my D bring no revenue in at all. She wants to stay with her cohort of friends, but if others do take a leave (and right now they’re exceedingly easy to take) she may be persuaded.
Stupid question: do colleges routinely give 1/2 year or full year leave of absences?
Like your list. Adding on…
Schools are not going to differentiate between students residences. I would expect that if they are open, they will welcome or welcome back admitted students from all over. Students who return in person will accept that risk. Most college aged people are at low risk of serious complications from COVID-19 anyway. Colleges were in session during the 1918 flu, the 50s polio epidemic, the 1968 rubella outbreak, etc. There was a higher acceptance of risk then.
Things are changing daily, but here is my solution with what I know now for fall 2020. Must have options…
Assumptions: Covid has peaked in most of country by June 1 but still new infections and deaths occurring. Colleges have to provide a plan or options for fall 2020 admitted students by June 15. By Jan/Spring Semester, Covid is all but eradicated and the country is incrementally getting back to normal. Most schools need revenue streams so they have to be creative this fall.
Option 1: If the student/family would like to rescind their earlier acceptance, all deposit fees returned. No harm, no foul. No “holding” their place and they would have to apply again next year if they want. College pulls from waitlist to get the numbers they need.
Option 2: Offer to have student/family defer one semester for a fee to “hold” their place. Perhaps $10K for privates and $1K for publics. No online courses allowed or transferred in. This would provide needed revenue for schools to pay fixed costs and professors. At top schools, many would pay the fee to keep their kid safe at home, but still admitted.
Option 3: Nearly full semester fall tuition at top schools, discounted tuition at less desirable schools. No on-campus housing, no room and board cost. Full load of ONLY online courses offered, but perhaps not many labs or hands on courses. Kids get a full load, stays on track, with no room and board cost and is safe at home or off campus. Figure $20K for privates and $3K for publics.
Go ahead, pick it apart, but be sure to offer your plan.
@Savvydog - reasonable idea…
Regarding option #2 in reply #206, some colleges may want some (but not too many) fall admits to defer starting in the spring to balance the enrollment across semesters. So if they do not get too many new frosh wanting a fall gap semester, they may offer that at no additional charge.
A lot of schools have already pulled the plug on study-abroad for the fall. If they’re optimistic enough to think that those students will be able to go abroad in the spring, along with those who already planned a spring abroad, that may open up space for single-semester deferrals to start in the spring. But, so many ifs.
We are a small family business that owns rental units used almost solely by students of a large public PNW university. The U has, of course, gone to an online learning platform. The U has issued a statement saying tuition for next year will remain at the current level.
Here is what we are seeing…
When the U went to online classes there were a number of students who left residents halls and moved to apartment style living. Parents were pushing their young adults to get out of the shared bathroom and crowded environs of the dorms. Students still seem to want to stay and live out the year in as normal a fashion as possible.
We have had a number of lease breaks - mainly from seniors. Since they can’t participate in any of the traditional graduation activities, they went home.
International students seem to be staying put, if they leave they might not be able to return.
We are also seeing a higher than normal rate of lease ups for fall 2020. Applicant demographics point to students coming from within a 2-3 hour driving distance. If I had to make a guess - I think the incoming freshman may be staying closer to home. If another virus outbreak occurs then they are a drive away vs. a plane ride. Additionally, if the U continues (or returns to) online learning then maybe parents don’t want to be forking out 75K for a private institution when they can pay 1/3 of that for a high quality, in state, public U. Those 529 accounts have tanked.
It appears that high school seniors, and their parents, still want a college experience. Living off campus in an apartment significantly reduces virus exposure. Even if campus activities, local venues and such are closed (or re-closed) the young adult is still able to live on their own with a semblance of normalcy.
But, things change rapidly.
Even if schools reopen in the fall, large in-person lectures (>100?) are a thing of the past for now. They’ll likely be replaced by online lectures.
My friend just listened in on a meeting about schools in the state I work in. The senators were speaking…discussing a plan to possibly (?) reopen in September. It involved only letting staff and students back who have the antibodies…and said the process will be lengthy and it’s not definite now…only in the discussion phase and there’s still a lot to figure out.
Some of the European countries appear to be reopening in the next few weeks, so we can watch their experiences. If public secondary schools really expect kids to have antibodies, I expect a lot of parents will need to expose their kids to the virus or forfeit their livelihood. Even the extended FMLA won’t cover endless work absences.
@twogirls do you mean K-12?
I don’t understand the antibody thing and I don’t see how they can let some kids come to school and some not. There’s so much inequality in that. Seems like it might not even be legal for K-12 to keep some kids away from school.
What are people to do who have been social distancing and don’t have the antibodies? They are supposed to stay away from people until there’s a vaccine? I don’t think that’s feasible either.
Yes K-12 and yes I agree with you. Right now it’s in the “let’s figure this out” stage. They were trying to figure out if they can somehow open the schools before there is a vaccine.
@twogirls Seems a bit premature to figure out fall for K-12. I’m guessing some medical advances will happen in the next four months and we need that info to decide if K-12 goes back. K-12 can also wait much longer than colleges to make their decision since, for most kids, they aren’t traveling away from home.
That may affect more than just large lectures, if every in-person class has to be put in a much larger classroom than the class’ capacity to allow students to sit further apart (i.e. if a 25-student class has to be put in a classroom that was previously used for classes up to 100).
If everyone is given the antibody test, assuming it’s accurate, the people who test positive have immunity for at least a season, and the people who test negative fall into two categories:
To eliminate the likelihood that someone may belong to Group 2, everyone who tests negative could be isolated for 2 weeks and then retested or given the PCR test to determine his/her status.
I agree it’s premature to make a decision, but for schools to have some kind of plan…the talks need to begin now. I anticipate they will continue for many months.
I still belong to a parent group for my D’s school…even though she graduated in May. One of the moms said that the public universities are talking about doing the fall semester online. Again…nothing definitive right now.