I really don’t think colleges can say to existing students that you either suck it up and pay full freight for a significantly reduced experience or you can hit the road jack. There have got to be other choices. Some choices are:
allow student to take a gap year to sit out a year,
-reduced price for reduced services,
allow those kids who want to take advantage of it to have a tuition-free or reduced tuition 5th year or semester, depending on how impacted the current school year is.
I’m sure there are other choices, and would love to hear them.
The issue with taking a gap year because the residential college experience might temporarily change is that it will cost colleges so much in lost revenue that it will cause permanent changes. Families are hesitant about committing to sending their children back, and those who will want more financial aid money. Endowments lost a lot of money and a lot of the funds are restricted, so there’s an enormous deficit. The more families who bail, the worse the situation will be.
I think majors with low enrollments will be merged or dropped. Fewer majors means fewer research positions for students, and admission to certain majors may become more competitive. At some colleges, classes are already difficult to get a seat in. I expect that to become much more competitive too.
There are a lot of expenses to be covered, and money has to come from somewhere. Faculty and administrators will take a ~10% pay cut, but they’ll still be eligible to receive tens of thousands of dollars every year in tuition benefits for each child. That won’t be reduced. The support staff doesn’t get tuition benefits, so there’s nothing to cut there, but their ~$20k/year salary will be cut by ~10%. Those are the lucky ones. People are going to lose their jobs. Fewer staff to do the same workload means it will take longer to process student requests. Fewer mid-level deans means fewer people to help students resolve issues, sponsor student clubs, or fund special requests for student events, travel to major related conferences, etc.
Department budgets will be cut too. That will directly impact funds available to sponsor student attendance at major industry events. It will reduce the ability to offer student activities and have a negative impact on the number of student jobs each department can afford to offer. Department sponsored groups also depend on funding. All those fun events colleges sponsor for students cost money. Speakers don’t do lecture series for free.
So take a gap year if you want. But don’t do it with the mistaken impression that the residential experience will be the same when your student returns. Enrolling for one semester of online courses will cause a loss of some on campus opportunities for one semester. If enough families take a gap year that will cause a reduction of campus opportunities for many years to come.
For the class of 2021, I’d recommend making sure the colleges on your teen’s list are being transparent about whether or not they are allowing more gap years than usual for the class of 2020, and if they are, what that means for admission chances for this year’s juniors.
My D21 is not applying to Grinnell, but for those 21s who are, the following statement on Grinnell’s admissions page is probably appreciated - “The approval of gap year requests in particular will be limited out of fairness to next year’s admitted student class.”
The class of 2021 needs to accurately compile their list of safeties/matches/reaches, so if matches are now reaches due to a drop in acceptance rates because a significant number of fall 2021 spots are already filled with 2020 students, then that is something this year’s juniors need to know. (That might mean a drop in applications from 2021 students to those schools for next year’s cycle, which would affect the schools’ ratings the following year).
Totally agree but don’t you think some colleges might have caps on gap years or deferrals? Especially Lacs. How can they survive with 50% student loss? So what is the cut off point?
Err… Why wouldn’t a senior come back? Can’t imagine my son not finishing this coming year. We actually looked at his schedule and most class’s should be smaller groups and finishing up 2 minors. But think he’s also ready for the next phase of life to begin.
Let’s face it. There’s NO solution that makes everyone whole if the pandemic lingers beyond this summer (the likely scenario). Colleges, students and their families all have to take some hits. Colleges will come out with their “solutions”, but none of them is going to be without cost and risk. The cost and the risk will be shared by the colleges, students and their families. Some colleges (a small minority) will be in the better position and may be more generous than others by taking on more of the cost and the risk. Consider yourself lucky if your kid attends such a college.
I agree with much of this. When students/families are making their decisions, make sure to understand what needs to be in place for the school to return to normalcy.
Is it a vaccine? Access to rapid testing and contact tracing capabilities? An effective treatment that can be easily administered once symptoms appear? The answers the administrators make to these questions will be telling, and will allow students to plan accordingly.
Lots of risk for schools that choose fully remote, when many schools will seemingly have students on campus, whether for fully in-person or hybrid classes…of course all of that remains to be seen, we will know more by July.
What schools are hurting for is the money from the students, not the bodies themselves, so I would be surprised if they’re eager to accept transfers with their original freshman aid offers that make the school free- it kinda defeats the purpose from their end, no? That’s kinda why I didn’t worry about my kids if they want a deferral or gap- one is basically going for free due to scholarships/aid and the other has a full tuition scholarship. They’re not exactly cash cows for schools- if they take a year off and are replaced by full or near-full pay students it’s a help to the school in the short term.
They can try to put in caps, but they can’t stop students from choosing to not enroll. How would caps even work? First come, first served? And if a student’s request for a leave is denied, when other students’ requests have been accepted…bad optics on that. And yes, the consequence for not enrolling might mean withdrawal from the uni. Tough decisions all around, but fundamentally it’s going to be a buyer’s (students) market.
We all read the Macalester College president’s statement that if they go fully remote, he expects to lose 25% of the students. Clearly, they aren’t going fully remote unless forced to.
I agree that probably not many seniors will take a leave. OTOH, there are many people pushing back on paying full price for a different experience, one that is lesser in many people’s minds.
@milgymfam , you should keep in mind that those monetary offers your kids received pertained to fall 2020 enrollment. For need based aid, the financial aid doesnt carry over after a gap year; you will need to reapply with the next year’s FAFSA form and hope the college gives the same aid. Some merit scholarships allow deferrals, but many do not. You will want to carefully check the details.
I know of many transfers who have been contacted with offers of honoring their initial acceptance and FA package, but generally these were not full rides.
There are quite a few schools hurting for bodies…note the 728 of 1,200 NACAC schools still accepting freshman apps, and 736 of 1,200 NACAC schools still accepting transfer apps. So the idea that many schools are just going to get a full or near full pay student from the waitlist isn’t the reality for most.
Agree, but there will always be money for the students a given school really wants.
One of the casualties of the pandemic may be fewer need blind schools. The Bowdoin President directly said should their finances come under significant pressure that they might not be able to maintain their need blind policy.
My daughter who is taking a gap year I was referring to only her merit aid and she has been told it absolutely carries over to the next year. If my older daughter on full financial aid took a leave, our income certainly isn’t making any big jumps anytime soon, and her school has reiterated to all parents that they’ll continue to meet full need in the future years- and if they do not for whatever reason- she has an outside scholarship in her back pocket that isn’t really doing anything at the moment and could fill in. I guess I’m saying I agree with you- always check with your own situation and your kids’ schools and make sure the plans will work out for them. We’ve done so on our end.
They could also reduce FA cost in a more stealthy way by changing the calculation of “need” to be less generous for following year new students (I.e. those entering fall 2021 and later). They could also increase the expected student contribution (student work and student loan) in the FA package.
@hopeful1660 thanks for sharing some first person experience of a gap semester. These are the exact things that I was concerned about when my D (an upcoming college senior) mentioned it when all of this started. She’s changed her mind against it now, but still is sad/worried about missing out on one of her last two semesters at school…no matter how it happens, it won’t be the same. She loves her school and had all kinds of extra projects this spring and next fall that she had earned/been selected for, close relationships with mentors, etc, and all of the projects (Theater/Film Dept) are just gone, and probably won’t happen in the fall either. But if she took a gap year, would she lose those connections and momentum and when she returned, would she be able to get them back?
I wonder what the statistics are for the number of students who don’t return or transfer after a gap year, and wonder if that rate will be higher now. Partly due to the financial climate, but in such a time of change around us, desires and priorities change too.
Of course very school dependant. Some schools know they will be increasing their aid since my guess very few families as a whole haven’t been affected to some degree. I just keep reading stories of kids not only going to community College instead but forgetting the dream of college altogether. That to me is heart breaking.
Do you think a professor would quit before agreeing to wipe down the 30 desks in a classroom? Oh they’ll whine and complain, but so what?
I’ve lived in college towns for almost 30 years, so I know the elitist attitude professors tend to have, but I also know a lot of them are well aware of their potential income if they leave academia. I also know that the administration routinely angers professors with zero impact to the administration.
A also know there is zero extra money to hire an army of desk wipers to descend on every classroom during class changes.
How much influence do you all think the faculty will have on whether class can be back in person…or at least some classes back in person? Do you think there’s a chance that faculty could be a driving force to keep classes remote?