This appears to be not much different to most kids (apart from freshmen) at non-LAC colleges who will go back to apartments in their college town with their friends and if necessary take their classes online. It’s being with friends that is the most important element for them. So is it just that you object to paying $25K per semester for that experience?
And that would still be a choice.
Harvard Extension School offers many programs online but it also has a large in person on campus component too.
@twoin18 Yes. Full price online class is too expensive. Plus, and I feel like I’m a broken record on this, but when we made our decision to send him there it was for eight semesters of the full Bowdoin experience. If he lives off campus and takes online Bowdoin class, that uses up another semester he won’t get on campus. College only happens once and, if we can help it, we don’t want to rush it along and have him only get six and a half semesters of the whole experience. He already lost half of last semester like everyone else and that included his track season. If he goes to Bowdoin this fall, he will lose a XC season too.
The irony in all of this is that there are a number of provinces where the teachers’ unions have been fighting with the provincial government during contract negotiations regarding funding. Provinces have wanted to slash education budgets by increasing class sizes and the teachers have been fighting to maintain the status quo. It looks like the virus is going to support their agenda and that smaller class sizes are going to have to be norm. On the other hand here in Ontario the provincial government wanted to mandate that all high school students had to take a number of mandatory on-line courses and got massive push back from the teachers. They were actually in the midst of contract negotiations when the virus hit and schools had to close, forcing the teachers to start providing on-line content.
@gwnorth Concordia University, Université de Montréal and University of Saskatchewan have also announced that fall semester will be essentially remote/online. While Montreal is the most affected Canadian city it pales when compared to New York City. I cannot imagine that NYU and Columbia will be able to welcome students back to campus in September.
Question about your sons fall XC season. Does he know for certain they won’t train/compete or are you just speculating?
@homerdog wrote:
But, how does he feel about it?
Several NESCAC presidents have mentioned fall sports are unlikely to happen.
@ChemAM Has Biddy said anything about fall sports? Somewhere I read that NESCAC is considering moving fall sports to winter or spring where possible. That won’t work for XC and golf, because they are also spring sports already, and can’t be played in the NE in winter.
I think the intention was not that there would be 10,000 students on campus but rather expansion would occur via on-line offerings. If they did that it would create 2 tiers of education, even within the same institution with those 1,000 still being offered the traditional on-campus experience getting a prestige boost over those taking courses online. In this way the on campus experience at elite schools would become even more elite.
@circuitrider he says absolutely, positively he’s taking a break if the only option is remote instruction. If kids are on campus, he wants to know the details and then he will decide. At first, he thought he’d want to go back for sure if kids are allowed in the dorms but, now that it’s sinking in as to what campus could look like and that class might still be remote, he’s again leaning towards taking a break. He’s also concerned about staying with his group of friends so it will be interesting to see what they all decide. So far, the boys are all on the same page.
Coaches have not been in touch about XC but, if they will compete, that could be a game changer and he would maybe go back if dorms are open. From what I’ve read about sports in general at the D3 level, I’m doubting they will have a season.
@homerdog wrote:
So, they would prefer to be a few miles away from Bowdoin, renting a house together, not taking online classes rather than being on campus for $25,000? Forgive me for not quite being able to wrap my arms around this. You don’t sound like a broken record to me at all. 
My D and friends are considering the same thing. I think they lean towards doing online classes rather than not, but are still mulling things over.
Unless the virus goes away by the fall (a highly unlikely scenario), every college will have to come up with its own plan to deal with school opening based on its own situation (geographic location, availability of housing that meets de-densification and new case isolation requirements, the opinions of its faculty/staff/students, financial considerations, etc). Just as there’s no consensus across the country on when to lift stay-at-home orders, there won’t be consensus on these school reopening plans. Students and their families have to make their decisions on the options offered by their colleges based on their own situations. The best we can do now is to be informed and prepared to make such decisions, probably on a short notice. All options involve some compromise, unfortunately. There’s no single option that’s best for every family.
Dr. Fauci just testified during a Senate Committee hearing that “the idea of having treatments available or a vaccine to facilitate the re-entry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far.”
I didn’t post this article, so not sure why you are addressing me. @NearlyDone2024 linked it.
I did read the article and the premise is that in the future, companies like Google, FB, etc. will sponsor (remote or hybrid) education partnering with known universities - with alot of corporate types doing some of the training. This keeps costs down and they get a pipeline of future employees trained in the skills they want. To me, Its feasible only if they find a way to provide a residential experience and I agree, that top schools won’t mix degrees of the traditional nature with the ones from these quasi-remote colleges. As I mentioned, Harvard has had the Harvard Extention school for a while, which is a remote learning setup (with some onsite offerings). Graduates don’t get a Harvard College degree, they get a Harvard Extension school degree.
My rising sophomore has had evolving thoughts on this. When it first happened he said he was absolutely going back if it was possible and if it was all online he would take time off.
Now, he is no longer considering taking a break. He will be doing college in the fall, no matter what form it takes. His thinking is that there is nothing else that he would rather be doing, given all the closures, so he might as well go to school.
We’ve discussed being home vs on campus if given the option. He says that if all his classes are online he’d probably rather be home. Why? The gym. S’s big outlet is weightlifting. He thinks its far more likely that the gym at home is open versus the gym at school. He say at school it is always really crowded and no social distancing is possible at all. He really has his doubts about the gym at school opening up. Of course, if the gym at home remains closed that I’m guessing he would probably rather be back.
I am glad he is putting words around this but we do know what we need to have schools open…adequate testing and contact tracing, with the ability to quarantine those who have been exposed and/or infected (obviously separately).
Outbreaks will happen, and people have to get comfortable with that concept if they want to go to school, or have things ‘open’ up.
@homerdog Is Bowdoin permitting students to take just the fall semester off and then return for the spring semester?
Like all luxury brands, elite schools would love to expand their reach without negatively affecting their brands. They can’t do it with simple scaling. They would need to create separate tiered products. The online classes will attract different types of students. They’ll be mostly taught by different faculty. Many of these colleges probably have already thought about this even before the coronavirus outbreak. If their online class experiments in the fall and beyond prove successful, they may accelerate their efforts to offer tiered online products permanently. But they won’t be the same as their flagship product.