I agree that fears of litigation will lead to colleges choosing to not have any on-campus students in the Fall unless this has really calmed down by June or so.
Many colleges depend on room and board for revenue (‘profit’). I know if I were a full-pay parent at a private college I would not be thrilled about that tuition bill for an online semester. I think many of those parents will elect to defer for that semester.
Those schools with strong endowments will dip into that for operating expenses and will be fine. Others…will not be able to do that and will not be fine.
Last time I checked, the average age of tenured full professors was rather high (high 50’s, I think?). I predict a LOT of retirements in the coming year. They won’t be thrilled with the health threat nor the need to be nimble and teach online. But then there is the little problem with their 401k balances…
It’s not easy for current students to just defer a semester at many schools. Most schools have clearly defined reasons/situations where they will grant a deferral.
It will be interesting to see what colleges do with regard to the pandemic…whether they will grant deferral requests because a student doesn’t want online learning, or grant gap year requests for incoming freshman, etc.
Also wondering if all colleges will make the same decision for fall…might some choose to open, while some choose remote learning?
I come back to the question…if things aren’t good enough pandemic wise for colleges to re-open, what will the students do with their time?
Seems like remote learning could be the best option for many. But then there’s the whole full tuition issue…will schools doing remote learning lower tuition?
I do not see how this is really going to go away in the next 3/4 months which pretty much puts us into June/July time frame when colleges need to truly be upfront (if not sooner) about Fall plans.
There is an internal memo put out by Miami University where they could potentially see a 20 percent enrollment drop (they are already running behind) and a complete virtual Fall semester, and impactful economic loses.
I am sure a similar memo is running around at every college. Many schools are already digging deep into their waitlists/Deferred applicants with the expectation that many will not even show up come Fall semester. Keep in mind that many students were accepted prior to COVID19 and colleges were not even thinking about such an event.
For many parents and students, affordability will be the biggest priority (for many it has always been) knowing that an online semester or two is not worth the extra OOS or even private school money. Schools that have been the 3,4 ,5 choices on a list will now become the top choice due to cost and distance.
I don’t see all colleges granting deferral requests. Many families will have to choose between paying for remote learning or leaving the school completely.
I also don’t see anything returning to normal until we have a vaccine…and that won’t happen for at least a year. With any luck we will have medication available within the next few months.
Will schools open in the fall? My guess is no, but if they do…they will quickly close again once the second round begins (and it will). Available treatments and testing will of course help and make us better prepared to possibly stay open …to some degree.
I feel bad for kids graduating from college this May. I don’t see them working any time soon (some will, of course) and they might be competing with next years graduates for jobs. Who even knows what type of jobs will be available when this nightmare ends? It’s going to take a long, long time for any normalcy to return. So many young adults here have been let go from their jobs.
Sorry to be all doom and gloom…but I am living in a hot zone and hear horror stories all day.
Well I hope colleges get creative. My son has less then like 9 credits to graduate but wanted a minor and he has 2 semesters to do it and meets with his advisor tomorrow. He could technically graduate early after fall but doesn’t really want to.
After reading that the Miami Ohio dean said they have no idea whether they will have on campus or remote learning in the fall, it made me think that this thread has been really focused on students who live on campus.
A high proportion of students live off-campus at many schools, like at Miami. Students there sign leases nearly a year in advance to secure off campus housing, and I expect landlords won’t be giving that money back.
That then leads to the issue that potentially many students will be near campus, living in their off-campus housing, whether their learning is face to face or remote. A potentially strange, and problematic situation for colleges in this position.
@Knowsstuff Thoughts? Assume your S would go to campus and live in the apartment he has probably already paid for next fall?
@Mwfan1921. I am right there with ya… In my son’s case he is going to live off campus. Man, apartments are expensive… Yes mostly 1 year leases. He is actually looking at the coops at Michigan. Single rooms and start /end with the school year.
But it’s funny you ask. Tomorrow I am calling around to see if anyone is going to negotiate for a “school year” lease. Not a year lease. Maybe not at Michigan but have to assume some management companies will be feeling the pinch. Gotta believe the renter has the advantage now.
If enough people ask maybe they will feel the pressure to do so.
The other term you can use is asking for rent abatement for some months… I would think they would want to sign someone to a 9/10 month lease vs no lease.
Just a correction here. The number of people who test positive is doubling approx twice per week. We don’t really know how many infected people there are. There are not enough tests. There are likely far more infected, who have not been tested, than the current number being reported (160,000+ today).
Many of the students with apartment leases will want to continue or start school at the new apartments. My daughter can not wait to go back to school and her “life”. But I also can see where a lot of people will default these deposits. Many will not be able or want to justify spending the money when the town continues to be closed assuming things continue to be the way they are now.
This is a terrible and unimaginable situation for everyone. If you are a senior in college, you might be able to get a job. If you are a junior, you might not be able to go back and eventually he or she might have to compete with these seniors for jobs. If you are a high school senior, this is nothing how they envisioned. Whether you are about to start at Harvard, Ohio State, or XYZ college, it might not matter because everything will be the same in the short term. Obviously our everyone’s health is more important, but there is no other way to spin it, this situation really sucks.
I’m also trying to figure out how to handle off campus apartment for my current junior. Not at Miami of Ohio, in LA at LMU. It’s so expensive that it would hurt bad to be paying for an empty apartment. But (in normal times), housing is also incredibly competitive and its not just college students, so I don’t know that any leniency or partial year leases will be possible. Her current lease ends 5/6.
I don’t know either but it doesn’t hurt to try. I see at Michigan there are 9 month leases but they are so much more money. Well, I will start my research tomorrow and go from there. My son will get on this more next week. He is putting on a "live " conference and needs to concentrate on that. I have also heard that , at his school that some of the really nice high rises were lowering rents due to the fact they couldn’t fill their apartments. That was “before” this all happened. I think I might start with those and see how bad they are really hurting. He has not had great luck with roommates and it is about the same money either way , which is strange.
I also might want him to be in a single apartment after going through this. At least he could stay there like he is doing now and be more efficient with his time. If this goes through another wave in the fall then he wouldn’t need to rush home.
At DS19’s school residence is primarily for first year students. He’s signed a 1 year lease in a house near campus with 7 other students (it’s been split into 2 4 bedroom apartments) for next year but I can’t see him going to live there rather than stay at home if classes are going to be online. If that turns out to be the case we’re going to end up paying 8 months rent for accommodations he isn’t using (including the summer). On the other hand we are supposed to be getting a rebate from the school for some of his residence costs due to the early closure which will offset a few months rent. Fortunately the total rent for his 1 year lease is cheaper than what we paid this year for 8 months of on campus residence.
At this point though I’m more concerned about how his classes are going to go forward. As a Physics major 3 of his fall semester courses are supposed to be lab courses.
Many leases for next year have already been signed. In Boulder, the ‘good’ places are all rented for the next year by Thanksgiving. And they are ALL 11.5 month leases, starting in August and ending with a 1-2 week gap before the start of the next year. The lease that my sister had to sign for my nephew was almost $50k! It was for 5 guys in the basement of a house. Sure it was broken out per guy, but all of them had to sign for the whole $50k (and there was a huge hunk of the deposit they would never see again, for cleaning, re-keying, for some maintenance).
@TS0104 my junior daughter is in San Diego in an off campus apartment. She stayed because she has a part time job there and is still working (causing my stress level to be super high with worry!). Her lease goes through the end of June. I figured since we were paying for it and she was working, it made sense for her to stay. Of course, now I’m sick with worry and wish I had brought her home. She, OTOH, is okay with her decision to stay.
I have a ticket for her to fly home at the end of May when classes end. She was hoping to have an internship in DC this summer and live at home. I’m not sure she’ll get any of the internships she applied for now. If not, we may rethink whether she even bothers moving home for summer. She could possibly ask her landlord to go month to month and stay in her apt at least through August and continue working at her current job, but she would only be able to do that if her two roommates also want to stay. Her original plan for senior year was to move to a place by the beach, taking over the lease for one of her graduating senior friends. I’m not sure what we will do if classes continue to be online for fall. I’d hate to keep paying rent when she could live at home for free, it then again, it’s her senior year, so if she wanted to stay, I think we’d suck it up and let her. Of course all of this will depend on many variables, most importantly, whether or not her friends/roommates would be staying and sharing the rent. A lot for us to think about in the next couple of months.
@4kids4us yes, it is. I think we also waver between having D “shelter in place” here (where she currently is) or there, if this goes into fall, and if travel back is allowed. She is also looking into a house that senior friends are vacating, so if that falls into her lap, we’d probably take it just to have it all settled. But if it doesn’t, IDK… might just find someone to move her stuff from her apt into storage, and see what she can find when she is allowed to come back.
Guess it depends on what parents and students think they are paying for. Roughly, what parents and students think that are paying for can be put into a few broad categories:
A. The experience, which include instructional format (in-person versus distance, class size, use of TAs, etc.), the residential versus commuter experience, “cultural” aspects of the college and the students, and the notion that it is desirable to live in some other part of the country instead of staying at home. On these forums, the notion of “fit” seems to focus heavily on this category.
B. Course and curriculum content. I.e. are the desired major and courses available, how many elective courses and in-major subareas are offered, and do the courses (in or out of major) cover the bare minimum or do they go beyond the bare minimum (but not so far beyond that the student would have difficulty passing – not everyone can “drink from the fire hose”)? Also, if the major is associated with a professional goal that requires a licensing exam (e.g. nursing, accounting, actuarial, civil engineering, etc.), how well does it prepare students for that exam?
C. Other factors, primarily prestige and how college name affects post-graduation employment and education goals.
Most college choice discussion on these forums seems to focus on A and C above, with B being considered, but often to a lesser level. It does mean that for parents and student focused on A when it comes to college choice, spending one or more semesters at home doing distance learning is more likely to make the parent and student question what the value is in paying anything more than the minimum (at, for example, a community college or in-state public university, or a full ride merit scholarship university for the students with the strongest high school credentials).
It also means that colleges that market themselves primarily on A because they are not particularly distinguished in either B or C are likely to be hurt the most due to the push toward distance education.
For our son, it is B that is the most important factor (though C is also nice to have, I won’t lie).
He is bummed over likely missing out on being on campus at least part of his freshman year, but so long as MIT can extend their proverbial firehose over the internet, there is still nowhere else he’d rather be (including Vandy on full tuition merit).
I was crying in my soup over concerns that my S20 Might not have an on campus experience this Fall for his freshman year, but reading this thread smacked me into the reality of how much worse of a disruption this is for rising Sophomores+.
And earlier there were a few suggestions that school won’t allow deferrals. I don’t think a lot will be in a great position to disallow much. This is a financial disaster for many schools. Being rigid and self-serving will be a sure way to watch their September melt go through the roof.