I think it’s just very conservative. Grad students carry on as normal. Undergrad housing plan primarily driven by distancing. In regular times undergrads are guaranteed 4 years on-campus dorms. But to maintain distancing that will reduce dorm space by 50%. So, reduce students on campus and take advantage of online capabilities.
Not sure about the last part of the claim. Luxury class LACs do have high credentialing or brand value and strong finances. However, they are the colleges where the experience is highly important to students and parents, and the presumably realize that, without the experience differentiation, they have to compete head on with other colleges.
Lots of students I know take summer classes for a variety of reasons… and summer sessions at elite schools are often popular with out of state students.
A summer spent on the beautiful Stanford campus, a short train ride from San Francisco, is an attractive proposition; same at UC Berkeley. (The better Bay Area school 
)
Harvard Kennedy School faculty were informed they will be entirely remote teaching in the fall.
I don’t think there’s a simple solution either. The most difficult question is housing. No college has enough single or single room in a suite for every student, even without setting aside enough dorms in a separate area for quarantines.
How much space is Stanford setting aside for quarantines? 10% of the student population on campus? 20%?
I’m not sure about Stanford, but summer classes tend not to be taught by the best professors and offerings tend to be very limited. Most STEM students (Stanford has many) would likely prefer internships or researches in the summer.
If all the juniors (or sophomores, or freshmen, whatever) are on campus in the summer, then the offerings will not be very limited. They couldn’t be.
^Some, if not many, professors may have other plans for the summer in 2021. If the summer offerings are as robust as in other quarters, who are going to teach these additional courses?
Utah has published its detailed plan for the fall semester (https://returntocampus.utah.edu/ and https://housing.utah.edu/coronavirus/fall-2020-updates/). In short:
- Only double or single rooms, triples will be reorganized into doubles, no guests in rooms
- Infected students will continue to live in the room (with meal delivery) while roommates and any others who may have been exposed will move to separate isolation rooms
- Face coverings are required in all common areas (not outdoors with 6ft separation)
- Meals will be take out or plated with limited indoor seating
- Calendar is reorganized to finish in person instruction by Thanksgiving (although students are not required to return home afterwards)
- Smaller classes will be in person, some of the larger ones will move online
They sorta adopted Dartmouth’s D plan, i.e., summer is a required term.
And btw, Dartmouth students have no double getting internships. For some/many, it becomes much easier to snag an internship off term, as there is less competition for the existing spots.
The real downside is that most dorms are not air conditioned at Stanford, and summer is typically in the 90’s.
Why? If Apple, Google or any of the local tech companies want you to intern from Jan-Mar, what’s the diff?
S has said it will be a full on-campus quarter, not just a typical summer deal with special classes. What they have not yet said is who is gonna teach all those new sections?
Even with global warming, summer temperatures are not typically in the 90s in Palo Alto. They sometimes are (like right now it’s 96) but usually not.
Not sure if this has been posted yet (It’s hard to keep up!) But Ohio State announced that they will be on campus this fall until Thanksgiving, then remote for the remainder of the semester which will end Dec 4.
https://www.thelantern.com/2020/06/ohio-state-announces-in-person-fall-semester-plans/
And yet summer sessions at Stanford, Harvard and Yale are quite popular. True, they often don’t feature “the best professors” but they do offer other attractions. Which is why they exist.
^^^^^Dartmouth students choose summer quarter for reasons other than internships. They may prefer the weather in Hanover in the summer and only a small portion of Dartmouth students do so. It’s optional after all, unlike what Stanford is proposing (i.e. half of its students would have to take classes in the summer).
Internships and researches need to be prepared and organized. Even though some of them are available but they’re few and may not be the most desirable.
There is no choosing about it. Dartmouth requires Sophomore Summer on campus. (exceptions are study-abroad programs) It’s part of the D-Plan adopted when women were admitted, and the College did not want to build additional housing.
Of course they do, but do you really think that FAANG et al is incapable of organizing winter internships?
“The real downside is that most dorms are not air conditioned at Stanford, and summer is typically in the 90’s.”
Only half of your statement is true, you are correct Stanford does not have a lot of air-conditioning units since the weather year round is fairly mild and with low humidity.
However, summer is not “typically in the 90’s”. In fact, the average high temperature in June July and August is around 78 degrees, and each month only gets, on average, 2 days of 90+ degree temperature.
Interestingly, currently today in Palo Alto it is 96 degrees which is an extremely rare event.
Not that rare. It was 97 last Monday and 96 last Wednesday. But temps are usually lower.
I think they’ll have plenty of room for quarantine since only 50% of the number of undergrads will be on campus. Stanford medical center is also on campus so if hospitalization is needed it’s nearby.
I’ve thought about this a little more and I think I know where this is headed. Since only 50% undergrads will be on campus on any given quarter, and if you assume (I know, assume…) that they would like to minimize travel and moving in/out of dorms then:
If freshmen on campus fall it makes sense they will remain for the winter.
If seniors are in the spring, similarly it makes sense they they will be there in winter
The rest??
Rising freshman and sophomores are likely in the summer. The seniors will be gone, and the juniors really need that time for internships. FAANG might alter the schedule for their Stanford interns, but Wall St and others will not, and not all Stanford kids go to FAANG. That gives the freshmen over 6 months at home, depart in November and return in June. Except athletes, I expect .
So pack light and do not decorate the dorm room or get furniture, you will only be there a few weeks until cycling out.