I will reiterate for the record that the argument I am making here is the former, not the latter.
@fretfulmother Harvard announced they would “reopen campus but learning will continue to be remote next year, with only rare exceptions.” I think that’s the reason someone said Harvard would be online all year. It seems to be a common theme… tell the students “campus is open this fall” and then announce but you’ll be connecting via Zoom from your dorm room. Right now we are hearing that HPY and even Stanford are not just allowing deferrals and gap years but encouraging it. We know people getting even very vague gap year plans approved. Helps them lower density I guess.
What I’ve been seeing is a different claim.
A school with enormous resources and an unassailable brand name will be able to take the long view. But consider a college not in the top tier. They have two choices, both terrible.
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Announce they will go entirely online. They will go bankrupt in short order.
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Announce some kind of hybrid. They might have a terrible outbreak; if they do, they’ll probably go bankrupt. If they don’t, they’ll survive.
So there is really no choice here. They have to bring students back, at least some of them, or they’ll go out of business. It might not work out but it’s their only chance.
There is, understandably, a lot of concern about the mental health of college students on this thread, this section of the forum being comprised mainly of parents and a few students, but what about the mental health of the rest of the college community? Is that a point anyone puts any thought to?
I’m just going to pop in to say athletes will do what they have to do to salvage some kind of season (if possible). Sitting in a dorm room for 7-10 days and then you can actually compete? Win! Running at home and no competition - how’s that a win? I’m sure I’m biased as my swimmer spent 3 months out of the water as there wasn’t a single open pool in the entire state. 7-10 days is nothing.
Yes. I’m seeing that claim too. But those are not the only views put forth on this thread. See posts #7296 and #7501
Anyway, I’m done mentioning this. It’s the way of the world, and doesn’t deserve any more energy on my part.
Actually, not sure I would say Princeton is encouraging deferrals and gap years. In a letter from the Dean:
“For those students who defer their matriculation at Princeton for fall 2020 for other reasons, we will let their admission offers stand, consistent with our policies. But depending on the number of deferrals, because of enrollment and housing constraints, we cannot guarantee matriculation in a student’s preferred year. To be clear: students deferring their matriculation for fall 2020 may not be permitted to matriculate in fall 2021; they may have to wait one or more years than they would have hoped.”
…and Princeton and Harvard are fine with the lower revenue from students taking a break.
I believe Harvard has frozen salaries and has a hiring freeze.
This is going to be a huge financial hit for all colleges and universities, unless the virus disappears this summer/fall.
you can Google any college regarding covid, hiring freezes and budget cuts if interested.
adding: it’s difficult for me to imagine what higher education looks like five years out, unless there is a vaccine a lot sooner than seems realistic to me.
And probably it just accelerates inevitable changes.
It may not be a bad thing, once we get through it. But it’s going to be really hard on a whole lot of folks.
Harvard is forecasting a $750 million budget shortfall for this coming academic year.
It’s generally estimated that only about 10% of endowment money is unrestricted and available, so Harvard has about $4 million available. They can weather this for a few years, but it will still be painful.
@Darcy123 I guess I don’t look at it that way. Just because a school has kids isolate for the first week they are on campus, that’s not a free pass. Sure, they can isolate and then go to practice but then any student (athletes and not athletes) could catch Covid, no? Some of you seem to be saying, if kids isolate when they first arrive, then they are good to go for the semester. Am I missing something? Because, yes, if isolating for a week upon arrival for all students decreases the chance of a spike by some big degree then I’m all for it. I just think that Covid can find it’s way onto campus at any time after the kids come out of isolation.
I’m not being quoted fairly.
My point about MIT is not that they have “the best geniuses” necessarily, let alone the only geniuses, but that they have scientific expertise at a high enough level (coupled with the other point of being more immune to market concerns) that the scientific expertise can be the deciding factor in plans for the fall.
Let’s assume that there are scientists advising caution at many schools around the world. MIT’s administration has a much higher proportion of people with STEM backgrounds, which makes them, in my opinion, more apt to take the science seriously and to know how to interpret the data, even being top dogs at the college.
I have reasonable pride as an alum, to be associated with an organization that has this strength. I’ve read all of Reif’s letters on a variety of topics, from the scandals with funding to issues with addressing prejudice. He does a masterful job of combining data with heart.
Probably listening to science also true of Simmons’ administration (considering its decision) though I have no idea about those specifics.
If someone reads that and thinks, “she just thinks MIT people are smarter than you” then that’s on the reader and not me.
The only context in which I even hinted at any “superiority” was my joke about assuming that MIT’s community of students/parents was more OK with going online, and I said it was also possibly due to nerdiness and comfort with technology.
^yep…I took it as a joke, but have been reading your posts for seven years and so have lots of context. And never even knew of MIT connection till this thread.
https://www.pressherald.com/2020/05/18/bowdoin-college-could-lose-20-million-next-year/
I googled Bowdoin, where Homerdog keeps saying they should give discounts if the experience isn’t what her family signed on for originally. Doesn’t look good.
Adding, just posted the first link that came up. Sure there’s lots more and better info. Not googling more, too depressing.
@fretfulmother wrote:
And, from Wesleyan:
That’s from the latest Wesleyan public health update. You’ll get no argument from me that MIT is full of very smart people:
http://coronavirus.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2020/06/17/june-17-2020-public-health-update/
@alh wow. way to put words in my mouth. Never said we should get a discount if kids are on campus. I did think they should get a discount if class was all remote from home. And I do think that, if board is much much different, there should be a change in price but I never said we should “get a discount if the experience isn’t what my family signed up for”.
It’s not as dire as the headline looks. Here’s the final line.
"we are fortunate and as well-positioned as any school to weather the challenges.”
I’m not worried about the future of Bowdoin. At all. In endowment per student, Bowdoin is 15th for all US colleges and universities. Ahead of places like Dartmouth, Northwestern, University of Chicago, and Duke.
If there’s anything certain about this coronavirus pandemic, it has to be the uncertainty about the virus. Uncertainties create risks beyond the damage the virus itself may inflict. All colleges are facing unprecedented challenges in dealing with the virus. They have to make decisions in the absence of reliable predictions. Their decisions are also constrained by the realities they face. Some colleges have fewer options than others because of their more limited finances, or their more densely populated localities, or their more crowded campuses, etc. Fewer options could mean less optimal decisions.
@1NJParent Well said…
@Rivet2000 wrote:
But, you haven’t explained what perfectly healthy, well-run school would view that as a rational choice? In order to make this a true ideal picture the fictional school would have to have the choice of doing the opposite, i.e., completing its mission.
As @1NJParent posted above (and, I agree)
@1NJParent : I must second that ‘very well said’.
The reality for my kid, entering one of those universities some may deem, if I may borrow the phrase in analogy, “too big to fail,” too prestigious, highly branded, definitely makes it known to parents that “They have to make decisions in the absence of reliable predictions.”
And absolutely none of the options placed before students and families are optimal.
It has made me very sad. I cannot hold out the excitement for my kid and the upcoming freshman year that was possible for all of my others.
So want … something … other than what we have to look forward to.