that’s a pretty short sided attitude. Hopefully, we are looking at one school year of this. I hope most kids chose their college based on things other than what’s about to happen this fall. Lots of Bowdoin kids are not happy with the plan but we will see how it goes. I agree that it’s super conservative but might put the school in the best position for spring. They have released info on how life will be for the freshmen and it’s not as limiting as some of the other LACs. Kids are allowed to go to town and are trusted to follow whatever Covid rules are in place by the county. They will be able to have their masks off on the floor of their dorm and RAs are working on programming by floor to try to have some fun. Concerts are being planned outside. Outdoor “field trips” on the weekends for smaller groups of kids are being planned. Watching Bowdoin, Colby, and Bates is going to be very interesting since they are all so close and the plans so different. And Middlebury is saying 2/3 of their classes in person? I’ll believe it when I see it.
Here is one of these “potential game changers” - if approved, seems like could change the college experience!
“An Israeli-designed one-minute breath test to tell whether someone has coronavirus could soon be installed at hundreds of global entry points if it gets approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.
The clever contraption, which uses frequency to detect the deadly SARS-CoV-2, was designed by a team based at an Israeli university and has a success rate of more than 90 percent in trials to-date.“
https://ajn.timesofisrael.com/israel-invents-one-minute-coronavirus-breath-test/
I think they said that if approved it could be in airports by September.
We may not be looking at one year of this, it may very well be longer. And even if it is just one year, one-quarter of the college experience has been greatly altered, so I can definitely understand regretting or changing colleges over this.
I really think that the possibility of people transferring colleges on the basis of which ones have the most desirable coronavirus reopening plans would be the beginning of a passage too dark to even contemplate.
My point was that I’m not sure Bowdoin’s plan is darker than any other school’s plan. A glossy “come on back to school” and planning some classes in person could turn on a dime once kids get there. What a bummer it would be to switch schools and then find out your original choice actually had a better first year.
You know how, when you drive on the highway and the other lane looks so inviting? Looks like it’s moving faster and you decide to switch? Then, inevitably, that lane gets slower and you watch the cars in your original lane fly on past you. That could happen.
Well next years high school seniors are going to apply for college in a couple of months.
On what basis are those kids going to decide where to apply to ED or EA? Thats about when the real pandemic era college life will really be apparent and the HS seniors can see what experiences college freshman are having at various schools and can compare and contrast. If an affective and widespread available vaccine isn’t on the horizon within a year then i cant see why they shouldn’t do that.
@msdynamite85 We have a D21. Her idea of applying anywhere ED is fading. My H thinks she needs to wait. We haven’t visited the schools she would consider EDing to. That trip was planned for spring break and cancelled. Even if we can get on campus this fall, I don’t know if she could get enough info about the school (the vibe, the students, etc) to pull the trigger on ED. EA is a different story and non-biding, of course, so kids can apply EA with no penalty.
Giving up ED is a bummer but gives D (and us) until May 1 to see how each school is doing this school year. We can get reviews from students. See how classes went, etc.
Bingo. Schools need to proceed in a manner that best fits their situation. Prospective students will do the same, which means applying to school that they believe handled the Covid return-to-campus the best. This is their “best,” not necessarily the scientific “best.”
at least the 21s get to watch and see before deciding. The students graduating this June have to choose without knowing how it’s going to go.
Some schools will have easier access simply because they have medical centers on campus, medical schools, labs, existing supply chains, etc. I don’t know that equates to being rich vs poor schools; I see it as having connections for the resources needed. There are many small prestigious liberal schools whose endowments are greater per student are huge, but which may not have the connections that medical research universities have which are currently in demand.
This seems like more of a detection of whether someone is exhaling the virus, rather than whether someone is infected.
But then that may be more of what colleges want to detect (i.e. whether someone is contagious, rather than whether someone is infected), so if this kind of test is cheap, quicky, and reasonably accurate (for contagiousness), then having each student take the test before entering a classroom building (or entering/leaving a dorm or dining hall for students who live in dorms) could significantly reduce the number of unseen spreaders in indoor enclosed spaces on college campuses.
Know another Bowdoin 2024 who is second-guessing their choice, too, which was Williams. They have applied for a gap year, but will only take it if Bowdoin says they can start in Fall 2021. They’ve said that if there are too many requests, you may only be able to start now or in Fall 2022. Meanwhile, my Williams first-year is going to defer. Nothing’s perfect.
It will be very interesting to see how many first years take gap years and if the % varies significantly by school, as well as how many from other grades take leaves. However that information may not be made public.
Comparing schools by the % of in person classes vs remote may be an easier number to come by
The ce
The industry knows that there are a LOT of incoming freshmen who have dual-deposited. Few students fall completely in love with a single school and will be loyal no matter what. The lucky few who get to go to a four year residential college want it to be a four-year residential college. And so do their parents.
With the dismal numbers coming out of several states right now, I am not optimistic things will be anywhere near as planned for residential colleges this Fall. That being said, I dread the look on my S20’s face if he hears he won’t be headed to college in August. Since he applied to only one college, he has no back-up plan. But if he did, you bet he’d be considering it if it were open instead of his intended school. The desire to be AWAY from here is much stronger than the desire to go to his favorite college 13 months from now. He didn’t see all that much of a difference between his top five or so schools. He would drop his intended school in a New York minute if it meant the difference between being away and living with his parents for another year.
@cypresspat well, that is a warning to the 2021s to not use ED this fall. Maybe it’s better to have options.
Has anyone heard of schools other than Princeton who have dropped SCEA or ED?
The Air Force Academy had cadets report last week. All 1,100 were tested on arrival and went into quarantine in groups of 30. “Several” new arrivals tested positive. The AFA won’t tell how many but only say it is much fewer than the newspapers are reporting.
This is the military so they have a lot more control on where their cadets eat, which rooms they can enter, who they can socialize with. Usually new cadets go immediately into field exercises but this year they are doing 2 weeks of classroom prep while waiting for the test results.
@twoinanddone – Probably a more compliant group of students than on the typical college campus.
@twoinanddone wow. As each school has kids hit campus and start to get tested, their quarantine rooms might fill up quickly. Colleges must be keeping an eye on these early arrivals and realizing they could have a lot of positives heading to campus soon. I wonder how many will add a new rule and have on-campus kids (or everyone?) take a test at home before returning and not let them on campus unless they have a very recent negative test.
Hamilton has already included this in their requirements for returning to campus:
"All students will be required to have a diagnostic molecular (PCR) test completed one week prior to their scheduled arrival on campus, if possible. We are currently working out a plan to support those students who have difficulty securing such a test.
Students will also be tested upon arrival and quarantined until we receive the results of that test. If a student tests positive, we will move the student to isolation, initiate contact tracing, and quarantine any on-campus contacts."
During the town hall they said students will be tested again when they arrive, but they expect they will have the test results in 2 days. The quarantine won’t be long, unless of course you test positive.