@homerdog — The colleges could try that, and I think some are trying variations of that approach, including asking students to quarantine at home for 14 days before traveling to campus.
Some students will not be able to obtain a test at home if not exhibiting symptoms, and others will test negative at home but the virus could emerge after testing, or a student could contract while in transit.
It seems the safest campuses are those that will test upon arrival, have students remain in their rooms until results are available, and then test a couple of more times during those first two weeks, hoping to catch any virus before it spreads too far.
Of course, this all requires scare testing supplies and PPE, so we are back where we started.
right. But some schools aren’t putting the kids in singles and almost none have their own bathrooms. If they get a decent percentage of kids test positive upon arrival, they likely won’t have space in their quarantine dorm. I don’t know if they’ll be able to just have kids isolate in their rooms if they run out of space in the place they planned to put the positive cases. I agree that kids could test negative at home and then positive at school a few days later, but I bet they would catch a bunch who test positive at home.
@homerdog —Both of my children attended colleges where the shared a bathroom among seven to fourteen students, so yes, I completely agree with you. No easy solutions.
Good point. But I wonder how many prospects will be willing to apply ED without having at least one solid campus visit. Even if visits are allowed I wouldn’t think any would leave a great impression this Fall.
Unless there is a vaccine early in the application cycle, I think the class of 2025 for many colleges will be quite different than it would have been without our least favorite COVID virus being in play. My son has no regrets about his minimalist approach to college applications, but that may change if he’s stuck at home the Fall.
I assume that it is a no-no for those taking a gap year to apply to other colleges. But so is dual-depositing and we know that is happening. I feel like I should know this, but would colleges know the difference between a gap year kid (who should be applying) and a deferral kid (who should not be applying)? Some sort of database? And what about the schools who allowed a deferral but can’t promise when they can enroll? Would those kids be allowed to go test the waters again?
I am overthinking all of this…but I do listen to my son’s conversations with his friends and they come up with all sorts of scenarios related to this mess.
I don’t want to take the time to scroll back but I think someone said Hamilton announced they will follow state guidelines and students who come from certain states will be expected to quarantine. How will this happen? Are they expected to remain in their dorm room? I just can’t imagine a freshman, who is young and doesn’t know anyone, to remain quarantined for 14 days.
Certainly a tragedy that this young man passed away and I feel for his family. From looking at his photo, he was a very large man, probably obese (I only saw a picture of his face). I listened to an NPR segment a few weeks ago that spoke about the dangers of getting covid19 to those that are obese, yet this does not seem to be widely mentioned.
I do not see this as discriminating against anyone but I think it should be discussed more widely so those that are obese can take more precautions. There was a CNN article a week ago about a “healthy” 16 year old that died from Covid19 and he was anything but healthy if you saw his photo.
We and colleges get to watch what happens at the Air Force Academy and see what the best case scenario is. If all of their rules aren’t enough then it’s going to be a mess everywhere.
Good question. Since it’s federal and military I doubt they have to tell the public anything. I hope they would be good members of the community and share their numbers and plan.
Well, just a week ago morbidly obese was the risk factor and it was lowered to just being obese. Point is a lot of college students are obese.
I just think it is typical and foolhardy to look at this students picture and say it’s a shame but he’s obese. We tend to do that with everything to make ourselves feel removed from harm.
If we are trying to get to the real info on how dangerous this virus is for the 18-22 year old set then I do think we need to know what percentage have under lying conditions. The only teenager we know who was hospitalized was also very overweight. Doesn’t everyone want to know the true chance of getting really sick with this virus? At this point, if our kids were overweight I would be more concerned about them.
I’m in themiddle of listening to the latest TWIV (#635) and they are in favor of colleges opening up in the fall, very much so. But they blasted Cornell for their plan, and an op-ed in the Wall St. Journal, because Cornell said they couldn’t test frequently. The TWIV panel believes colleges need to be testing every student at least once a week, and if they can’t do that then they shouldn’t open.
The panel also praised the Air Force Academy and how they handled kids coming back – test on arrival, isolate the positives, contact trace, test frequently etc. They were able to contain COVID, and the panel believes some similar protocol is what colleges need to be doing.
Not running to defend Cornell here, as I am skeptical of their claim that opening the campus to everyone will result in less virus transmission than if they only opened to some. Where was is said that they would not test weekly?
I do not know all of their plans, but I thought they intended to use a technique used by their on-campus Vet school, and therefore had better testing capability than some colleges. No guarantee they will have enough swabs & PPE, etc.
They have to report to military but not to the public. I don’t think other military units are reporting, like naval ships and army bases. They give vague info like ‘several’ cadets tested positive.