School in the 2020-2021 Academic Year & Coronavirus (Part 1)

The students who are already here HAVE to live near the school and take all the courses they can online. If the schools don’t allow in person classes, those students need to prepare to go back to their home countries. That’s the rule now - they can’t take online courses (maybe one). ICE is making clear that while things have changed and they gave a little bit in the spring, the rules don’t allow for an entire semester online.

We’re all making changes to our plans. Several US students wanted to study abroad or do international internships, but those plans had to change. Some international student will have to take a gap year or study online from their home countries.

Not that long ago (hmm, March), there was an uproar that we didn’t close down the country fast enough. Why the rush to open it up to international students now? Yes, there are student who are here already and couldn’t travel home, but there are still rules about student visas and F1, and they are that all classes can’t be online. The schools have the power to change that now and not wait until September. ICE is giving them a warning.

@twoinanddone What?? Maybe it’s dangerous to have classes in person. In that case, when a college makes that difficult decision, they are supposed to give up on their international students (some of whom come from very difficult circumstances at home) and just tell them sorry but they have to go back home? If a college believes it’s not safe to have class, they should add in-person classes to keep their international students? That’s all messed up. I don’t see how sending students home who stayed here since March makes any sense at all. We all know why ICE made this decision.

MIT is not inviting first years to campus and my kid is crushed.

Seniors are the only undergrads invited to campus for fall. Special circumstances can appeal.

It is the existing policy. International students cannot take all their courses online. In fact, it looks like the dept of education will allow international student to take more online classes if the school is offering a hybrid selection of classes if the international takes in person courses when possible.

It’s an unfortunate fallout of schools going online but there are valid reasons to require international students to take inperson classes in order to get a visa.

They could have gone home in March. For some it is a hardship or thought they wouldn’t get back into the US (and I get that), but a student visa doesn’t promise four years of guaranteed study in the US. Things happen, and students lose their visas.

If it isn’t safe to hold in person classes, why do the international students need to be in the US? The school isn’t giving up on the internationals, they are just teaching them in the same way they are teaching all the other students - remotely. The Internationals can return when in person classes resume. Why is that different than the student from Arizona or Hawaii or Illinois? Everyone go home, come back when classes are in person.

That is the outcome DS20 and we are hoping for. Where’d you get the news? I don’t see anything on the website, and no emails.

It is very much NOT the outcome my child hoped for.

https://covid19.mit.edu/fall-2020-faq?fbclid=IwAR06jhy19wSjzFlufymhPNzNQRXU5FcgamAlb4qdsDBS39jj2WQezDqA_0E

Thanks, just found it as well via Twitter. They haven’t linked to it yet it seems.

ETA: looks like it wasn’t meant for release until tomorrow, someone just found the link.

Hopefully more details on the “significant financial aid increase” are forthcoming.

Looks like they discovered the leak and disabled public access to the draft.

It will hopefully get finalized and published later today.

Some of the highlights are:

Residential:

  • only seniors are invited to campus in the fall (exceptions will be considered)
  • twice a week testing while on campus, separate dorm for isolation
  • masks indoors outside one’s room
  • all-single occupancy housing, charged as doubles (cheaper)
  • no FSILGs are operating
  • no access to campus for off-campus students
  • fall athletic programs are cancelled
  • remote IAP (Independent Activities Period in January)
  • no mention of spring plans for now

Academic:

  • “MIT-quality” online courses are being prepared over the summer

Financial:

  • no previously planned tuition increase this year
  • “significantly increased” financial aid (“details to follow” in the draft)
  • guaranteed semester of employment
  • free WiFi hotspots and iPad loaners for all students
  • for those on campus meal plan required and heavily subsidized (i.e. $1,900 vs $3,200+ for 14 meals/week plus extra meal allowance in finaid formula)

Gap year requests are not discouraged and return in Fall 2021 is guaranteed with approved requests.

That is a plan worth waiting for in my book.

I’m interested to see what NYC does about reopening k-12 schools. There are so many challenges there the largest school system in the country with 1.1M students. And will the powerful NYC teacher union be able to have a significant say? And then Mayor DiBlasio and Governor Cuomo have already butted heads over who/how has the authority to reopen schools.

deleted.

These schools will need to adjust their plan or the student will need to leave the country. It’s fairly easy to allow the international students to stay on campus and take 1 class if that is important to the university.

The colleges knew about this rule and did nothing to help the international students. Harvard chose to go all online, knowing this rule existed.

I guess the thinking from DOE is…if all classes are virtual, then you can take your classes at home in your country and there is no need to be in a foreign country during a pandemic. Now of course, whoever is already in this country should be able to stay

Playing devils advocate here…even US students are in a jam with every college having different reopening policies. It is unfair to all involved.

Every student both foreign and domestic are being harmed. this is a health crisis is affecting all education k-college.

this is not the best time to study in another country…it’s not even the nest time to study in our own country.

A vaccine will be our only hope to getting back to normal.

^ ^.
sorry for the typos…on the run now

Florida is requiring schools to open 5 days a week in August.

The state’s Commissioner of the Department of Education, Richard Corcoran, issued an emergency order on Monday requiring all “brick and mortar schools” to open “at least five days per week for all students.”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/07/us/florida-schools-reopen-august-trnd/index.html

Georgetown to allow freshman and select seniors allowed to live on campus in Fall.

First-year students and select upperclassmen will be allowed to live on campus during the fall semester, Georgetown University administrators announced in an email Monday detailing the plan for fall 2020.

Students with complicated home situations, some Residential Assistants and some seniors who must be on campus to complete graduation requirements will be allowed to return to campus. Every student will live in a single-occupancy room.
https://thehoya.com/georgetown-to-allow-freshman-certain-upperclassmen-on-campus-in-the-fall/

Brown just released plans to students, parents, and alums:
https://www.brown.edu/sites/g/files/dprerj316/files/healthy-brown-2020-21-plan.pdf

MIT President’s letter and detailed FAQ are officially online:

https://president.mit.edu/speeches-writing/further-decisions-about-fall-semester

https://covid19.mit.edu/fall-2020-faq

No tuition increase over last year, a $5K grant for all undergrads, and a $4K room-and-board allowance per semester for remote learning.

Our school district in AZ (yes, the state that’s a hot spot) is doing the same. Returning to classes in mid-August. Insane IMO. The choice before our rising high school junior is to go back in person (3,500 total possible students and no plan to distance) and take the classes she’s already registered for ( AP English comp, AP cal BC, AP Spanish, AP Bio, AP Chem, and APUSH) or take remedial courses online (English 3, Spanish 3, and three other non AP, non-honors classes to fill in the gap).

There is a two word phrase for this. The first word starts with a “B” and the second with an “S”.

Curious why you said that freshman not allowed on campus is a good thing? Is it about the money?

I would think that freshman would want to be on campus after doing online H.S. instruction in the spring back at mom and dad’s house?

@Rivet2000 What kind of choice is that? Geez