Summer camps have outbreaks…
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/keeping-covid-19-outside-summer-camps-near-impossible-challenge-n1232916
With most activities outdoors, seems like the risk point for virus transmission would be the indoor sleeping quarters in the cabins.
College dorms or off-campus housing may be less dense than those cabins, but indoor classrooms for whatever in-person classes are still run would be additional risk points.
Who is teaching the extra classes?
@ucbalumnus - past the headline of potentially starting later, the ESPN article about ND football demonstrates that the athletes get it. Only one has tested positive out of 252 total involved. Their plan is working. They stress to the athletes that if they vary from the plan, it threatens the season. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29434985/notre-dame-athletic-director-less-likely-football-season-starts
@Leigh22 - Yes, there have been deaths in the younger demographic. And that is with kids being at home. So, we can agree there is risk at living at home. There will also be risk going back to school. Not sure which one is higher. I would prefer my DS’s get as much in person instruction as safely possible. The two schools involved have communicated their plans to mitigate the risk of transmission. It may not work perfectly, but they are being way more cautious than I am at home. I hate wearing a mask, but I do it out of respect for others. I was my hands so much I can hardly believe I have any skin left.
D20’s school is filling classrooms at 50%.
So I keep thinking about a room at her HS where I attended lots of meetings. It is probably designed to hold 80-100. It is amphitheater style (speaker at lowest level and seats rise toward the back of the room), like many college classrooms. There were many times that we had 20 people spread out all over the room having discussions with no problem, but the big caveat is we were not wearing masks. I think a room designed to hold 40-50 people with 20-25 kids will be ok. I do not think discussion based classes are designed to be much larger than that. Time will tell.
I wish my son could take a gap year. But for freshman, his school is not allowing deferrals. Fortunately he was a Spring admit there (which we were not happy with initially); now that is at least better, but since I’m not optimistic about him starting in the Spring either, would love for him to take a gap year.
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I wish my son could take a gap year. But for freshman, his school is not allowing deferrals.
Curious – what school doesn’t allow any deferrals at all? I understand only allowing a small number of deferrals and only allowing them for kids with a productive plan, but I didn’t realize there were schools that didn’t allow any deferrals at all.
I am surprised at how quickly people are throwing away a year of their child’s youth-a gap year can be great If there is a solid plan for religious or military service or some type of work/travel, but to sit home cobbling together random activities because the next school year won’t be perfect is foolish,IMHO. There is no guarantee any future year will be perfect either, so it seems futile to waste the present.
@roycroftmom for many STEM students the year can be spent taking (wait for it…) online classes to better prepare for their university classes when they do return. Many colleges have entire courses on YouTube (Stanford, MIT, etc) complete with class material, HW problems, tests, and solutions. There’s also coursera for pay to attend options.
Playing only conference teams makes sense in that it allows you to reduce risk of exposure. You only need to be worried about the teams in your conference. Rather than conference teams and non-conference opponents (and the teams they played a week or two before). Doesn’t guarantee a season but maximizes chances for one.
They still have to figure out how to determine a conference champ. Most of the big conferences divided into divisions. You play all of the teams in your division and some of the teams in the other division. Winners of each division play in their title game. Not clear how that will work with only conference game schedule.
Some schools have also said they won’t play games if kids are not on campus taking classes. Not clear if they actually mean that when push comes to shove.
I realize that, @rivet2000. Between my various kids we probably have 10 years of online education in my family. That option always existed, and will always exist, but if it wasn’t a top choice before, I am not sure why it would be now. Yes, it is free or low cost, but of course it also doesn’t progress one towards a degree often.
@user4321 1 Billion for testing. Does anyone really think the UC system will pay that?
@homerdog I think many kids will start out thinking that internships and opportunities will be available in 20-21 and will find that Covid prevents doing many things they planned during a normal gap year, like traveling or working in person. Not every kid is going to be watching Netflix, but IMO, many will be. Kids are bored, even kids who normally do lots of things. They are restricted in so many ways. In cities, there is limited space in other areas they are limited in other ways. We’re pretty lucky and my kids have found it difficult to be social in a normal manner.
Among friends, my kid was the only one whose Summer job still took place. My younger kid was among a few friends whose Summer camp took place, all of the “normal” activities were canceled including those things which kids had to apply for. So, based on continuing cases, I don’t see things getting back to normal in the Fall. Many of these places (jobs, camps, internships, seminars) tried really hard to hold their thing this Summer but Covid stopped them all cold. If the plan is workable under SIP, then I guess it’s a good plan.
A lot of speaking/hearing depends on the background noise you have to speak over.
I took a class at Cal (UC Berkeley) last fall. There were seats for 150 people. The prof could easily hear students from everywhere in the room when they asked questions . Yes, it did require the students to speak up a bit, but they didn’t have to shout. Now, I don’t know how many students can fit spaced 6 feet apart in this room, not that many, but the prof will be able to hear them–especially since there will be less random noise since so many fewer people will be in there. Seeing the nuances on their masked faces will be a bit harder.
In SC, the governor said to wear a mask if they want to have football.
U of SC is doing the first two rounds of sorority rush online.
But is 50 percent allowing for six feet between students? I’m thinking no. Maybe that’s not something all schools are shooting for.
@Happytimes2001 i can only speak for us. It’s looking like, if S19 wants to take a semester off, he will indeed be very busy with a few things that will help him get more focused on figuring out his interests. He’s still very undecided on career options and even going back and forth between two majors. If he chooses, this four months could be a very productive time where he can sort through some of his indecision. He was finding thats it is hard to do that during a semester where he’s focused solely on class and his sport. This semester could be a bonus time for him. He’s still deciding
Williams is also using the Broad Institute.
@Leigh22 Respectfully asking, what is your plan if Covid continues longer than 9 months? I honestly think we all might be in this for a long time 12-24 months?
@homerdog That sounds like a solid plan. Since he’s a Sophomore he’s already been on campus and knows what college is like etc. And a semester off from school could be productive for him. I’m honestly trying to assess where all this is going because education is very expensive.
@roycroftmom it’s kind of all about perspective, no? To our family’s view, our kids only get to be kids for a limited amount of time. By kids we mean lacking in true adult responsibilities. That train leaves the track when they graduate, so from our view what is wasteful is just throwing their hands up and accepting whatever the school offers this semester/year blindly. Cobbling together things to do and doing whatever they want with their time (or not much at all, though that isn’t their style) is no inherently bad thing to us. It’s plucking the time now and giving it to them on the back end so they can try and truly get what they wanted out of college. Now… I know that things may stay the way they are now for some time, and buying them time won’t help anything in that case, but I also can’t honestly see a downside to spending another six months to a year as a family just doing normal family stuff… on the off chance the world does gets better before fall 2021. We have no race to graduation or adulthood in our family.
@milgymfam
Well said!