@milgymfam and @Eagledad33 agree with both of you. Our D is deferring her freshman year. She has a very productive plan for the year that was approved by her college back in May. I don’t see the rush to go college. It will be there in a year. In the meantime, she will work, take one class at a CC, and we get to have her home for one more year. She had originally planned to take 2 years between college and med school. Now she will take one year between HS and college and one year between college and med school.
Exactly. I wish I believed all this was going to happen.
I generally agree with what your saying and if our kids were going to be freshman maybe gap year would be a better alternative. But is this a suburban view VS a city view? I do not know of one city family (of course I don’t know all of them and I am sure some are deferring), from full pay families with kids going OOS paying similar fees as you that is considering a gap year. But since I do work in the suburbs this seems to be more common place. I just find that interesting.
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We are in NYC. In May, when our DD decided to take a gap year, she was the only one from her HS that she knew of deferring. Now that all the schools have announced what it will really look like, at least 12 others are doing it or seriously thinking of doing it. All kids going to elite private school where the families are full pay.
Sure. As more schools clarify their plans, more families make alternate arrangements
More accurately, wealthy families make alternative arrangements. The demographic for gap years skews very white and very affluent, so expect the following year’s class to be disproportionately so. Some colleges are quite worried about this.
I agree that it’s easier to go to school and/or take class. It’s a big decision to defer if you’re a current college student. There is a lot to consider - graduating later, understanding how reinstatement works and if you can get the classes you need once you’re back to school, housing issues, finding something worthwhile to do (and agreeing on what is worthwhile!). We seem to know a lot of students who are considering a break but, at least for us, it’s taking a lot of work up front to lay out all of the options in order to make the most informed decision.
Perhaps it is due to professor preference. My D is expecting that with most of her classes because of the age of the profs that teach them
Interesting… Honestly… All the city kids I know from families like mine have car access. They just don’t want to since mass transportation is so much more convient prior to covid. But kids here tend to walk more maybe so more like campus? Everything we need is a few blocks in any direction. Anything. (also depends on neighborhoods)
Not sure what density and feeling “normal” means since kids in New York I am sure feel normal. We live in a family neighborhood with kids of every age. Have a 4 bedroom 3 bath house with 2.5 car garage with a backyard. Of course way smaller then the burbs. So it depends on what type of city living you have I guess.
I just see city families /kids as more risk takers.
Some kids take trains to busses each way to school 30-45 minutes. Some lots more. Working in a very nice suburb My patients that have college kids say they would never do that. But also their kids have hardly ever been to the city (we have such great museums) and absolutely never with just their peer groups. Agh…
When my son lived on North Campus going to Central at Michigan it is like 20 minutes. Much less then him going to high school. That was a win for him. The kids that complained… Err… Yes kids from the suburbs. Not the kids from New York, Boston, Chicago (all living in the cities).
Well, at least it’s a slightly new topic… Lol.
@roycroftmom I find myself in the same situation. D20’s classes ended in April as all seniors at her school spend the last 6 weeks in independent study. Due to Covid, she could not complete the internship that she planned and therefore spent the rest of the year at home learning how to play an instrument on-line. It was very isolating. She too has lost interest in most of her high school crowd and wants to move-on to college, whatever that experience means. She only knows one person taking a gap year and that was planned before Covid. I believe all her friends are full pay, except for one who will attend a T-20 on full scholarship. Although, I am not crazy about footing the bill for what school will be like next year, I am concerned that more time away from school would set her back academically. So we will proceed, hoping for the best.
@homerdog Maybe you were thinking of this schematic from U Chicago?
Or this simulation (based on 8 feet distance between students to compensate for closed ventilation systems)
I think that the best chance of having a reasonable discussion-based class would be in conventional classrooms with moveable desks and chairs, not lecture halls with stadium seating. In the former, it might be possible to organize the furniture in a very large circle so students could see each other’s faces rather than the back of their heads. A classroom that ordinarily holds 40-50 might accommodate 10-12 students. Because there’s not an infinite supply of such classrooms, many schools are pushing the hours of the school day into early mornings, evenings, and even Saturdays to make this work.
I am not seeing masks as destroyers of learning and social life. I see a lot of young people wearing them when in public, even outdoors. My kids (one HS and one college) have been wearing them any time they leave the house. They know this will be required to go back to school. Masks also are required in public where we live. They meet up with very small groups of friends at the local park all masked, all distanced. Do they love the masks and distancing? No. Is it possible to have a meaningful social life with them? Yes. College students will be able to socialize while wearing masks, at least, as long as they can do so outdoors. By the time the weather turns, campuses will have more information about whether they can relax restrictions or have to tighten them.
I think risk tolerance is most related to whether or not your area has had a major spike. If the disease has touched you or your community personally, you are likely to have a very different attitude about what precautions are necessary. Of course, urban environments inherently have higher risks because you’re more likely to spend extended periods in confined indoor spaces.
@TennisParent My D is taking a gap year from Williams. We let her drive the decision. She spoke with several Williams students she knows. She looked at the classes being offered that she might take and they were all remote only, including all of the English classes listed. Since first-years hadn’t been assigned an advisor and the full catalog is not available, she did not have a lot to go on.
We were disappointed that the school did not offer any first-year specific town halls or emails about how they would manage the first-year experience. (People asked for a first-year town hall in the Williams families FB group and were told no.) Two recent articles in the Record reveal several issues around managing entries, JAs, and pods for first years. The pods are tiny and as a first-year you have no control over who’s in your pod. While you can’t choose your roommate or entry in a typical year, you are interacting with a much larger group of people on a daily basis whether in classes, in the dining centers, or in ECs, which will be much less likely this fall.
https://williamsrecord.com/2020/07/first-days-entry-system-ja-role-modified-for-fall-semester/
https://williamsrecord.com/2020/07/jas-push-for-first-year-affinity-spaces/
We recognize that no option or plan is perfect. These are unprecedented challenges for college and families. We are comfortable with her decision, and we’re confident that giving Williams a year’s worth of experience working with first year and new students can only make things better in 2021.
Here are some interesting seating plans from a school that will have no students on campus this fall:
@NYCasdfgh We’re another NYC family whose child is deferring their first year. We know several others who are, too. FWIW, these are all public school grads.
I’m glad your D is ok with her decision. I keep saying that schools offering some classes in person will slowly be reverting to more and more remote classes.
In Bowdoin’s case, because classes are all remote except freshmen writing seminars, they are working with an outside firm that consults academia on remote learning and all classes will be through their platform. There are expectations that all faculty will follow guidelines on how these remote classes will be set up. There was a town hall last night explaining the scheduling and the class blocks and detailing how the classes will look with breakouts and study groups and labs. It’s all coordinated and the faculty is having training and getting a lot of support. Schools that having hybrid and in-person and fully remote classes seem to be leaving it up to each professor to decide how to run their class which is the same as the emergency remote learning that happened in the spring.
Also, only 46 out of 500 freshmen asked for a gap year and they were all granted a one year gap.
@homerdog Thanks for sharing Bowdoin’s plans. This is so much more information than we got from Williams. I’m impressed that they are working with an outside firm. Williams might be doing the same, but they haven’t shared that information. I know that Bowdoin had a long town hall just for first years. Interesting that only 46 are taking a gap year. We know one who is and one who isn’t.
I hope your S has a great fall semester.
A lot of older school buildings have no ventilation system in terms of moving air. They have boilers which heat with hot water/steam. And no a/c. They can open windows but that will be very weather dependent.
Seeing discussions here we are reminded that we each come from different circumstances/experiences. Somethat that is appealing to one group of people has no appeal to another. Something that is an option for some is not an option for all.
So my S24 high school freshman’s public school district just sent out the fall schedule:
Two student cohorts, A and B. “A” in the morning session and “B” in the afternoon session. Students will take 2 classes per day and its rolling schedule meaning that the next day they take 2 other classes, and so on.
In theory this will reduce student density by 50%. Our high school has about 2,000 students. They normally take 6 classes using a block schedule so now those classes will be spread out over 3 days and repeats on the 4th day.
Students will complete independent learning projects and activities during their time off campus. The devil is in the details on this one?
“Grab and Go” lunches will be given to students either leaving the morning session or arriving for the afternoon session.
There is a virtual academy option which students can elect to take all of their classes online this fall.
Note: we are not in LA unified school district (largest in the nation) but I heard this morning that the Teachers Union is not happy with allowing teachers back on campus this fall in light of the new spike in CV-19 cases, so it will be very interesting to what happens to the education of these students in the fall?
West Chester University has reversed course and is going totally online.
@socaldad2002 --How will the school handle transportation? Run a bus schedule midday? Will they leave any time for cleaning classrooms between the A & B cohorts? If so, I guess they will need to have two full bus runs as opposed to using the same bus to pick up the morning students after dropping the afternoon students.
So what about face shields VS masks for f2f classes? Much easier to talk and be heard
Much easier to wear and breath all day in. Kinda look cool… Lol…
Discuss…