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

Parents Forum
10482

@vpa2019 When does she have to decide?

S19 has been on the fence for two weeks now. We are super impressed (if you can’t tell) by Bowdoin’s remote plan and are completely fine with their decision to only have freshmen on campus. I’d rather they have a smaller number on campus to try to test their protocols and be ready for spring and we hope that works out.

The bottom line for S19 is this - he chose Bowdoin because it had a very specific experience that he felt was right for him. He had other less expensive options but we agreed to Bowdoin after an amazing admitted student day where my H was sold on the experience as well. That experience does not exist right now to no fault of Bowdoin’s.

S has done the legwork. Because of some AP credits he has, he will be able to be part of convocation in May 2023 with his friends who do not defer. He will still have one semester left but can choose to do that on campus or use that last semester to study abroad. (Dreams of studying abroad for his class seem otherwise unlikely as the college class of 2023 will already have had one and a half semesters off campus and, even if they go back in spring, it won’t be in a “normal” way and students likely will not choose to spend any junior year time away.)

For this semester, he still gets to go to Maine and live with friends. Some are taking class and some are not. Come spring, if sophomores are invited to campus, he will likely go even if class is remote but we will be watching how the whole social aspect goes this fall. If track is allowed, I think he’d definitely go back. We understand that spring will still not be the original experience but it could be much closer than what fall looks like. Being off campus and remote was a deal breaker for him in the end. He’s looking at it as preserving a “real” Bowdoin experience that he will have in fall 2023.

He made his final decision this morning and will defer. Deadline for that decision is tomorrow so he waited as long as he could to make the call. He’s got enough in the works to be very productive this fall. None of us see a downside to this decision.

10483

“Of course, then the student also has living and commuting costs, although many families with students living at home pretend that these are $0”

I’m not claiming they’re zero, just that the expectations for a community college vs residential college is different, like miles apart. A lot of community college students are grateful they can begin their education there or resume after being in the military or raising a family.

10484

Unfortunately, I doubt that colleges that didn’t let students on campus in the fall, will be compelled to bring them back in the spring unless there is an effective vaccine and it can be administered to all students and faculty by say December, or January at the latest. What’s the likelihood of that happening in 5 months?

Whatever the college has set-up for fall, I would expect that will continue into spring.

Regarding online instruction. Some classes will be better then others. The colleges will learn what’s effective and what’s not and will adjust each quarter or semester. I think we all need to have patience and hope that each college will try to make the educational experience rich and rewarding for their students.

We will get though this…

10485

@socaldad2002 well we will see. Bowdoin’s plan from the very beginning was to get their system working with fewer kids and then roll it out bigger in the spring. With Bates and Colby having all kids back, that’s also a test. They are so close to Bowdoin. If they do ok and don’t send kids home, Bowdoin will be under a lot of pressure to bring all kids back for spring, not just sophs, juniors, and seniors as planned.

10486

If you are interested in rigorous online options for your D, pm me. My kids were homeschooled, and while most of their classes were “home-brewed”, my kids also have taken some quality online classes over the years that I would recommend highly

10487

@homerdog Congrats on a decision being made.
Will he be near Brunswick?

10488

With the deferred semester this fall, will he be guaranteed on campus in the spring if sophomores are invited back (I believe their current plan is to invite sophomores, juniors and seniors to campus in the spring)? My question is, will the deferral risk his spot in spring?

10489

@socaldad2002 wrote:

@homerdog wrote:

Yeah, to online courses. Their plans say nothing about whether there will be in-person teaching in the Spring.

10490

FWIW S tested negative for antibodies and none of his roommate’s contacts tested positive either, including one who had stayed overnight with them. It seems like some people spread a lot and others hardly at all. How much that is correlated with the severity of symptoms is something that I expect will be the subject of future studies.

10491

@wisteria100 i will send you a PM.

@suzyQ7 he and I both had separate discussions with more than one dean and we were told it’s very very likely he will have a spot in spring. Because the plan is to fit all sophs, juniors, and seniors on campus in spring, those numbers included all current students. We were also told that the warning of not being able to go back when you want was more for the kids who take a whole year off. I don’t know the details about how they will make those decisions and they say they still hope to get all kids back who take a year off but I do think that’s riskier. Right now, he does not have to decide. You apply for deferral now and then ask to be reinstated with paperwork right before the semester you want to go back. His next decision will then be made in mid-Nov about spring semester.

And @circuitrider i already acknowledged that spring will almost for sure be remote classes. We know that. It’s the plan. But, if he can get a spot on campus and if that life doesn’t look completely awful and maybe they even have track competitions, he will go back. We get to now sit back and watch how fall goes. At the very least, he’s gained back one semester of in-person instruction in the fall of 2023.

10492

Sounds like he made a very good choice. Hopefully the colleges will have their arms around this by January and God willing, we have a vaccine!

10493

Of course it’s a change in pedagogy, since it is a completely different means of interacting with the class. I just need to figure out what I am doing when and how best to get them to do what they are supposed to be doing.

Lol at the Harvard thing with its suggestions that you have your TF do transcriptions and other such handy tasks. La dee da.

10494

Congratulations to your sons decision. Sounds like a call for ice cream to me ??.

10495

So they haven’t decided yet? At my son’s school it has already been determined based on amount of students in class. What are they using as a guideline to make their decision?

10496

Right now it’s listed as Hybrid - part in class, part online. The problem is that students can enroll through the first week or until the cap is reached, so they don’t know now whether there will be adequate classroom space. If I only have 8 students (# registered as of today), I should be able to make our assigned classroom work, but if it is more than maybe 12, it’s not enough space. In previous times I have taught this particular course the class size has varied from 9 to 31 students, so it seems utterly unpredictable at this point. At least from the data available to moi.

10497

https://abcnews.go.com/US/30-year-man-dies-attending-covid-party-thinking/story?id=71731414

These stories of people in their 20s and 30s hospitalized is so concerning…I hope the colleges have taken this possibility into consideration when deciding to open.

10498

“I’m scheduled for a course that meets twice a week. If the enrollment is small enough, I hope to be allowed to meet in-person. Or maybe in-person once and online once. Unfortunately, it appears likely that I will not know until at least mid-August unless the department chair just dictates that we have to be online.”

This perfectly demonstrates why parents are doubting how different courses will be this fall from the spring. There are still too many unknowns to plan well even when there’s every good intention to do so.

10499

My employer has come out with a very vague non-plan which allows faculty to decide how they want to teach (in person, hybrid, or online). I will probably choose online synchronous (I’ll have some real-time required Zoom meetings for
oral discussion and clarification, but record my lectures and require discussion boards, video assignments/presentations etc.). I’ll have in-person optional office hours for interested students. A good half of my colleagues will choose online as well.

According to the reopening plan, in person -classes have to be socially distanced (6 ft.) and everyone has to wear a mask for the entirety of the 80 minute period. With my class of 25, we’ll be in a big hall, seated separately. No groupwork, no spontaneous flow of comments, everyone will be too far apart to hear, it’s hard to speak with a mask on, I’ll be hot and my glasses will fog up. I have no interest in teaching in-person under these conditions.

Also, any campus community member with any symptoms whatsoever (not just fever, but a runny nose, sneezing, or a cough) cannot enter the classroom buildings, library, student center, etc. This means, in all practicality, that any given class is going to be missing a third of the students. I had a cold for two weeks in Feb. Under these rules, I could not have shown up to teach. A student with mild seasonal allergy symptoms can’t come to class. These restrictions are barriers to access that will make it hard for me, as the instructor, to delivery consistent planned instruction.

For these reasons, I will go online with my classes in the fall. At least that way, I don’t have to worry about attendance, or accommodating students who get a cold (or worse) and can’t come to class. I also won’t have to waste a lot of time retooling my syllabus and expectations when the inevitable (IMO) outbreak occurs and we all have to go home early.

Also, the in-person option is contingent upon our state entering (and staying) in stage 3. We’re still in stage 2 and the planned reopening of indoor dining was halted earlier this week. Since I’ve got to get going on the planning and can’t wait until we are in stage 3, I will start planning a good online experience now.

10500

I work in an office setting and we were able to go back into the building several weeks ago. After a couple weeks I went back to working from home for many of the same reasons @NJSue lists.

10501

My son is headed to community college in California (decided before COVID), and he will get free tuition for 2 years as long as he is a first time college student, going full time and maintains a 2.0 GPA. So our only costs are his books and his living at our house (commute is very short and won’t happen at all for at least fall semester since he’ll be online). He will continue with his part time job at our local UPS store to cover books, etc. I’m actually super glad he was going in this direction now that I see all the hard decisions others are having to make. Keeping fingers crossed that things will be more normal when he goes to transfer in Fall 2022 :slight_smile: