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

Parents Forum
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The numbers of infected kids are high because they’re only testing exposed kids?This… doesn’t make sense. The positivity for children might be high because they only test children who are exposed, but the raw numbers are high because there are a lot of babies infected with coronavirus in Nueces County.

If we go by the age breakdown for Texas, there would be, like, 5000 babies under a year old in Nueces County. And 85 of them are known to have been infected with covid? Plus a lot of other babies who were infected but haven’t been tested? That’s a lot.

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“GKUnion;c-22884155”
Below are my posts from July 8th, though it seems like forever ago rather than 10 days:

**My son’s school will bring back all 20,000+.

There will be no initial testing, only symptomatic people will be tested. They were honest and admitted there will be initial constraints around test procurement and processing. Students that test positive will be encouraged to go home. There will be a daily health check-in via app.

So, where do things stand today?

Currently a small, but growing portion of parents are pondering/pursuing a semester deferral or full gap year. Sophomore parents seem to be 60%(return to campus)/40%(study from home) because their students will have a better understanding of the normal campus experience that they are missing out on.

I am curious about the comment above that students that test positive will be encouraged to go home.

A. If student is sick, how would they get home – obviously has to be a car ride or they will infect everyone on the conveyance
B. If the student recovers (statistically most probable) then the student is Gold! Potential antibodies in the blood! Possible donor to help others even

But sounds like the school has changed policies since then by not having so many kids on campus but just curious nevertheless.

Secondly for those on this forum – how does it work with the deferrals? What does that mean for space for 21-22 freshman class – do the 20-21 freshman deferrals who are guaranteed a spot take their space? (Admittedly, some deferrals may opt out). As for the upper-class people - I assume it is a snowball effect - the sophomore deferrals of this year join this year’s freshman class next year, the junior deferrals join the sophomore class, and senior deferrals join the junior class - so maybe that is logistically easier to manage since the number of deferrals is known.

Hats off to all the administrators, staff, faculty/teachers, medical professionals trying to come up with feasible plans! A task for more than a few geniuses and dedicated folks for sure.

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@homerdog, the quarantine rule doesn’t affect us. We live in NJ. As far as I know, Hamilton will try to accommodate as many students as possible, but they cannot house all the students coming from the quarantine states. Hence, some will have to stay in hotels. This is par for the course for all colleges and universities located in NYS and NYC. Hamilton did state that students who hail from the quarantine states may stay home and do the entire semester online.

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@GKUnion whats the college again?

I like the timeline of the proposed plan versus reality and how it all plays out this fall.

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If our inability to ramp up testing sufficiently and timely for the last 4 months is any indication, it’d be a mistake to assume we’ll have sufficient and timely testing in the fall when the schools open. Some colleges may have secured adequate testing capability for the fall term, but the majority likely won’t. Accurate point-of-care testing machines are also in short supply and many colleges can’t get their hands on them in time when their fall terms start. They won’t be able to deliver their testing promises due to factors beyond their controls.

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Sorry, @Knowsstuff. @wisteria100 is right. I took a break from the thread only to come back to see it’s the same old, same old. There are indeed posters hoping for massive failures.

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Hello all – just curious how it works with deferrals – do the freshman deferrals of 20-21 who are guaranteed a spot take a spot from the 21-22 incoming class? Or 21-22 could be just a very large class and the school just need to figure out housing, additional faculty needed, and classroom space/scheduling? (This assumes the virus will be under control by 21-22 for course)

OR for those of you with kids deferring - are the students to taking classes at the community colleges so they stay on track with their class? somehow I am doubtful and that only some students will be interested to pursue this option and get permission from the university to do so.

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I sent you a PM.

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@Faithabove
No actual knowledge but my guess is those deferrals will take up spots in the class entering Fall 2021. Don’t imagine schools will have the financial resources after this year to expand housing, teaching staff etc…to accommodate a larger class.

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@Faithabove my daughter who is taking a gap year is planning on taking classes at a community college, but she can only take 12 credits over the year and maintain her scholarship, so it would definitely not be a full year of school. She also has transfer credits from high school so she’s only take one class each semester just to keep her mind in the game a bit- the college did encourage her to take classes if she wanted because it would make her double major simpler.

As for in general, I think students who gap do take a place from the following class.

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Yep, Purdue tested everyone prior to classes starting and they needed a negative test result before they were permitted in class. They announced today they only had 3 students test positive. And also yep to daily temp checks.

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Hmm, I see milgymfam and vpa2019 – though if so, seems the class of 21-22 could really be impacted. OTOH, if the college/university does take more students, that would be more tuition revenue which if more than the additional expenses, could be a positive for them.

Just hoping for the best for all of the students!

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@Faithabove some students aren’t allowed to transfer any credits they take during a gap. Just FYI. And community college credit is never accepted at many top schools.

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from the two schools that my kids go, neither set up for singles only from the onset. Two to a room was still being “Allowed”. Watching many classes go online, especially for the incoming freshman and even upper classmen, many parents/kids are deciding to either defer, or do online from “home” . If I had to guess at least 1/3 of the kids that committed to coming back, as time goes on are not going to. So it seems that without the colleges saying “you can come back, but you cannot”, it is happening sorta naturally. also at GW the rules to living in the dorm explicitly say that you can have no guests in your room. If you do have a roommate than that is your “family”. Not sure if a floor will be able to “socialize” in the hallway. The weather in DC stays pretty good until Mid Oct so I am sure a lot of socializing will occur outdoors. Also the upper classmen with off campus housing will have more “choices”. They are also allowing the special interest housing to still exist, with less kids. So that forms a “family”. you get your own room, but still share a common area. (mostly sophomores and up).
At RIT more live off campus , and usually they have 4 bedroom apartments . For freshman the dorm rooms are double only, plus they are using a hotel for housing. Those doubles though are pretty small.

So I have to believe in many of these schools, as more and more classes are online, just as I am seeing here on CC, many will decide naturally to either Defer or take their classes online. This is all observation.

Back to my situation
Son wants to go back to RIT even if classes are online He has a 4 bedroom 2 bath university owned apartment. Living with 3 other students is optimal for him. I think they are all showing up. The big issue is the 14 day quarantine. Before I put “plan NJ” into play waiting to hear what the school offers.
Daughter has one semester left at GW. As a Senior she pretty much had to live off campus. I do not want to sign a lease, not knowing where she would end up by December jobwise. When she had a BF that she was going to live with, she was going to stay in DC and find something there. now there is no limit. Right now she has at least 2 classes “in person”. She is very concerned though what she is going to do with her time when not at these classes. Will the Library allow kids to study there (they have rooms where one could SD). Can she get a part time job? So right now we are renting a room at the residence Inn. We can cancel anytime. It costs a bit more, but gives us peace of mind. comes furnished with kitchen and weekly maid service :). We need to get her stuff that she has not seen since March from storage, and likely will be bringing a bunch home. If it ends up that she decides to stay in DC, and does get an apartment, we can always bring it back. If her classes all pivot to online before move in , we will still drive to DC, and just get all her crap. We dont want her living in the house though, so there is talk of renting an apartment with friends who are also going to be home.

Tomorrow this all changes… This is what is frustrating about this pandemic. Even the best laid plans seem to change not only week to week, but day to day. The colleges are trying. Many had no idea that July would be that bad, but what if that predicates that in the fall/winter we dont get that “bad 2nd wave” since we seem to moving that first wave around and around. (and its not just the US, even places that had it under control are seeing outbreaks again). Maybe by 2nd semester there will be a new normal, where finally we have instant testing, and treatments that make this “flu like” . Some of the treatments that are being looked it, seem to lesson the damage and severity. This may be part of society forever, but with an eventual vaccine and treatments, livable. Noone knows. the schools and experts dont know. The colleges are trying to mitigate as much loss as possible to stay afloat. Some will be able to , and some wont. I am just happy I no longer have a kid in K-12. Though if I did the discussions about their futures would be very different than where we are now. I also anticipate that I will not be a true a empty nester for a lot longer than I imagined. Glad I did not downsize last year.

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@milgymfam i don’t think we know that 20-21 kids will be affected. A college could lose some current students who transfer and that could leave space for some fall 2021 incoming freshmen. Plus, I think most colleges did end up limiting the number of incoming freshman this year who took a gap and many didn’t have as many kids request one as they thought they would.

I don’t know if if we will ever see the numbers from schools that allowed unlimited gaps. As I’ve mentioned, Bowdoin had 42 out of a class of 500. They did not limit. But that doesn’t mean that 42 fewer kids will get in next year. That’s not how it works. Bowdoin specifically said they don’t want to hurt next year’s freshman and, if they had too many kids ask to gap, they would push some of those gapping students two years and not let them enroll until 2022. Since they gave all kids a one year gap, they must have felt it wouldn’t affect next year’s applicants.

I’ve also heard that all colleges will likely accept more kids this coming year because it will be harder to figure out yield with so few kids being able to visit, etc.

We have a D21 and I’m not worried at all that she will be at a disadvantage because of 2020 kids taking a gap.

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@homerdog in a general sense though, I absolutely think that 1:1 each kid who takes a gap year will be one less kid accepted the next year. Schools tend to want the same amount of kids each year right? My daughter’s gap year acceptance email from Goucher welcomed her as the first member of the next class- they’re obviously tracking that as one confirmed/guaranteed student for the following year.

Of course all this covid craziness has thrown everything for a loop… but I meant in general. Both of my daughters’ schools put no limits or onerous return policies on deferrals/gaps/leaves of absence. I agree the hard numbers of how many chose those options might be hard to come by though.

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@Faithabove Our D20 is deferring enrollment and her school just released updated enrollment numbers for next year; down 9% from last year. The school did not limit the number of gap years approved. They did not break this down by class yet so not sure which classes have more students deferring/gapping. Not sure how this will impact next year’s class size, but I’m sure it will have some impact as her school traditionally guarantees on campus housing for everyone who wants it and 98% of the student body lives on campus.

As for CC credits, her school is what you would consider a top school, but they still accept community college credits with prior approval (primarily in the humanities from what I understand). We haven’t fully investigated this yet as D20 is not taking any fall classes but plans to take a class or 2 in the spring.

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It’s not one for one like that. It’s just not. First, like I said, maybe the school will choose to take fewer kids transferring in. Who knows how many transfers the school normally takes. Plus, it’s likely that many schools have kids transfer out. Maybe it’s now too expensive to go to that school or too far away or they don’t like how they are handling the pandemic. So the transfer movement itself could make up for the freshmen who took a gap year. Two, it could be a combo of a lot of things. Maybe a smaller school could fit 20 more kids into next year’s freshmen class and make up the other spots through transfers. And, like I said, yield might be very unpredictable next year and acceptance rates in RD might inch up a bit since there may be fewer ED candidates. Kids can’t get to schools to visit and pull the trigger on ED. Come visit the class of 2021 thread. Some are still considering ED but many of us might have to bag that idea because our kids won’t be ready to choose a favorite. With fewer kids in ED, a school might have to take more in RD next year.

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Here’s something really funny, well at least to me. I accidently hit like page 1 of this thread and it was basically the same or similar discussions… Lol.

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Bowdoin and Haverford have similar retention rates (96% vs 97% per a quick google) so I don’t think tons of kids are transferring out at either- nor many in. Haverford offered unlimited gap years and leaves, so if tons of kids take/took them up on that those extra kids’ space next year would have to come from somewhere. Haverford maintained all along that everyone who wanted could come back next year, no questions asked- I know Bowdoin was more careful with their allowances at first. Maybe for Goucher, who has only a 77% retention (still great but not on the same level, of course), they can just roll the kids into the melt. All of these are really small schools, admittedly, so it might all be different at giant schools.