@Higheredlearner I completely agree. This fall, I am transferring as a sophomore at Michigan State University in my second choice major. I have taken all, but 3 online classes for the past two years. I decided on going to MSU because I wanted to experience a big university, attend BIG 10 football games and have a great in person academic career. Mostly, I wanted so badly to move away from my current living situation. If the fall semester is online, then I might as well stay at my current institution during the fall semester and defer MSU until the spring and possibly major in my first choice. In the case that I have to stay where I am, I might as well pay $0 at my junior college for another semester. It is a very difficult decision.
I didn’t find this to be true at D’s school. In fact, there were more internationals on campus because many American students were doing co-ops or internships. The school has a well developed online program and has it mapped out that a student can do 3 co-ops but take 1-2 online courses while working and still graduate in 4 years plus the summer after senior year. A lot of the engineering students could even take labs because the co-op employers had labs available.
Not as many foreign students did the co-ops because they didn’t have the work permits needed to work at NASA or for government contractors.
Schools don’t usually have a lot of padding in the Tuition number. Fees? Yes. Room and board? A money maker if the cafeterias are run correctly. I don’t see schools dropping the tuition for online classes.
There really is no way for schools to have students on campus if they have to maintain social distancing. Only one or maybe 2 people could sit at a cafeteria table, only one at a library table with 4 chairs. Schools that currently have triples or even quads can’t give everyone a single room and their own bathrooms. In a lecture that has 40 students, they’d have to hold it twice and have 20 in each session. A cozy discussion class of 25 may only have room for 15 if they have to be 6 feet apart. I don’t see how the schools can switch to a ‘6 feet apart’ format. Big schools like UCLA or Cal? No way to give every student a 6 foot bubble.
It will be interesting if colleges put classes online at large discounts. I know a poster put one-up at a sizable discount. This way maybe some students can graduate earlier saving money. Many students tend to be like 6 credits shy and have to go another semester to graduate. Hmm
Did anyone read the CNN article this morning about Germany restarting their economy? https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/06/business/germany-coronavirus-economy/index.html
I was interested to read their plan was to restart education first, not only because for younger students it frees up their parents to go back to work and not worry about childcare, but that young people are more mildly impacted by the virus in general.
Wonder if we’ll see a model where students can go back to campus in the Fall but things like sports, concerts, and those types of things will be cancelled? Schools could up their cleaning/disinfecting of shared dorm baths, virtually stream large lectures, and only hold recitations, labs, and smaller classes in person.
@momofsenior1 I think Germany is talking about K-12. Here that might work here too? Our D21 would be thrilled to get back to school. I think it’s different for colleges - that situation is not local and involves kids moving all over the country and mixing it up again.
I’ve been trying to think creatively about how S19 could take a leave of absence for one semester and still graduate on time. His college doesn’t have a generous AP policy as APs are used mostly for placement. But he was able to get credit for one AP when he first enrolled and, now that he’s taken a higher level history course, his APUSH credit will also be applied. So, he would need two approved transfer credits to make up for the four total classes he would take this fall. I have a feeling the approval process for a transfer class isn’t a cake walk but I’m just trying to think of all angles. Maybe he could take an approved class this summer somehow if it was a class that was supposed to meet in person but is now online and then do that once again this fall. We would only consider that if the cost of those two classes would be less than the “online” cost of Bowdoin’s fall semester if kids can’t go back to campus. I doubt it would be an option to just take two Bowdoin classes and pay half the price.
Anyone else have an even better AP situation where they have enough credits to just skip fall at their school and enroll again in winter?
Other possibilities?
- Colleges will push everything back and not start the first semester until January.
- Since this age group is not high risk and most colleges depend on room and board, let the kids go back in the fall, but still have online learning for lectures to help protect the professors since many are in the high risk group.
@shuttlebus geez if you can’t be in class together with professors then why bother?
I know my D would be thrilled to be back to campus even if it would be a hybrid model of learning. If she could get into labs and recitations with TAs and office hours with profs, she’d still be ahead of the game to what is currently happening.
As much as I’d like schools to offer discounts for online courses, I just don’t think they will unless they open the classes to students outside their colleges. Their costs aren’t that different whether the classes are online or offline, and they have to recuperate those costs somehow. The current college business model isn’t sustainable for most colleges even before the coronavirus crisis. The crisis may force some colleges to experiment with new business models. We shall see.
I’m also in the boat of considering late graduation/gap fall semester for my D17. She loves her school and doesn’t want to ‘miss out’ of a semester if it is online. I, on the other hand, am worried that it is short sighted to decide to push graduation a semester out, and have no idea if a gap fall semester is even possible. She says she would live back at her college city (LA) in her off campus apt and try to work on small projects (she’s in film) on her own, IF it’s 1) safe and allowed to get back there and 2) safe and allowed to have minimal contact with very small groups (IMO, these are huge ifs, I tend to think that reentry is going to be all or nothing…as in, if school is online, stay at home orders are still in place and she won’t be able to collab with small groups).
Luckily it is a decision she doesn’t have to make right now. She IS taking summer school online, both sessions, which was always a part of her 4 year double major plan. I think that summer school online is not a bad idea for this summer (as in, there isn’t much else to do), and could help who might take a gap semester but still want to graduate on time.
I also don’t see a discount coming for online courses, from a financial perspective of the school trying to stay in business. But, I did see somewhere at least one school has discounted summer online courses, so maybe I am wrong. Or maybe summer is just such a small revenue generator that it doesn’t really matter. But how would that school justify full pay for fall online courses then?
Bowdoin doesn’t allow a student to be part time? D19 attends a large urban state U (tOSU), so completely different from Bowdoin, of course, but they have a pricing schedule for part-timers. I assume they have a fair amount of commuters, so that may make a difference. You have to be full-time to live in the dorm, and I imagine scholarships and FA could be affected.
I suggested to D19 to take a summer class or two. She’s not a straight-A student, so thought it may be good for her GPA to focus on just one class for the summer and reduce the load in the fall. Not sure she’ll follow thru with it though. My advice is worth exactly 2¢ around here.
Not sure part-time will be an option for D20, though, as an incoming freshman, where ever she decides to go.
You can still have your community of peers meeting in person. The kids could all assemble together for the lecture and just have the prof attend remotely.
There is a lot of learning that takes place interacting with peers outside the lecture halls. My kids would jump on this option in a heartbeat if the alternative would be another semester of what they are experiencing now.
I would think college towns/cities might not be keen on having colleges start up again, flooding their area with potentially infected students from all around the world. Might be good for the economy (parts of it anyway) but is it worth the risk to their residents?
I"m 52 years old and healthy. I don’t think I’m any more likely to have complications from Covid-19 than someone who is younger. Why are we assuming college kids can go about their normal business and it’s the professors who would be in trouble if they got sick? Kids went back to school at Liberty and started to get sick. No one to keep them separated in a dorm situation so now we are back to square one with the possibility of a lot of kids getting sick and we aren’t even considering kids with underlying health conditions
No, Bowdoin does not allow for part time.
I checked into summer classes at Northwestern since it’s a known quantity (both H and I are alums) and it’s close to home. Doesn’t look like they’ve moved summer classes online yet but seems likely since other schools have but the kicker is this - $4800 per class and they are only worth 1/2 credit at Bowdoin since they are quarter-based classes. So he’d have to take two of them to add up to just one credit. Ha! $10k for one semester credit is more than I would pay full price for one class at regular tuition at Bowdoin so that’s not happening. U of I much better but need classes that are 4 credit hours to count for one whole class. Not as many options. So many are three credit hours. Interesting to poke around though. Four credit class is $1600 for in state. Maybe I would have him take a class at that price regardless since there’s not much else going on this summer.
@homerdog May want to look at some other OOS options, as well. I’ve heard (but not confirmed) that tOSU waives OOS tuition for online classes. And since everything will be online this summer, parents think that means OOS tuition will be waived for all classes this summer. Hoping that’s true, and continues into fall, if fall turns out to be online as well.
The stats indicate that the college-aged kids are much less likely to have serious complications if they contracted the virus than professors who fall into the high risk age group would if they contracted the virus.
I am sure a lot of kids will get sick. A lot of kids also get sick every year from the flu and other viruses. My D’s college had a student die this year due to the flu. Is this virus any more deadly than the flu for college kids?
Agree with this. Would also suggest checking out schools that are known for delivering an excellent remote learning product…because that’s their model, schools like ASU, Western Governor’s, SNHU all fit the bill.
Besides profs, I would be mostly concerned about the students with underlying conditions. Don’t know the stats, but I imagine there’s a fair number of students with asthma, for example, that could put them in a higher risk category, regardless of age.
And let’s say someone gets sick and has to be quarantined. Then do you also quarantine anyone they came in contact with? Roommates, classmates, anyone using same communal bathroom? And where do you put the quarantined students. Can’t have them using a communal bathroom, eating in the cafeteria.
What does this mean for our K-12 students? Are we expecting that they also won’t be back in school in the fall? Younger kids don’t know how to keep their hands to themselves and there is no way any of our schools have space to keep kids 6 feet apart. And parents eventually have to go back to work. They can’t homeschool forever.
The University of California’s summer sessions are ~$500/unit for non-UC students. Since they’ve gone online, that might be another option.