I really don’t see any reason to quarantine your student for two weeks when they come home for Thanksgiving. Their college should be regularly testing your student while away at college so the odds of them contracting the virus en transit is fairly remote if they remain diligent on social distancing, sanitizing, and mask wearing day of travel. Also, I would imagine that the vast majority of college students are within driving distance from their college to home. For example, UNC-Chapel Hill in 82% in-state students.
Most publics are not doing this. Privates all seem to be testing regularly but most large publics have not gone this route.
Costco for flu shots!! Cheap and they usually have the latest version.
@socaldad2002 You say you don’t see any reason to quarantine for two weeks when your kid comes home for Thansgiving and then list two reasons why you may want to do that. Reality is there are a lot of kids who will be on college campuses who will not be tested regularly (whatever frequency of testing qualifies as “regular”). And I expect that more will be that group than are expected by current university “plans” for testing (general rule for testing across the country has been overpromise and underdeliver yet somehow everyone expects colleges will somehow be different in that regard). And there are a lot of kids who will be flying home.
@circuitrider Your dedication to mental gymnastics is amazing.
Not an issue at all if we don’t see our son for 3-4 months. He might actually prefer it. Lol ?. But since I have family 45 minutes away I will most likely go in maybe once or twice and I usually take him food shopping and to dinner /lunch kinda thing. We will see how things play out and just follow that.
Thanks everyone! I am compiling a list of schools with no refund for fall 2020 for an analysis I am doing. Please DM if you hear of others!
All privates, or just the ones most mentioned on these forums?
I do not think that all privates will be testing twice/week, not even all privates mentioned on this site.
In some states, you do not need to be a member to use the pharmacy.
Also, the $19.99 flu shot there last year was a quadrivalent non-egg-based one.
Update about Vanderbilt’s pre-arrival testing of all students. They have partnered with Vault and are doing PCR saliva tests.
Due to their residential living arrangements and interactions across campus, all undergraduate students are required to complete pre-arrival testing within 14 days before coming onto campus for the first time. We have partnered with Vault, a national provider of at-home test kits to provide COVID-19 at-home PCR saliva test kits in early August as a convenience to students. This saliva PCR test is the first FDA EUA-authorized solution of its kind and is currently a testing solution for many national companies, as well as sports leagues such as the National Hockey League, the PGA Tour, and Major League Soccer.
While initially our communications suggested a nasal swab test, we have chosen Vault’s saliva test because it is the most convenient and comfortable PCR test available; it can ship to 50 states; and it provides reliable, short turnaround times for test results. The COVID-19 testing landscape across the United States has been constantly evolving, even daily, and we wanted to be sure to provide the best possible solution for all our undergraduate students.
As students complete the Vault test, they will be supervised via Zoom by a medical professional which will allow for a higher degree of service for students and families, while also increasing test efficacy. Our providing this test kit solution for all students also allows consistent methodology across the student body and eliminates the challenge of finding asymptomatic testing options in locations across the U.S. with varying levels of availability.
NVM.
Anybody see this article in the Times?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/02/us/covid-college-reopening.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=US%20News
We are having a virtual Thanksgiving if school makes it until then face-to-face. My D needs to quarantine 14 days before returning home. We’ve already discussed it. An elderly grandparent with many health issues lives with us, so we won’t be taking that risk. We’ll work out the details, but it’ll be fine. That’s what technology is for. She’ll be home for Christmas.
My D’s college is doing arrival testing - both a rapid test and then a more accurate test. You can’t move onto campus without them. Off campus kids who plan to come to campus are required to get one as well. I believe they have contracted with CVS for testing. Faculty and other staff tested as well. They are a little less clear about the frequency of of testing beyond that. They are expecting 1600 undergrads on campus. About that many living off campus nearby. They have contracted for 60,000 tests at this point. They say they will test those considered more at risk more often than others. I think it depends on if you are taking classes on campus or not.
Flu shots are required. Kids can come home before Thanksgiving and stay but aren’t being forced to. My D thinks some of her friends will not come home for Thanksgiving but stay until after finals.
We won’t make D quarantine away from us when she comes home but she will stay home for a couple of weeks. Already warning my parents we won’t be at their house for Thanksgiving.
“ Could there be love in the pod? I guess so.”
I smell an idea for a new reality show!
As I’ve mentioned before, my comment about “privilege bashing” was in response to a poster creating a running total of colleges that use ** Broad Institute ** specifically. Many of these colleges are “elite” privates. Still don’t understand the point of that Broad specific running list, since there are thousands of other colleges using other labs - but have at it!
My comments on the probability of ** Broad Institute ** being able to fulfill their obligations is based on the fact that they can do math and know what they have promised to the colleges they contracted with, their current capacity (at 33% of actual), and the fact that there have been no updates to the contrary yet (some schools start in less than 2 weeks) Based on that, I still think Broad is going to fulfill their obligations. I have no idea about any other labs and what commitments they have, and have never “spoken” for other labs or other colleges- thought that was clear. Guess not.
My daughter’s school is using Broad. If they don’t test weekly, as they have promised, and there is an outbreak, I’ll bring her home.
@homerdog and others that expressed surprise at UMD, Purdue and yes, all the UNC system schools, being very clear that refunds are not promised if schools close dorms, I believe that this is done precisely to get those that have that expectation to move off campus. Most larger schools only house a fraction of their students on campus. Why not get the students and parents to self-select who is willing to take on the risk in exchange for the opportunity to live on campus? If the policy is clear, there is much less potential liability later. Also, only those students more likely to follow the rules of the dorms will sign on to live there.
I didn’t create that list but I think its pretty easy to understand why it was created. This place tends to focus more on northeast schools (particularly certain private “elite” ones) than the general public interested in college. Broad Institute was noted as providing tests for a lot of schools that are being discussed. A few people (myself included) asked about their capacity. That is when the running list was created. Seems to me the rational response to a post that doesn’t interest you is not to respond to it. Maybe though there are underlying reasons sometimes for a response that aren’t readily apparent.
Pre-Covid no doubt a lot of production/delviery issues were pretty much a matter of math. Supply chains were steady and deliveries certain. But Covid changed much of that (in general and specifically anything related to healthcare). So unless you have everything you need today for given promised production/delvery over the next X months in a facility over which you have total control or you control 100% of the sourcing and production of everything you need over that time period, you may well be subject to supply chain interruptions that prevent you from promised production/delivery that the math indicated wasn’t an issue. Maybe Broad is in that camp. I don’t know. But if it is, I would think other parents not as familiar with Broad as you would find that info helpful.
No one here that I have seen has said anything about your knowledge about other labs or commitments that they may have or that you have “spoken” for other labs or colleges. Sometimes people here chase shadows.
Long path to get there but there you go. I suspect that a lot of parents here feel this way as well. Thanks.
But, if the off campus majority doesn’t behave and there’s a spike, then the whole school will close down and it won’t be the fault of those “self selecting” to be in the dorms. I wouldn’t want to be in the dorms and depending on the other 3/4 of the kids to behave.
Reducing the number of people in dorms is an infection control measure in it self. Covid-19 is less likely to transmit from person to person when they are 6ft apart.
Colleges are not doing it just to make one set of students have to follow a different set of rules to another set.
The off campus students ALLSO are supposed to find low density living arrangements.
The worlds top epidemiologists have advised everyone to stick to their. “ bubbles” and minimise contact with other people.
I don’t understand this line of discussion separating the residential and off campus students when all of us are bound by the same infection control protocols if we want to kick this viruses ass.
My institution (midsized private comprehensive master’s level university in NYC area)is only testing symptomatic students, which seems useless to me from an infection-prevention standpoint. The institution is relying on everyone (students, faculty and staff) to use a symptom tracker app honestly every morning before entering campus buildings. The vast majority of faculty have chosen to teach online anyway and only a few classes are in person. The next problem is what to do with non-residential students who have an in-person class in the morning and an online synchronous class the next period (they have not changed the schedule frame). These students need somewhere clean and socially distanced to go so that they can participate in their online synchronous class. We have a lot of commuter students in addition to residents so we cannot create a campus bubble like some smaller more remote institutions are trying to do.
These logistical issues are why I really think we should just go online for everyone. It will be hard for the individual students to have to cope with three modalities (online, hybrid, in-person) simultaneously. It’s additional pressure and complexity.
I’ve been teaching this summer online and it’s not been bad. I know the students don’t like it as much, but I’ve been able to use a combination of approaches (Zoom classes, discussion boards, video assignments, pre-recorded lectures, posted content of various types) to make it work. I think students should be encouraged to “learn how to learn” online rather than perpetuating false hope about sitting around a seminar table just like we used to.
Online learning is not great for the average passive student who finds it easier to roll into class in sweatpants and sit there for 80 minutes in the back, not participating but picking up odds and ends from the professor’s interactions with the half of the class that is actually there mentally as well as physically. Online courses require concrete engagement of a type these students aren’t used to. I can also see how many minutes and hours a week the students spend inside the course shell accessing various activities. It’s kind of Big Brother-y and I"m not sure students realize how monitored they can be. I noticed this spring (and am noticing now) that the good students perform even better online, while the mediocre ones perform worse.