@suzyQ7 just to expand on what Homerdog is talking about. My D20 is taking a gap year and will be working part-time as a server/hostess to save money to pay most of her anticipated unsubsidized college loans ($5,500 and $6,500 next two school years). She is also taking two online classes at a local community college. Spanish 4 equivalent and a Political Science class. She will not get college credit for these classes as her primary college does not allow college transfer credit but she can place into a higher Spanish class next year as a freshman. In addition, she might do some meaningful volunteer work and possible travel to France next spring (as CV-19 conditions allow). Interestingly and surprisingly enough, she said she is going to read 20 books this year (and she’s not a read for pleasure girl!).
She has gotten over the “shock and awe” of the realization that she is now a Class of 2025 kid.
Remember, this gap year is not like typical years where students would have done some incredible research, internships, or other really life-changing and memorable experiences. This year it’s more about “survival”, being practical, and delaying starting college with the hopes of things being better fall 2021.
My D will stay busy, save some money, get to spend one last year of quality time with her family, and recharge her batteries for next year after being an intense student and over-scheduled since she was in middle school. She will be fine…
I’ve been in and out of college most of my adult life. It’s like falling off a bike. The idea that somehow she won’t know what to do to be a successful student should be the furthest concern from your mind.
I feel badly for this group of kids. Senior year of highschool pretty much cancelled. No prom, no senior trip, no senior days, no last get together, no graduation. At least not in the traditional and anticipated way. And now college has taken a turn.
I don’t know if I’d have permitted my child to go away to college had this happened in their year. I’m jumpy about the long term side effects of this virus. Some of the stuff coming out, the military’s wariness, how a lot of my old college friends now in research and medicine are looking at this, makes me want to sit out a year in terms of exposure. I wouldn’t trust a teen or very young adult to take the precautions, that my kids are taking now when they are going to work, and the precautions DH and I now take. In my work environment, I was proactive about ventilation systems, masks, social distancing., and the workplace, coworkers and management were extremely cooperative and compliant. Not the case everywhere. DH has been fortunate in this regard too. We are also in the position to walk out if things are too risky, and we’ve said the same to our kids. They all seem to be taking this very seriously. I don’t think they would have in their college years as they took a lot of risks those days.
Even without the long term side effect issues were not there, I wouldn’t feel comfortable sending a freshman to outside housing to do primarily online classes. Without knowing the area, the procedures, it’s just too much unknown. The choice would be to take the gap year or go online at home, hoping that things are better next year.
So Harvard would not get my kid this year, even with the dorms open, without support staff and classes open. Not a freshman, anyways. Nor would BC, Amherst or Bowdoin. I’d insist on a pause. No idea how they would have taken this stance then, but now all of them unanimously agree.
I agree. The point is that we would like to KEEP the numbers them low! We live in a square-mile town–Hoboken–where Stevens Tech is located. I looked on their site this morning to see what plans they have in place for mitigating the spread of the virus. It didn’t look as if things are changing much outside of testing and quarantining when students arrive, etc., although I didn’t spend a lot of time reading, and some of it was for students only.
A lot of the students live in big, beautiful frat/sorority houses outside of which one will often find trash cans spilling over with empty beer cans, etc. in the morning. Normal college stuff, of course, but I really hope that THIS year the college is planning to keep a VERY watchful eye on parties (alcohol and social-distancing/wearing masks don’t mix very well, I’m afraid!) and other gatherings.
I had a doctor’s appointment today, and I asked a nurse practitioner if he thought that cases would start to increase again once the students came back (in a week or two), and he said, “Yes, I’m afraid so.”
A good friend of my son’s from high school goes to Stevens, so I’m rooting for them, but this town is too small for the repercussions from lax rule-following. Actually, the world is too small for them!
The mayors of Somerville and Medford are asking Tufts University to reconsider its reopening plan.
Tufts reopening plan is detailed in over 100 pages of guidance. Staggered arrivals, testing every three days, isolation units, quarantine guidance and many other precautions.
Also Somerville and Medford have extremely low rates of COVID.
At what point do these Mayors realize the harm they are doing to the welfare of not only the colleges but the local area businesses relying on colleges being up and running.
I would think there has to be more of a balance and a better answer than to shut down.
We were supposed to close down until we bent the curve, then flattened the curve, now we are testing in some states close to 1-2% and it’s still not enough.
Closing down is not healthy.
Please note - HC did not mention Broad in their announcement today. They were vague on who the testing company was that told them there would be a delay. Another posting is saying its not Broad, but a different provider. HC previously said that Broad would be doing their testing, but perhaps they hired more than one company. Or perhaps the slow testing issue is a red herring.
Fair enough - I was relying off the Boston Globe article, but it’s true that Broad isn’t in the Holy Cross statement. I’ve been curious for a while how the colleges are going to manage 24 hour testing when testing still takes up to 10 days for most people, but it’s also possible that there are other reasons why HC changed plans so suddenly.
Our school district announced today: K-5 classes divided into 2 groups rotating between at school and asynchronous at home. Middle and HS in 2 groups with same rotation, but beginning October the middle and high schoolers are half time synchronous at home, and half time asynchronous at home.
@suzyQ7@petitbleu @“Cardinal Fang” @circuitrider@xyz123a Just had the town hall meeting with Amherst, and they specifically stated that there has been no issues with testing turnarounds at Broad, none are expected, and the Broad Institute is “100% confident”, and has always been “100% confident”, they will be able to administer twice a week testing to Amherst College students throughout the entire semester with nearly all results being turned around in 24 hours and a very select few taking 48 hours. The reason why is because they “had supply chain contracts and assurances” for a long time now.
President Biddy Martin stated that nearly all tests that have been administered since they started testing in early July have come back in 24 hours, with a very select few coming back in 48 hours, and they have complete confidence that the Broad Institute will be able to continue with this throughout the entire semester.
@RosePetal35 So happy to read the good news from Amherst. Two good friends’ daughters will be moving in as first years in a couple of weeks. They were anxious about tonight’s meeting.
great news for BC
On Monday morning, Boston College announced that after testing 164 football players and team staff members over the weekend for COVID-19, no positive results came back.
So my question…since colleges have an expectation of contribution, won’t they revise any offer down to account for the new money available? In a certain sense, your daughter is going to work for the school, since they may likely reduce any award by the amount she saves?
I think that colleges and universities who have adopted online instruction for fall need to provide clear expectations and support services for online learning. It’s a very different way to “do college” and many students, who are still in the developmental stage of out-of-sight, out-of-mind, need to be specifically instructed in how to participate effectively in an online class. In my experience teaching online in the late spring and in the summer, online learning works very well for students who would already have been successful, but it’s very hard for students who are concrete thinkers, very social, or need the accountability of showing up at a particular time and place.
The best “online” learners are also those who reach out to the professor for advice and direction, rather than passively waiting to be told what to do.
My institution has decided to adopt a voluntary Pass/Fail grading system for fall, which I think is a mistake. I foresee a lot of students registering for a class, not really doing the work, but assuming that because they paid for the credits, they will get them. When I design my syllabus, I find myself having to focus on what students need to get a D- (60%), the bare minimum to pass, rather than focusing on what they can do to excel. Weak passive students are going to fail badly in an online environment.
Ha! Unfortunately we are a full pay family and don’t get any financial aid. We are making her take out the maximum unsubsidized loan so that she can pay some of her college expense to help us out a little. She’s getting the better end of the bargain in my mind lol.
That’s awful - why would they go pass/fail? How long since they decided to go all online?
Every student I know who had pass/fail courses in the spring put no effort into the class. Including super star college students, mediocre college students and every single rising senior we know.
Interesting that they are going that way, @NJSue . My school in NJ is not doing the P/F route for fall, though we did in the past spring. We are being asked to be very supportive, attentive, and basically to do whatever we can to make sure students have a good academic experience. It’s clear that any number of D/F/W in our classes will be looked on askance. Which is fine with me. B’s if you do pretty good. A’s for exceptional as usual. C’s for, uh, anything (not written out that way, but it’s clear that that is what is meant.)