In terms of creating pods I think that an advantage freshman have over the other years is that more people are studying the same subjects. As the major goes longer and deeper, people specialise more and the students individual schedules diverge. Two kids who major in mechanical and electrical engineering could have 90% similar classes first Semester freshmen year then 100% different by Junior year.
Maybe an enterprising programmer could create a flat mate matcher app where a High school senior could sign up right after accepting admission to a college. They are matched with 3/4 other kids who share their classes and personality compatibility and local landlords can advertise homes for them to rent on it. Then those kids have ready made Online study groups and social circles all in a self contained pod/ home.
The job market for college grads has indeed been affected. My daughter graduated in 2020, and while she was lucky enough to not have her job offer disappear, many of her friends were not so lucky. Even a neighbor whose daughter was a CS major at a highly ranked school had her job disappear. Only a very small percentage of college graduates are headed to consulting, private equity, and Wall Street and Dartmouth, Williams, and Bowdoin, are not where most kids are graduation from. The kids at the very top may not be affected that much, but the rest of the graduates are dealing with the mess that the economy currently is in. Do you think job prospects for the English major from your state flagship U or even small LACs below the level discussed on CC haven’t changed? They already weren’t great. Now they are worse.
My sophomore son at Colby has three out of four classes in person. He is happy and doing well. I will try to track him down this weekend to get more details. I know there are kids on campus with more remote classes so he may just be lucky to have so many in person. Three weeks in and it appears the testing is going well. They contained the positives that popped up after arrival and so far no community spread. I am nervous for the winter–the weather has been spectacular in Maine so they are outside a lot but that will have to change in the coming months.
Just because a class is offered remote/zoom, doesn’t necessarily mean a student is sitting in his room alone taking class. Some form small groups and take the class together in a common area, empty classroom or tent. Provides more of a feel of normalcy that way.
My D has a pod of chem e friends that go to an empty classroom to watch lectures together before their F2F classes. They socially distance and wear masks but they are together. They study together as well. D’s clubs and activities are happening too.
The job fair starts Monday for Purdue. All virtual and D said fewer companies than usual are hiring. Students were able to sign up for 4 meetings, then add a few more. She said the big name companies are now full up but the smaller companies still have slots. She’s sending out resumes this weekend and looks to add more interviews. She has six lined up currently. If she doesn’t get hired, she is most likely going to stay with her coop company through the summer but she is hoping to get some experience with a different company if she can. (The whole reason she did a 3 term coop instead of a 5 term).
@homerdog , my son is at Hamilton. He has three out of four classes f2f, one remote. His rowing team is practicing (in the gym) even though there are no sports this semester. He’s in a quad and has many of his friends on his floor as well. Hamilton has gone out of their way to try to provide as “normal” a college experience as possible under the circumstances. Sure, the dining situation isn’t the best, but I asked him if he feels it’s worth being on campus. He said absolutely. He’s participating in clubs, and has already met with his career adviser and has applied to internships for next summer. My husband and I feel this semester is worth paying for. We don’t look at it as being a sub-par semester. We feel that this semester is teaching him how to adapt and realize that you need to learn how to adjust when life throws you curve balls. Of course, YMMV. We are all hoping that next Fall will be better.
My family and I are very happy that Hamilton decided to invite all classes back. It’s still early, but I’m confident that they’ll be able to make it to Thanksgiving safely.
Yep… Many students are with their friends or new friends having fun, staying up late, playing some game thing online till 2:00am just like before… ?.
More on the situation at Boston College:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/11/metro/bc-outbreak-worries-epidemiologists-students-community/
"Boston College COVID-19 Outbreak Worries Epidemiologists, Students, Community
Sorry about the paywall.
Good luck to your daughter!! My son’s is Wed. He was able to sign up for multiple one’s and not really sure what to expect. It’s definitely going to be different in approach but in the end he said your still sending out resumes and hoping someone is interested in your skills. Again, not too much different then last year but at least you don’t have to wait standing in line, I guess… Lol
@Knowsstuff D was saying the avoiding long lines is a big positive! Sounded like she had to upload resumes and the job applications ahead of time and her initial list has already changed. One company’s HR team dq’d her because she isn’t graduating in ‘22 because of her coop, and she pulled out of another after learning more about the company culture and thinking it wasn’t a good fit.
Interestingly she interviewed for her coop position virtually because of polar vortex (Jan ‘19) so she’s feeling ok about that part.
How are schools that went fully remote handling career fairs? I would think it would be pretty much the same since they are mostly all virtual?
Would love for folks to circle back and report on how the career fairs went for their kids this Fall!
My freshman son is having a pretty normal experience, and I’m starting to feel hopeful he will make it to November. So far zero cases. Entire student body has been tested twice and they now test 1500/week (+/-10,000 total students but not all returned). He’s socializing. They will have intramural sports and clubs. He studies in the library. Dining hall is open for reduced capacity, but they have big tents outside they can eat in as well. He’s been shopping and going to restaurants in town (outdoor dining). Has in person classes every week (half the time he’s in person, half online). Groups gather outside to play games, talk, go hiking. They have small parties – number of guests must match number of residents in a room, so he can have two guests. It’s not vastly different than any other year, and he is having a great experience.
Update on D who was home but having a poor online experience: She got permission to move onto campus, so she is definitely going back as soon as she gets a clear test result. She is extremely happy!
Singles are what is keeping my ds going strong. Since most of his classes are on line this is his living and learning place. When he wants to see others he goes to the hall lounge, dining hall (and takes outiside to eat) or walks around campus. I truly think that the single is one of the key reasons it is working.
Don’t most students pick their college based on career path and employability? My kids all chose schools based on the majors offered and their interests, not a single one on their top ten list was different in that area. We could cut out certain types of schools for this reason as well (yes, they all have STEM type majors). Though my youngest is a college freshman I do not think this would have changed if I was still narrowing down colleges during covid.
STEM and liberal arts (and sciences) are not mutually exclusive strengths. Wesleyan while nominally a LAC won a couple Apker prizes in physics a while back while competing against the likes of Johns Hopkins, CalTech, Rice and CMU.
I too, think there will be a flight to quality in the next admissions cycle. But, I think a lot of parents are going to want to factor in how successfully different colleges and universities dealt with the pandemic. Will HYPSM get passes for being mostly shut down? Will parents ever again look at paying $40K a year for a state flagship in quite the same way again? There are a lot of opportunities out there for LACs.
This year’s experience is the monastic lifestyle of solitude and studying. If that’s not what a student wants they need to take a gap year. Next year will likely be similar, except schools will have figured out what works and what doesn’t.
I said virtually the same thing a few hundred pages back and got blowback for it (“Wesleyan and Middlebury are far from monastic.”) But, it’s a matter of comparison. There are certain colleges that are nerd magnets and we all know which ones they are.
DD21 and DS24 are about a month in at Wake Forest, so far so good. Most students are back on campus, with campus housing dedensified, 65/35% single/double. Doubles are for those who requested that they room together. All freshmen are on campus. The school has rented 250 off-campus student apartments for displaced upperclassmen.
Both kids are in single rooms, DD in an off-campus apartment and DS is in a freshman dorm. Wake is being very strict in enforcing Covid protocols, with citations, suspensions, and some expulsions being anecdotally reported. Random surveillance testing began last week. Covid dashboard shows 71 student cases since August 17th. There are 380 isolation beds, with 20 occupied as of a few days ago. The campus is locked down to visitors. Students can leave but no one is allowed to come in without a permit.
Parents have been advised to expect a spike as testing ramps up. Communication has been transparent and timely. Covid dashboard shows campus condition as “Yellow: New Normal Campus Operations.”
Both kids are glad to be at school, and have a mix of online and blended classes. DS has a “family” group of about six friends that he hangs out with, DD is rooming with a similar group of close acquaintances. One advantage for DS is that, with social restrictions in effect and a single room, he is able to study more and not feel like he’s missing out on activities. Both are enjoying their classes and generally pleased with them given the circumstances.
Greek rush has been curtailed, with no formal activities allowed. Freshman rush is second semester anyway. Wake has no Greek housing, which also helps. Professional and club activities are largely online, with small groups allowed to meet outdoors with strict social distancing and masks.
The school is slowly opening up more activities for students, like the climbing wall and exercise equipment in the rec center. There are tents all over campus for study, socializing, and dining. ESPN College Gameday is there this week for the Clemson game tonight, which will have no fans or students. The school has rented the local fairgrounds for a drive-in experience, however. DS won a lottery to take his car there with three friends and will watch the game on a Jumbotron. There will also be screens set up on campus for small groups to see the game.
All in all they (and we as well) are very pleased with how the school has responded to Covid.
Freshman son (ChemE, pre-engineering at tOSU) elected to go all online at the last minute and is home. Re-jiggered his schedule to knock out a second gen ed class, and is taking a heavy load (an extra class locally which will push him a bit ahead in engineering sequence).
No complaints at all about the technology and remote class delivery (tOSU has been maturing their online platform and approach for 10+ years). He has mostly been impressed and surprised by the outreach from tOSU regarding his intended major. Have been proactive with his advising on next steps for courses, prepping to apply for his major, clubs, internship fairs and such and a Chem E mentor. Those latter things have been very key for keeping him emotionally engaged with tOSU and excited about what the next semesters will bring.
OSU announced its spring schedule yesterday. First week of classes will be all remote, starting Jan 11, to allow all on campus students a full two weeks for quarantine, if need be. No spring break and last final completed by very end of April. No mention of use of f2f classes, etc.
Testing has been regular and once a week for on campus students. A sample of 1,000 or so off campus students was started about 10 days ago.
On campus positivity has dropped from a high of about 6% to a low of 1.2% posted yesterday. Off campus rates have not dropped as quickly…high of over 11% to about 9%. That’s 40,000 young adults, so naturally there is continued concern for the Columbus general community. tOSU is such a beloved institution that community members have not been up-in-arms. Yet.
Son is in constant communication with his friends who elected to go to campus at several different colleges. Consensus is it is boring and lonely for the freshmen. Late night kick ball games are all the rage. The big advantage for the home based kids is ability to socialize still. Son has several close friends who were forced or elected to stay home, and they see each other as a small group twice a week.
His biggest complaint? Lack of access to a weight room. With two people working at home and one in college at home, my house looks somewhat like an office building for a professional body building association. There is a workout station in every room.
He’s happy and not feeling compelled to move to campus unless the restrictions are mostly lifted. He doesn’t care about things like masks and distancing; he hated the idea of no one but dorm residents allowed in each dorm, and the boxed meals. He couldn’t imagine a box big enough for the amount of food he eats.
Our biggest challenge has been his taking the next steps of independence. We want this to feel different than HS for him. We ask no questions regarding his coming and going, and I no longer clean his bathroom. Both win-wins for us. He is financially totally independent and has to make his summer job earnings stretch the whole year. While we buy the food, he cooks most of his own meals. A particularly appealing meal will entice him to the dinner table, but mostly he eats with friends or on his own.
Since my home office is close to his work space, I get to somewhat witness my kid while he is attending classes. While I know him as being almost silent, it is heartening hearing his verbal engages with one of his professors online. He actually can complete entire sentences. And several in a row. Grunts are not always his version of ‘yes.’ Who knew???
So far, so good. I wonder how this will feel for him once the snow flies, but usually we don’t get terrible weather until after Thanksgiving.
@123France @massmom2018 thanks for posting. Colby and Hamilton clearly are more open than Bowdoin is right now or will be even in their most open plan. Bowdoin’s classes will all be remote. That part is already decided for spring. I agree that the weather is good now so your kids are able to be social within the rules right now. Not being freshmen, being able to practice a sport, and be with friends in small groups outside does make campus more livable. I do wonder what will happen when the weather turns and how life will feel different than now.
S19 is hoping that spring semester will allow kids to socialize in other dorms, that the gym will be open, that buildings on campus will be open so that he and his friends can find a room somewhere to take their classes together. He’s hoping they’ll be allowed off campus so they can do their runs (which take them off campus six days a week). He hopes professors will agree to meet in person by appointment so his relationships with professors aren’t just over zoom. And he hopes he and his friends can room together to make a pod and be without their masks in their rooms. Right now Bowdoin is all singles so he wouldn’t see any of his friends ever without a mask. Meanwhile, he’s living with five of these friends right now in a normal way. That feels like going backwards.
So Bowdoin’s plan is not Colby’s or Hamilton’s or Middlebury’s.
To all of the posters who say it’s ok to go back (even good!), their school’s plans are less restrictive. I’m not pushing against your kids’ experiences. I’m just saying that many of those experiences can’t happen for S19.
I’m really hoping to gather as much info as I can on how other NESCACs are inviting kids to some in-person classes, which buildings are open and with what rules, how dining will work once the weather gets cold and kids can’t eat outside, how available professors are to meet in person, etc.