If you were to put back in time (with ability to see this week in crystal ball) to help your kid decide to do current semester on-campus, off-campus or from home, what would you recommend as the best choice?
@1Rubin hindsight wouldn’t help me, I don’t think- I would still go back and forth hopelessly. I’m glad it wasn’t my decision. I think I might lean toward her going to campus, but then her first week of school ends tomorrow (she has Sunday class this semester), so I guess a few more weeks would be informative. She and her father really, really don’t get along, so it’s always in the back of my mind that she’s happier living not-at-home when that’s a good option.
That may be part of the problem of why it is hard to get people to follow the rules. It takes only a small minority of the group to “fail” and bring punishment to the entire group, but those who caused it do not get punished any more than the others. Hence the incentive to follow the rules is altruistic; the only selfish motivation is if one personally fears the effects of the virus itself. Those with little altruistic motivation and who do not fear the effects of the virus itself may have only a weak motivation to follow the rules, especially if they believe that “failure” is inevitable (because they see other people not following the rules) and everyone will get punished no matter what.
It’s in the human nature that some violations will occur if everyone’s interest (and in this case, even belief) isn’t completely aligned. The only way to deter such violations is through, unfortunately, disproportional punishment.
@1Rubin, see my post #37 (March 31) 
Notre Dame’s dashboard shows a much lower positivity rate than before- 1.8% , but I’m still baffled by how few tests they have done. About 10k since beginning of August. This is a college with an endowment 55 times the size of my D’s New England college and a student population of double her schools size. Her college has done 9k+ tests. I’m frankly surprised at how they’ve been able to reduce positivity with so few tests and am feeling even more optimistic about my D’s college being able to keep outbreaks out of her school.
https://here.nd.edu/our-approach/dashboard/
Is Notre Dame doing sewage testing perhaps?
Don’t know about “most students”, but mine picked theirs based on best educational and overall experience. Neither had a career path in mind.
Really? After everything you’ve been reading the past few weeks, you’d still pay OOS tuition and fees to send your kid across the country to a state university?
Many many families will be doing just that this and every fall to come… Not sure why that is so unusual. The OOS public might provide something the local,
public doesn’t.
My D went back to her West Coast U (LMU) despite being remote. Yes…what is going on with the weather and fires is horrible. However, yesterday was her birthday and she had a picnic on the beach with the roomies. Last week, went on a friend’s boat. For her at least, it is not 100% terrible, not even close, and there are zero regrets to heading back out there instead of staying home. I don’t write that to minimize the crisis and the damage, but it’s not as awful for my student at least as has been written here. And yes, I’m one of those paying OOS tuition and letting my daughter get back to her off campus house for fully remote. It’s a choice between two not-great options (remote there, or remote here) and after seeing how remote-here went in the spring, she is much happier with remote there. I will say that if we hadn’t already signed a lease that would have factored in, but in the end I probably would have let her go, it’s her senior year and housing costs were already factored in overall. That said, I think it’s a very different case for freshmen.
‘What will be different in Fall 2021?’ My hope is that, with so many schools having so many plans, maybe by then we will have figured out what works. Some schools posted here (some small LACs, and Purdue, Wake and Elon (which is my son’s school and sounds similar to WF) seem to be doing OK so far. If we can get a whole semester of seeing if any schools keep things manageable, maybe that can guide others. It’s weird to me that so many schools have so many different plans, when they are all dealing with the exact same virus, but this will be helpful hopefully in determining what works and what doesn’t, and IS there a way to have kids on campus and partially in school while keeping students, staff and community members safe?
@TS0104 Is LMU definitely remote for this spring?
The basic norm is the in-state public (often as a commuter student), not the out-of-state public, which tends to be unaffordable for most students and families, unless the student wins a top merit scholarship or the family is in the high income/wealth range that is described as “middle class” on these forums. I.e. most college students do not go great distances to college, where bringing them home in case of a COVID-19 shutdown would be excessively difficult in the way people here are worrying about.
In your region, is the basic norm for most students and families different (among all college bound students, not just the forum demographic)?
@circuitrider - Really? The public OOS was my D’s #1 choice in a field that included plenty of private schools, including those in the NE and mid Atlantic (I’m a NYer, and my H is from NE). No stretching needing for us. We were ready to pay full COA of $75K/year if that was the school D wanted (and for the record, she did get in to many at that price range and we would have happily paid).
Take a look at the top 10 schools in the country for undergrad engineering. Half the T10 are public - UC Berkeley, UIUC, GT, UMich, Purdue.
Again, lots of assumptions in your statement about those of us who don’t live in the NE. It comes down to FIT!
Note about virtual career fair at Purdue this year - seems like there are some big positives doing it this way. Companies are screening resumes and job applications before the interviews so if it isn’t a good fit in either direction, kids or the company can pull out and pivot to other students/companies. D’s list has changed multiple times and she continues to be able to add companies and interviews. In many ways, this seems actually more efficient and I wonder if they’ll utilize a hybrid model when they get companies back on campus in January. (And yes, Purdue is planning on a more F2F spring semester).
D is surprised at how many less companies are recruiting this cycle. Makes sense with Covid but it’s going to make the competition for jobs that must harder. I just hope the companies that are hiring won’t rescind offers if there is another wave. Obviously that’s out of D’s control so she’s plowing ahead and hoping for the best, with solid plan Bs and Cs.
I didn’t say engineering. It could be business, psychology, medical etc.
So I am reading something in a tech journal that my son has here. It’s about how college students are adapting and it says “students have learned to be better time managers, more flexible, and certainly more adaptable. Those are great life skills and great skills to prepare them for an evolving workplace” . Dean of Graduate school and international education…
The article goes on about students self advocating and learning to pivot and employers like this…
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Please stay on topic. I deleted quite a few posts about choosing OOS schools, class size, etc.
Also, @Corinthian if you send a PM to someone with only a few posts, they will receive it and can respond back to you even if they can’t initiate a PM.
Given that many second semesters start Feb 1, when can we expect to learn whether they will be remote? Before Xmas, or mid-Jan?
@roycroftmom I believe Amherst is announcing their spring semester plans in mid-November.
Purdue already announced their plans @roycroftmom. I believe OSU released their plans as well.
D is also having a very full and rewarding experience at Hamilton this semester. She is in a single and loving it. She has her own space to study in when she wants quiet time. Her team is working out and practicing. She has half her classes in person. She is socializing with friends/teammates outside when she wants and has her work as a research assistant. The students adjust and find their way. A mask and standing 6 feet apart isn’t a roadblock to them. It was well worth it for her to be back on campus and she would have been very disappointed to be home and studying remotely.