Okay, I think we’ve ganged up on Homer enough. She was venting.
What are students with apartments doing over the winter break? Coming home for thanksgiving and then going back? Staying home through Xmas and then going back? What are the quarantine rules for returning students at your schools/communities?
We’re being told that closing the school and sending students home is the worse thing we can do, but that’s exactly what we’re going to do in about 2 months anyway.
I don’t think Homerdog is doom and gloom when she tries to understand how that will work in the real world.
Another article in the Wesleyan paper. This one covers the situation in Middletown and I must say, the contrast with Northampton and Smith could not be greater:
http://wesleyanargus.com/2020/09/18/middletown-small-businesses-adapt-to-covid-19/
Residents are starting to complain about off campus NU parties. Police are being called. Looking to see how the university manages this. So far thoroughly unimpressed with NUs covid planning.
@momofsenior1… Here is my son’s schedule as an example. Many schools have a similar plan.
Start date: Aug. 31
In-person classes end: Nov. 20
Thanksgiving break: Nov. 21 through Nov. 29
Remote classes: Nov. 30 through Dec. 8
Final exams: Dec. 10 through Dec. 18
My son goes back to Michigan for the start of second semester Jan 18. So that can be used for some sort of vacation if the world allows. That’s a lot of time and will have to decide.
I will drive to get him. He normally takes Amtrack to Union Station with the other 10,000 kids coming home ??but not this year. That in my mind will be a huge virus vector.
During that 8 day break he will most sleep… Lol ?, and recharge always seems he needs at least a few days to get caught up. He swears he sleeps at school. But the brain drain must be exhausting…
Then he’s locked in with studying so might just see him for meals. Hardest thing is to give him the respect and space he needs to be successful. My daughter is home for college and working. He’s on a different work /eat /study schedule. If he’s in our den etc and we walk in just to say hello that can be distracting especially when he’s in intense studying. We have to remember to give him his space. It would be interesting to hear about what parents /students are doing now with kids at home from college?
After his finals not sure what’s going on. That we need to talk about. There might be an opportunity for him to go to Florida and be with a relative and I might suggest visiting a friend in Arizona but will have to see if they are hot beds at that point also and what’s the status with the virus
Davidson is down to 1 active case! They are testing all on and off campus students every week, but also have capacity to test more frequently if they need to. (They tested all 1st years twice in one week a few weeks ago.) They’re about one month into the semester.
They do have doubles and all years back. They will now let students in dorms have 1 visitor in their room, but they all have to wear a mask when doing so.
Fingers crossed…
Really not sure why there is so much confusion on what to do…do in reverse what your child did to get to school. Test within two weeks of leaving and start your quarantine at school, test again when you get to destination (in this case home). If you get a positive test on either end you deal with it like you would at any other time. It was a good enough plan to get your child to school it is good enough in reverse.
@momofsenior1 UMD has not come out with a formal communications yet but we are expecting that for Thanksgiving break they will advise any students that leave the College Park area (on or off campus)and go home will be told not to return for the remainder of the semester which is 2 weeks long. We live 2hrs from campus our daughter will stay in her off campus apartment for Thanksgiving and then return home after finals.
Real world in my town is kids coming home and just joining right back in. I just saw a post of a student coming home for the weekend just for fun. Posts of him hanging with family, playing with the dog, and then leaving to go back to school. Unless that student had Covid, of course I don’t know, that wasn’t the best idea.
I really was just trying to honestly figure out how everyone is doing the return. Kids are coming home. How careful is everyone being? I mentioned testing him before he comes home. Then we could schedule a test for him here and wait for the results until he is out amongst family. This is how a lot of colleges had their students enter school. Kids tested at home, tested at school and quarantined until those results. Then, they were allowed to be mask off with their roommates. I think some doctors around here have the rapid tests.
We don’t know our plans for actual Thanksgiving but he would, of course, not be close to anyone older or with preexisting conditions.
I’m here to tell you, though, that most people are not so careful. If you want to judge, go for it but you are putting your heads in the sand. This probably isn’t the thread to admit to not having a plan yet but I’m 100 percent sure that many families around here have zero plans to quarantine their returning college kids. Big yoga parties were a thing just last weekend. Dose of reality to those here who want to preach perfect quarantine rules. Not happening in many places.
Very few kids living off campus made some perfect bubble with their roommates where they tested before they left home, then tested on arrival and stayed clear away from roommates until they had two negative tests or for 10 days. Anyone know someone who did that? Kids who got to school and got tested but stayed in different parts of the apartment for over a week, and then tested again before making their off campus place a bubble? If so, kudos to them. I’m guessing that those people who tried just did the best they could - maybe getting one test and then just being careful for a little while not to be too close. The judging on this thread is something else.
It’s true. Lots of college kids coming home in late Nov. Lots of families making different decisions about how to welcome them back. Would help if colleges gave all of them a test right before they leave.
How does one quarantine at school for the two weeks before Thanksgiving? Lots of kids going to class or, at the very least, going to the dining hall for food. I don’t think that’s realistic.
I wouldn’t expect colleges to test (or pay for tests) for anyone leaving their campus; their responsibility is to try to keep the campus itself safe. If students or staff wish to test prior to shutdown, they can access tests on their own.
I think all this talk of multiple tests around Thanksgiving is a bit ridiculous. FWIW, my son will be driving home from school the weekend before Thanksgiving. He will not be testing either there or here and we will not quarantine him. The only possible issue is if the state his school is in is still on the naughty list at that time, we may have to schedule a test for him when he gets here so he doesn’t get fined. He will be attending Thanksgiving dinner with my 85 year old mother who has leukemia. No one will be wearing a mask in our house. We are all reasonably careful and we are all comfortable with this.
If anyone is interested in an at-home test for their returning student, I have used both Vault and Pixel by LabCorp and was happy with how quickly they provided results (both less than 24 hours after they received it.) They are ~$110.
My D plans to come home for the entire break, will leave her car at school and fly. She is flying SW and they are leaving the middle seats open through end of November. She does not take her mask off at the airport (no eating or drinking) and wipes down everything. She plans to get a rapid test before she leaves school, isolate upon return for a few days and get another rapid test here. She is being very careful and so are her roommates and the few friends she hangs out with (almost exclusively outdoors and they are having a good time). Though there is no mandatory testing on her campus, she and her roommates have been voluntarily testing every week. Some students and some families are being very careful without being on complete lock down and planning. It’s not perfect but we are doing our best and rolling with it. We will never get too tired of this to do the right thing.
I also do not think it is realistic (and I said it) BUT that is what the schools did on the students way in. AND, I figure if it whatever plan was good enough for families to buy in to on the front side it is good enough on their way home. I also do not believe any of this “my kid is in a bubble” because they are not for the same reasons you mention above. So, with that said we have plans A, B, C, and D throughout the semester for my kids depending on the situation. The schools my kids are at test regularly on a schedule as well as anytime a students walks in and requests it. So, I may ask them to walk in and request one a few days prior to the holiday but that is it. Once your kids are home you should be able to evaluate your own family situation and tolerance for risk.
If they are testing on a regular basis anyway why would the two weeks prior to Thanksgiving be any different than any other two weeks throughout the semester?
This is a reason why I think that students should be having year round housing rental agreements if they are going to be leaving their hometown and living near the college. This applies to the dorms and off campus housing.
That way there won’t be a huge sudden movement of people in a short space of time. Not every family celebrates all the traditional holidays. I know people who can’t stand thanksgiving for instance and usually volunteer for extra work shifts that day.
Why do so many on this thread assume that all schools are testing everyone on a regular basis? Some are, especially many small LACs, but I think that most are not.
DS19 is online this year from home and DS21 is doing hybrid for HS. He’s at school 2-3 mornings per week and the rest is online/virtual. In addition DH is also working from home 4 days a week with 1 day in the office. It’s working out ok. The kids mostly hang out in their bedrooms and that’s where they do their school work. If they are having virtual sessions or don’t want to be disturbed they close their doors. DH spends a good portion of his day on a variety of conference calls and video meetings and works from the family room but uses a headset for his calls which reduces the intrusion of household noise. DS19 also worked for a call centre from home for the spring/summer so we’ve just gotten used to being sensitive to what everyone is doing with regards to making noise etc. While our house isn’t huge it affords enough room for everyone to have their own personal space.