i can tell that as many restrictions and lack of activities there are on campus, it is 100x better than being home for my kid. As a freshman, it would have been awful not to launch and not to meet the people and familiarize herself with the campus. Its a short term view? Its a shot term problem (hopefully). Most students don’t want to extend college further out and be in college until they are 23. Some have plans for life, most can’t afford it, some think this is going to go on for more than a year and can’t keep kicking the can on college. My D’s best friend who had to stay home is STRUGGLING - and had to go to therapy. The thought of her college going online for spring is so stressful and that will probably happen. She doesn’t know what to do, but can’t imagine deferring her launch to September.
I understand the general question of what to do in this situation is a struggle as nothing is ideal. Most kids don’t have something else productive to do, so why not go to school? If my son had taken a gap year he would have just stayed in his job as a cashier at Dick’s. Yeah I would have saved the money from his tuition and he would have increased the size of his bank account, but frankly that just feels like treading water. We also had some worry that once he had essentially dropped out for a semester or two it would have been hard to get back into it again. So we decided to move ahead and send him back to school. Is “the experience” as good as last year? No. But its better than the alternative and better than the spring was. Unfortunately this is the world we are living with right now, so moving forward even though it not as good or as easy as we would have liked, seems like the best path. This is just my opinion, but to me, taking a gap year seems like sticking your head in the sand and hoping things will be better when you pull it out again.
But with regard to cost, isn’t there an opportunity cost to factor in? If you push off graduating by a year, you also push off a year of post grad earnings. That needs to be factored into any cost analysis.
I get that this whole thing is not ideal. But it’s not ideal no matter what phase of life you are in, not just college kids. Something to be said about hanging in and making the best of it.
@wisteria100 I heard that argument a lot while S19 was trying to decide what to do. It just doesn’t hold that much water for us. Will his lifelong earnings or savings be less? I think the difference is so minimal that it doesn’t matter. He’s also young for his grade so, age wise, a break feels just fine. He’ll still be 22 when he graduates even if he takes a whole year off (which he hasn’t decided on yet.)
I do see the positives and negatives to going back to school. I don’t want it to seem like I don’t. But everyone’s situation is different - their home life, their goals, their college’s pandemic plan. No great option for anyone this year.
@msdynamite85 Sorry, I don’t see this as a badge of honor for college students or something that will be viewed upon in 50 years as their WWll - it just isn’t that.
There are a lot of kids these days (because of red shirting and early kindergarten cutoffs and post-grad high school years) that are already ‘old’ for their grade. I’m sure that does factor into people’s decisions. My son has several friends in this situation and they are emotionally ready to graduate at 23 (not taking a gap year) and did not want to push that to 24 in order to gain a proper senior year college experience.
Yeah, somehow I find this notion that the residential college experience is the equivalent of Disneyland, a little bit unhinged.
No ma’am, I pay for an education.
Guess this thread can’t get away from the discussion of what works for my kid/family (even if it may not work for everyone).
Re: study abroad opportunities.
Actually, the entirety of the EU and UK has no problem with American students coming in on student Visas. It’s the same for the US- my daughter can come over (from UK) to Brandeis, though I can’t.
International students were made to be an exception (though of course things might change in the future).
Of course schools will do what they think is best, but there are no legal/bureaucratic issues at least.
This assumes that salaries and job opportunities will be the same from year to year. In some industries, waiting another year for the job market to recover might be the best option. In others, maybe not. I just don’t think we can say yet.
If I were a student in, say, Cornell’s Hotel Administration school, I’d consider waiting a year for sure.
One’s first job choice and first salary amount can make an impact for years.
Nothing works for everyone, that’s why this site exists.
Good point about the singles vs doubles issue being affected by how many classes are remote. I can see that the combination of doubles with majority remote classes is a problem. My kid’s school is managing to have more than half of its classes in person. My own kid has 3 of 5 in person. That obviously helps make double occupancy more workable.
I think the “college experience” means different things to different people. For my kid, being away from home and relatively independent has been as big a part of the experience as the academics. It definitely helps my attitude that my kid ended up at a school with generous merit aid so our COA isn’t too painful.
You could be paying for:
A. The education.
B. The credential.
C. The (residential college) experience.
For most college students, A and B are the main reasons for attending and paying for college (note the masses of college students attending college while living at home or where they lived before college). However, some have the luxury of considering C as well. The latter group is well represented in these forums, and is well represented at residential colleges. It should not be a surprise that there is a lot of complaining on these forums. Also, colleges where C is a major attractor of students are likely to have their marketability impacted more than others – and those whose A and B are not standouts may lose marketability the most.
Why are you taking attendance and why do you care if students choose not to participate? This isn’t high school and you aren’t their parents. They are presumably adults who are paying to attend classes. No one is forcing them to be there. Your job is to teach, not hold your students’ hands and force them to learn. If they choose to blow off class or not participate that’s on them. Time to let them take responsibility for their own actions and their outcomes. If you want to encourage them to participate, add a participation mark as part of the course weighting. If they still choose not to participate then that’s on them. Time to cut the apron strings.
schools in GA which first spiked when they reopened in Aug are now reporting less cases. I really think once it spreads through a dorm floor or a greek house, and there is no longer as much “kindling” it really slows down as there is sorta a herd immunity. Here are the numbers.
https://www.ajc.com/education/ajc-on-campus-covid-19-case-updates/TQTEUAZGG5GNZIP7DFTRKPK2ME/
For just UGA, there have been a few hundred cases across the 40,000+ people who study and work in Athens. While it’s true the rates are going down…there is still plenty of “kindling” walking around. Herd immunity would require upwards of 20,000 to 25,000 infected and recovered people.
Solid safety guidelines and compliance are the keys to remaining on campus with low rates. This is far from over.
Not sure this really makes much sense in the context of this thread or more generally this site. If posts evidencing the contrary of this statement were deleted, daily traffic on this site would decrease substantially. And there would be long periods of time with no posts in this thread.
I thought any US citizens/residents could travel to UK, not just students. However, they have to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival. This is different than the EU, where regular travelers are not welcome even if they were to isolate upon arrival.
I think every kid/family is going to have very, very different expectations about college. My D20 intends to go on med school or potentially MD/PhD programs so has a long road ahead of her. Undergrad is just one piece. There’s no telling when “normal” will return so she’s making the best of it. We’re full pay, but really “experience” was pretty far down on her list when picking schools. She picked a school strong in her major, her main ec with good research opportunities and a strong pre-health advising department. So while it’s not ideal, it really isn’t hugely different than what she expected and I’m not going to waste my time worrying about the money - we made that decision when we let her apply ED instead of exploring the multiple merit offers she received.
This whole small LAC experience is a pretty small subset of kids. If that’s what your kid wants and you’re willing to wait indefinitely - you do you. Neither of my kids really wanted that to start with and didn’t apply to any school smaller than 5,000 undergrad. My daughter is way more excited about the research opportunity she just received than whether she can go to a football game or if her Chem 101 lecture is in person or on zoom.