Hi – the incredibly difficult circumstances surrounding college and coronavirus have led me to question my decision to attend a private school next year, as a freshman. They have not provided any guidance on what the status of classes will be in the fall, other than they hope that it will be in person. This school has a fairly large endowment which leads me to believe there is a decent chance it will continue classes in-person. However, in the case that there are online or even hybrid classes (since I do not live at all close to campus), I was wondering what other options I have to get college credit without paying the upwards of $50k pricetag per year for zoom classes. There are 2 things which I want to mention which are: 1) the odds of getting increased aid are slim since my parents are essential workers and wouldn’t be eligible as our income hasn’t decreased that much and 2) if I defer my enrollment for a year, I would not be able to get credit for any classes I take during that time.
I was wondering what (if any) options there are, then, to continue my education without paying private school tuition. Is there any way to study at a local university (a nearby UC?) for a year and then go back? Under normal circumstances I don’t think this would be possible for a freshman, but having applied ED I had made plans long before COVID 19 disrupted life as we know it, and being in this unusual circumstance, I thought I would reach out to you folks before my time runs out to make a decision. Sorry if this is a super odd question, I’d appreciate any advice you have!
Your college may allow you to defer entry until spring 2021 or fall 2021. But then you have to figure out what to do during the gap semester or year (deferred entry usually means no college courses during the gap semester or year, although you could always ask to see if that is allowed without losing your place at the college).
As far as local public colleges in California go, only the community colleges and Humboldt State are still open for fall 2020 entry. The community colleges are set up to prepare academically-oriented students for transfer to UCs and CSUs in two years, if you decide that you no longer want to attend your expensive private college at all.
I know faculty or admin at three colleges who are part of the team trying to figure out how to handle this autumn- and they haven’t given students any guidance because they genuinely do not know what the status is or will be. From the conversations we are having they are working really hard to figure out the best options given their constraints: how to house students, when they are already short of housing, and neither the official ‘rules’ nor the ‘best practice’ guidelines exist yet? how to have more course sections to allow for social distancing? how to use technology to best advantage without losing the interaction that adds so much to the learning process? how to create a transition to college process that works on both a practical and a social level for incoming first years? They are acutely aware how hard this uncertainty is for the students- and it is a seriously complex challenge with no precedents for them to work from.
So that is a bit of a view from the college side. From your side of course you are also trying to guess the future, and that is hard to do! As @ucbalumnus pointed out, you can request a deferral. Some schools are doing that- I gather some are even encouraging students to defer to spring entry. On the other hand, one of our lot is to matriculate in September at a grad school that has already said ‘no deferrals unless you have a documented medical reason’. You should contact the school to find out where their policy on deferrals is. Note that if colleges give too many deferrals this year, it affects next year’s admissions cycle.
Fwiw, even if the UCs were still taking apps, they are as likely to be online in the autumn as your “private school”.
And that is the part that really stands out in your post: your emphasis on the fact that it is a “private” school and how expensive it is. You applied ED, almost a year ago, and your thinking may have changed over that time. Are you having second thoughts about going to this school at all? Do you feel that in some way the school being private, having a big endowment, being expensive means that they should be doing more than they are? If either / both of those are in anyway true, you might want to think about withdrawing altogether from that school, taking a gap year, and applying fresh to colleges that you will be happier with overall. Bonus: there will be better information available to you as to what college will be like by then.
@ucbalumnus thanks for that advice. I am considering deferring but don’t want to fall behind in terms of getting credits and graduating in 4 years. I do see the value in community college, however this particular university is rather picky about transfer credits for 4 yr universities, let alone community college. I suppose my best bet is to wait and see what unfolds. Thanks for your input!
I totally agree! I know that these universities are trying to do the best by their students, and I really won’t blame them if it goes online, however I also want a back-up plan in case tuition isn’t lowered. While I’ve had my doubts about this school, as I’m sure many ED students have, I’m very excited to go there now. However, part of the appeal of the private school is the small class size and instruction which would be lacking. It’s true that many UCs are likely online, but the class size isn’t much of a concern if classes are to be online anyways. The idea of a gap year is appealing and I have until June to decide, but again I’m a bit afraid of being behind on credits. All the points you made are valid! It seems I have a lot to think about for the rest of may.
as a postscript, the online / hybrid options your are seeing now are short-term solutions, not final solutions. All colleges and universities will figure out longer term solutions, which will likely evolve over the course of your college years.
Those solutions will be affected not just by internal practicalities but also external ones. An early vaccine that seem safe and effective will speed things up and get things back to ‘normal’ pretty quickly (once production is at a scale that makes mass vaccination viable anyway). But: although teams of the best scientists around the world are working on vaccine possibilities, there is a non-zero possibility that a Covid-19 vaccine will not be found quickly- scientists have been working on other corona virus vaccines for years without disappointing results. If Covid-19 proves similarly resistant, then it is down to enough people having been exposed enough to develop antibodies.
In other words: there might be a clear answer in 3 / 6 / 9 months- but there might not. Although there may be a lot of variation in how colleges handle the next semester or two, the most likely outcome is that they will all learn from each other’s experiences and the well funded / selective colleges are likely to end up with largely similar general practices, tailored to their particular resources and institutional culture. The ‘right’ or ‘best’ solutions will not be clear for a good while yet, and the situation is so fluid that it is entirely possible that your college experience will be different each year.
In the meantime, selective, well-endowed universities are trying to quickly develop ways to make whatever distance learning tools are used more than mass zoom lectures. I have been watching two courses where ways of making collaborative work possible and having a productive, interactive student experience were being used. I am heartened to see what good teachers came up with at the drop of a hat- and at how hard they are working right now to come up with better options for the autumn.
But: this is hard, no two ways about it.
Things may change due to the Covid situation, but up until now UCs did not give regular admission to students who decided during the summer prior to frosh year they'd like to attend. You would have needed to apply last Fall.
There was/is a loophole. Each UC campus has UC Extension, and it had been technically possible (at least a few years ago) to enroll via Extension in regular classes on a space-available basis. There is never space available. It is possible they may use this pathway to allow students to take UC classes, but as of now they have not announced any plans to do this.
UC Extension Concurrent Enrollment still exists for non-matriculated students in non-summer sessions, but would only be available for the less popular classes that do not get filled up with matriculated students.
this is good to know, I was not aware of this. I think the problem comes back to the fact that if I take a gap year I can’t transfer any college credits earned during that time. But I’ll look into the program, thanks @mikemac and @ucbalumnus for the suggestion.
Those are the normal rules, but I think some colleges may bend the rules this time around given the special circumstances. A lot can happen between now and next fall, so I don’t think anyone is going to commit to anything just now, but later in the summer I wouldn’t be surprised if colleges allow this if things stay in a semi-lockdown.