Can someone recommend covid-19 vaccine optional college choices for a very strong student interested in math, comp sci or an engineering major?
Purdue never mandated the covid vaccine.
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Iowa State never instituted a vax mandate.
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By next year, very likely that Covid will have become endemic and be treated like the flu. I don’t know of any schools that mandate flu vaccine, so I imagine that eventually schools won’t mandate Covid vaccine, either. So if this is a deal breaker for your young adult (and please, let them decide for themselves in this matter), you’re probably going to want to revisit this issue in six months.
With almost every college that mandated the vaccine, you can get a philosophical or religious exemption, so you could look into that!
COVID-19 has been endemic for a while, but is a greater disease burden than flu (a bad flu year leaves about 50k dead in the US, but the Omicron wave of the last few months left 180k dead in the US).
Regarding the original question, there is a college COVID-19 vaccination policy mega thread. However, policies may have changed, so any information should be rechecked on college web sites.
Yes, and the flu pandemic around 1919 killed many millions - but perhaps you’re aware that flu vaccine is not required for attendance at most if not all colleges, because flu has evolved to become less virulent.
The Covid situation changes on an almost daily basis, but it is in the virus’ interest to mutate to become more infective and less virulent. 23 months ago, most colleges were pretty much closed. Now they are open with some even dropping their mask mandates. What I clearly wrote was that the situation is fluid, and that it is likely that if the student is against getting a Covid vaccine, the student is likely to have more options by next application season, so restricting their list to only schools that don’t mandate the Covid vaccine is not appropriate at this time.
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It is not assured that it will be less virulent or below flu virulence by next year.
Also, colleges commonly require other vaccines, such as measles, meningitis, and/or chicken pox.
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My son’s college in NY has required students to get a flu shot for the last two academic years. Not sure if it was required before that. In fact, I just did a quick google search and found several links indicating that since Covid hit, more than a few universities besides my son’s college, including the entire UC system, JHU and Elon, have started requiring flu vaccines.
Sorry to veer away from the OP’s question, but wanted to point out while you might not know any, there are definitely schools who have mandated the flu vaccine.
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Actually many schools did mandate the flu vaccine this year, in addition to the covid vaccine. We don’t yet know if schools will relax those policies.
I would look at religious colleges, many of which didn’t mandate the covid vaccine this year. I don’t think the VA or FLA publics required covid vaccines either, maybe look elsewhere in the south.
There’s also this article Most of the 50 Largest U.S. Universities Aren't Requiring Students Get COVID Vaccine
Purdue also had a flu shot requirement this year, as well as a host of other vaccines for living in the dorms, but the question was specifically about the covid vaccine.
Depends on the state. In some places, the only vaccine exemptions allowed are medical.
But I agree with others. I don’t think the Covid vaccines will be added to the list of required vaccines for colleges…unless something radically changes.
Just be aware (and ask at schools that say similar)
Boilermakers can choose to protect Purdue either by getting fully vaccinated with an approved vaccine and submitting valid proof or participating in routine surveillance testing, which could be as frequently as weekly, and contact tracing.
Weekly testing and contact tracing can be tedious.
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As noted above, the situation changes all of the time. Most universities in VA mandated the vaccine for fall 2021, but with the new state administration, the attorney general said all public universities cannot mandate the vaccine.
I would personally assume that if a school is mandating it now, they will be mandating it for the future. Sure they may change their policy, but you can’t count on that.
Texas A&M does not. Great engineering school.
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I think most schools south of VA. do not mandate the vaxx
UF or UCF in Florida. Or any school in FL for that matter.
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tons of public schools in the midwest/heartland didn’t require the vaccine (OK, KS, SD, IA, NE, AK, MO, etc. etc.).
We toured ISU for engineering recently; they’ve got it going on; according to them largest career fair for engineering.
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