They have an operating budget to maintain. That’s reality, not greed. It would be unrealistic to expect them to allow a significant drop in enrollment (which btw takes 4 years to cycle through) just to maintain a particular selectivity level. Laying off faculty and staff while turning away potential students would not be a good look.
Thanks @cypresspat. I appreciate your thoughtful response. Today was a tough day. We tried to talk to our daughter to get her thoughts about the possibility that school may not start on campus in the fall and/or it could be interrupted if there is a resurgence. She would not even let me get my question out of my mouth. She just can’t bear to consider the possibility that things may not move ahead as everyone expected when our kids began their college applications (or began kindergarten for that matter!) It’s surreal how much disruption this virus has caused in almost all facets of life as we know it. I wish my daughter didn’t have a healthy number of less expensive high quality options because then there wouldn’t be as much to think about. (Although in my daughter’s mind, there isn’t anything to think about…she is totally committed to OSU and she refuses to think about the potential for disruption to next school year.) I also wish we knew what the fall holds because then we would know if there is even anything to decide. And now, on top of everything, there’s the complicating factor of an extra 8k admissions which could totally change the profile of the class, potentially cause overcrowding in the dorms, and result in numerous ripple effects. Anyway, I hate to be a Debbie downer. This was supposed to be a time of celebration and preparation for the start of an incredible 4 year adventure. Hopefully the world will get back on track and our kids will get the college experience they deserve. Thanks for listening!!
My son was accepted off the waitlist about a month ago, two weeks ago we cancelled his deposit on the OOS school he has decided on and paid the deposit to OSU . His sister is a student at OSU , he’s very familiar with the campus and financially we’d couldn’t imagine how to make it work out of state , after the after math of Covid 19. Talking to friends a lot are changing schools , community colleges are going to have huge enrollment numbers based on what I’m hearing here as well . We are happy and proud he’s going to be a Buckeye !
@Pelorider I guess this is one of those situations we here you have to think through worst case scenario for each decision and, if you are risk-averse, avoid the option you think is just unacceptable.
If she stays local, I guess the worst case scenario is all schools are open and have student on campus in the fall and but she had committed to an instate school. Despite it being just fine, she hates it. And continues to hate it and transfers out end of freshmen year. Not awful, happens all the time, but not a great year for either of you.
Worst case scenario (with the info we have now), all schools are online next Fall. She had chosen OSU, and you’re forced to pay $8k more for a sub-par first semester experience for her. Or, school does start on time, and this hits again and she has to return home to finish semester online. It is reasonably safe to assume That by next January we’ll have treatments or a vaccine or other strategies to manage and colleges will be somewhat back to normal. Note that in this scenario, the instate school probably would have been online, too. Colleges won’t risk the liability if there is an issue.
So it seems to me, assuming the travel back and forth from OSU is not onerous, the issue is the $8k. Are you willing to risk that amount of money to avoid option #1?
I am not worried about overcrowding in terms of housing at OSU. They have built up a lot of wiggle room in the dorms over the past few years and they have many strategies to handle a large swing in the number of students on campus. Columbus is a pretty big city and it is our state capital. If there is one institution that our state government will protect, it is tOSU. It is beloved around here.
I am not at all worried about the change in the composition of the class, either. One could argue that the number of very high achieving students will increase at tOSU because of financial concerns.
PS, my son won’t discuss the online possibility for the Fall, either. He is just trying to make it to the AP tests.
@Pelorider I know this is a really tough decision. There’s just so much uncertainty at this point. We’re in a similar boat, in that my D20 has lower cost options, closer to home (though not in-state, as she didn’t apply in state, oops). But her top 2 are the most expensive. It is hard to think about spending so much money for a possible online school.
However, I realize, even if they are still online come fall, it will be temporary. I’m confident they will eventually get back to campus. And if not, then we can consider a transfer down the road.
We’ve saved and budgeted, and even the top 2 (expensive) options are still within our budget, so I think we’ll probably just suck it up and let her choose.
@cypresspat I think the 8k pelorider mentioned was the increased #accepted students, not the cost differential.
Does Anyone think possibility of gap year idea?
I hope and maybe Colleges can open school at fall semester normally, cause recently they expect positive expect for covid19, they think death rate will be much lower, and it will over sooner than they expected if people follow social distancing and behavior rules,
Even on Tuesday in the news, “Dr. Fauci doesn’t think the guidelines in place now will be needed again in the fall.“
“I fully expect, that by the fall, we will have things in control enough that it certainly won’t be the way it is now,”
Despite worries that a second wave of COVID-19 would return in the fall as students are settling into the new school year, Fauci said that the work being put in now should allow for schools to open this fall.
but if virtual class is for fall semester, I will choose gap year for my son.
I’ve been thinking about this. We’re full-pay OOS (D19), so I do understand how OOS contributes to the revenues. At the same time, OSU is a state school, and has an obligation to the residents of Ohio. As many families are rethinking their options, it seems many are considering closer to home and lower cost. So, while it makes some sense for OSU to try to prop up revenues with more OOS students, I could also understand if they are offering more IS spots, to support the residents of Ohio in these tough times.
Don’t worry about being Debbie Downers…this is a good place to vent and get it all out so that we can be more upbeat around our family. I’m trying to take it one day at a time and not look too far into the future because that is overwhelming. But it’s also tough to stay in the moment when a 5/1 deadline is looming. This deadline seemed much less daunting when it was still March, but April is somehow flying by. My son has great options but having a really tough time deciding now that he can’t revisit them. He was lucky enough to squeeze in a Fisher Visit Day back in February, but didn’t make it back to U Georgia or Miami. Ugh.
Okay good luck to everyone with their decisions. Somehow this will all work out…when I was younger and stressed out, my mom always used to say “This too shall pass.” Stay safe everyone!
@momzilla2D I backed into the $8k difference for an average difference between in and out of state student for one semester. Ballpark.
My son is heading to the engineering school. It is hard enough for engineering majors to finish in four years as it is. Those kids have to cram a lot in their heads the first year. His having his first semester online is brewing in my head as a bad thing, academically. This will be true in every university I think…and.for any of the preprofessional degrees with a sequential curriculum (nursing, engineering, etc).
I wonder if my son had the option of just pushing everything forward a semester, would he prefer that to an online semester (and right now he is way more bummed about no football season than anything else)? Of course, this is not feasible for the institution’s sake. But I suspect this will knock a lot of things off the rails for the engineering school, which is huge. Many things, like course enrollments for upperclassmen, will be out of whack for a while. First world problem.
We are extraordinarily lucky that his first choice was the most affordable choice for us and we don’t have to struggle with these very hard decisions! My s20 is my third and last to head off to college. I barely remember the whole thing for my first two…but I don’t think any of us will ever forget the experience of those college-bound in the class of 2020. We are making this up as we go along.
@kittycat1203 What is your COA at OSU, UGA, and Miami? I can answer any questions about all three. I got a D18 at Fisher who considered UGA and Miami at the time and I have an S20 debating between UGA and UF with OSU Fisher being out for him. Its probably going to come down to the May 1st deadline.
@kittyduey. The thought of a gap year crossed my mind, too. When I suggested it to my son, he looked at me like I was nuts. I didn’t press the matter…but if we were paying $32k for an online semester…I may have been more insistent. He’s 18 and has been counting the minutes until he can leave this nest for a long time. Unless a gap year involves something really cool with the NHL, he’s not going to consider it.
@boomer1964 Thanks! Will get our questions together and send to you privately.
How long before housing email was sent after acceptance and paying enrollment fee?
Just another point to look at: Ohio state accepts (2019) 5000 (1100 Enroll) International students, 500 transfer (300 enroll) & 2400 graduates (950 enroll) . Imagine that none can come in the fall. That’s 2350 students short which is a huge tuition hit for Ohio State. This will be a hit to all state universities in the US if they cant fill OOS and International students slots
and many might not even show up after committing due the financial unknows come July/August. Depending on how online education is working out right now, some of the upper-division students might even skip the Fall Semester altogether. As big of a hit this will be on every college in America, The Ohio State University will probably weather this a little better than others.
@momtoaandv we are wondering the same.
Got my housing email today, was accepted on 3/13.
Paid acceptance fee on 3/6 received housing email today (4/10) in Buckeye Mail.
@cypresspat , yes, you’re very close…$9k less for a semester in-state. We’ve decided to move forward with OSU and have a gap year in our back pocket. The deadline to decide that isn’t due until August 1, which gives us plenty of time to see how things are looking for the fall. My daughter probably would prefer not to pull the trigger on that, but at least it’s an option. The nice thing is that if she did decide to go that way, she would be guaranteed her spot in Fisher and a living learning community if she gets accepted into the one she wants. Also, I don’t know if this would help your son at all with engineering, but we were advised that our daughter should enroll in the fall for classes that aren’t foundational for her major. This way, she’ll be sure to take classes that build on each other in person. As far as housing, we were told that worst case they can offer sophomores who prefer to live off campus the option to do so and they can also rent space in apartment buildings and put sophomores there. So they do seem to have options for alleviating housing crowding.
Thanks to you and @momzilla2D for your thoughts.
@momtoaandv it was about 4 weeks for us between putting in the deposit and getting her housing application. (3/8 deposit–>4/10 housing application received.)