And you know this… how?
It seems quite likely that colleges in some states will open as scheduled. Glancing at today’s CNN headline, I noticed that both Alaska and Arizona sound like they are ready to re-open very soon, for example. Presumably students seeking an in-person experience will flock to schools that do reopen-so maybe Rice, Duke, and perhaps Vanderbilt may see increases in yield, and perhaps Columbia and Barnard will stay closed and get lower yield.
Agree. I know a couple full pay transfer students who hope the current situation will get them admission to elite schools which were likely have turned them down in the past. These students can wait out the fall, or agree to pay full tuition while staying home and working online – but still graduate with a degree from said elite school.
Our friend who is a professor from Columbia said that a lot of their revenue comes from international students doing Master program at Columbia. This year this revenue stream will be significantly impacted.
If they can convert those courses to on line they may be able to recover some of those revenues.
Yes, many Master’s programs are cash cows for universities - even those not heavily international-student dependent.
Very dependent on individual schools, but it may make sense for schools that want to transition back to campus to start with (US) grad students. These students typically either reside off campus or have apartment style accommodations (single room with private bath and kitchen). Non-US grad students could opt to use online.
Seems that freshman would fare better online for first year as the more advanced classes utilize labs etc more.
^Most PhD students never left. Research universities are still providing support for these students.
It just feels impossible to choose a college as an incoming freshman with total uncertainty about whether classes will be online or dorms will be closed. I wish colleges would just show leadership and make a decision and let people know well before May 1.
While graduate students more commonly live off-campus and are more likely to be in apartment type housing, different graduate students and programs could differ in the academic aspect. A health professional program student whose course work involves close contact with other people would be different from a PhD student who has completed work that requires contact with other people and is writing up his/her PhD thesis based on that work.
Some colleges may have in-person and distance professional programs at different prices. If the distance version is less expensive, then any students in the in-person program may want the program to be discounted to the distance price. If admission selectivity was different for the different variants, some students may feel that they are losing exclusivity or prestige (which is sometimes a selling point of these programs).
Depends on the programs. My PhD student daughter has been working from home for the past month; her lab won’t reopen until June. The only PhD students allowed to work on her campus are those working with live animals.
Labs are generally closed unless they’re related to COVID-19 research, but PhD students (and even Master students with thesis requirement) are usually not required to leave campuses.
It just seems more likely that schools ramp up on-campus attendance over several months as opposed to the step-function of everyone showing up at one time. I think the same hold true for large businesses. Also, contact tracing has to be enabled with technology for anything like this to work. The old days of manual calling to contact trace would be ridiculous. Schools could/should require all students to us a mobile contact trace app. It will be interesting to see what Goggle/Apple come up with.
I know this thread has an East coast vibe to it, but this is a significant public statement:
UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said Thursday that the school might stick with online courses for the fall quarter due to the coronavirus, but that he doesn’t see it becoming a permanent arrangement.
Meanwhile at CU-Boudler there’s this:
Summary: Basically an OOS family leading a class action suit for tuition reimbursement due to campus shut-down.
Unfortunately probably happening at other schools too.
Wow. That family needs to get over itself. Do they ever read the news? They are in control of fall semester for their daughter. She can take a break from school if that works best for them.
@gwnorth The more families push back on cost of online, the more likely colleges will push off fall classes and try to start the semester later but in person. Going online will cause a loss in room and board and drama around the cost of full tuition. I think schools may be wise to send questionnaires out to families to get their opinions on online versus putting off fall semester. Different schools would likely get different results. If an on-time start on campus is not in the cards, I would think colleges would want to know where their students stand on other options so the school can choose wisely.
Surprise, surprise-Dad’s a personal injury lawyer.
(I won’t add a link here, but you can google him yourself)