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Another reason Russia doesn’t have as many cases may be weather. The virus seems to propagate more efficiently in more temperate climate. Unfortunately, these areas are also more highly populated (the virus likes what we like). Besides Russia, there’re also fewer cases in northern European countries as well as Canada (Alaska also has relatively few cases).
[quote=“ucbalumnus, post:81, topic:2087173”]
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@ucbalumnus Thank you! So helpful!
I’m going to assume that there will also be fewer full-pay applicants to private schools (by far) if the economy doesn’t quickly stabilize (about which I’m not optimistic). Also, a good many who may still be considered full-pay but by a much smaller margin than they were before (as investments lose value) and who then opt for state schools rather than spend all retirement savings on a pricy college. We may be in one of these categories (depending on the market). Sadly, LACs may again become schools for only the very wealthy, not the merely well-off who frugally invested their middle-class earnings.
The economic downturn or crisis may be the downfall of many LACs which depend upon tuition revenue in order to sustain operations.
Schools with healthy endowments should be able to weather the storm for a few years by drawing down endowment funds. Schools with low endowments do not have the same flexibility.
@homerdog. Well, I don’t agree at all that how well my son would be taken care of at an Ivy League school vs. a large public university would be directly related to the size of the schools’ endowments. I say that as a parent with a son currently at an Ivy League university. That would have much more to do with the quality of the leadership team during a time of crisis than anything else. A big endowment or large spend per student is not at all a guarantee of a strong leadership team, nor vice versa. In fact, I think the strongest management teams I have ever interacted with are running small schools, with no fancy reputation and not much of an endowment to speak of. They work miracles every day.
That being said…I believe the question that was posed related to how a parent faced with a current decision has had his or her decision shaped by the health crisis. Ours did not because our S20 made his decision in November. But, as the current situation unfolded I knew that if he had instead chosen a CA university, I would not be dropping him off this August without a lot of worry. I think it is common sense that a parent would want a child close to home if a lot of turmoil is expected. And since my son’s decision to also not apply to an Ivy League school theoretically saved us about $50k a year (we would not be eligible for any financial aid based on our income), given the economic unknowns right now, I’m pretty happy about that, too.
So, if we were somehow faced with the current decision of his attending UCLA vs. Cornell vs. tOSU right now, we would have had VERY different conversations with him vs. without the current crisis. And I know a bunch of people who actually ARE in a similar situation right now and are rethinking their stance vs. a month ago.
The long and short of it is I think the current situation will have a huge impact on college decisions this year. I think a lot of yield models just became useless.
Here is an N of 1…but my son was choosing OOS between Wisconsin, Indiana and Georgia to study business as full-pay…just got back from visits on March 9. Today, none of those are options and he is very likely staying in-state at University of Washington. Or attending a safety school with attractive financial Offer. Maybe experiencing this COVID 19 Situation is the very best business education he will get!
@bjm1122 Interesting. So, is this decision purely for financial reasons? Or are you concerned about how much of a pain it would be for him to be far away if you need to get him home?
Weren’t LACs already skewed toward higher SES backgrounds, since studying liberal arts (instead of more obviously pre-professional subjects that are offered more at other schools) is commonly perceived as a luxury for those with a stronger parental safety net and connections to jobs that lower SES students do not have?
Combo of financial and managing risk of uncertainty with economy, covid and election. We are not concerned about distance from home…what I am concerned about is paying OOS tuition for online education in an even worsening economy. Additionally, I have twin seniors and a junior, so essentially paying for 12 years of college over the next 5 years. The interest in OOS education was to gain new experience, diverse exposure to other geographies, populations in addition to solid college education. Now I’m just willing to invest in the education aspect…the other items are “nice to have”.
Thankfully, one of my seniors has appointment to a Service Academy so that helps the financial aspect, although that situation may be in turmoil as well. I would assume is challenging to teach leadership, physical education and military concepts virtually.
Circumstances have changed quick!
@ucbalumnus, yes, but now I’m afraid, even more so.
Huh? Kids from LACs gain real skills for real jobs. So many articles have been written about this. And the lower SES kids at top LACs get incredible financial packages and, obviously, still get the bonus of using the name of the college and all of its resources to find a job.
I think the other poster might have been thinking about undergraduate business schools versus majoring in economics.
Also, my impression is that a higher percentage of students from elite LACs attend grad school compared to university students.
LACs are often recommended for students who want to explore academic areas and may not have a clear-cut career path or goal in mind immmediately after undergraduate school. And some regard the freedom to do so as a bit of a luxury.
@bjm1122 : Reasonable concern about “paying OOS tuition for an online education” in my opinion as we do not know if there will be a second wave of Covid-19 in the Fall.
@Publisher Some huge percentage of college kids change their majors even if they declare one upon entering so more than 50% of all kids, no matter where they go to school, are exploring different academic areas. 
Yes, but probably not as high for business & nursing majors.
And…news flash…kids can go into “business” without being a business major unless they want to do something very specific like accounting - finance? marketing? data science? Don’t need a business degree and many companies prefer liberal arts majors for those jobs.
So, as for the topic of this thread? Are online business classes more “worth it” than online “liberal arts classes”? I don’t think so. S19 just had two classes today. One has 12 kids, one has 19. The classes were live and interactive. The professor in the class with 19 kids (his math reasoning class) broke the kids into homework groups of four students and they worked on homework together since that’s how this class rolls with study groups. I’m not thrilled with paying for online school but I think his classes are going as well as could be expected. I’d love to hear from someone who has a student in an undergrad business program and how those online classes are working.
I expect the quality of online instruction has more to do with the individual professor and perhaps the college rather than the subject taught. MIT and Harvard have had much of their curricula online for years in most subjects.
Yesterday, Thursday, March 26,2020, The Wall Street Journal published an article on page A3 titled “College Admissions Thrown Off By Pandemic”.
The article cites examples of colleges increasing acceptances to account for uncertainties caused by Covid-19 pandemic & stock market declines.
Specifically notes Reed College, Franklin & Marshall College, & Kalamazoo College for increased acceptance rates.
Discusses difficulty of attracting foreign students & temporary stoppage of recruiting in China.
Concern about travel restrictions. Also notes concern about families’ ability to be full-pay.
Federal stimulus package permits employers to pay $5,250 per year tax free toward student loan debt of employees.