Won’t the students be in their leased apartments regardless of whether school is in session?
@VaNcBorder Out to eat and shop? Where is this school? Most states (no states?) have eat-in restaurants right now and, even when they do, people will have to sit six feet apart. Shopping? Are malls open where you are? In Illinois (and I think most states?) the only shopping is essential like grocery stores and now garden centers.
I agree that most colleges are going to have to try to have a Fall semester for financial reasons. I also worry for some schools that they aren’t going to have their full pay international students this year. And for those that will, I suggest internationals come 2 weeks early and separate and isolate.
I’m in deep conversations with my kid re a gap year. She doesn’t want to take one because she thinks there won’t be anything worthwhile to do during the gap. Even if they bring the kids back and have live classes, I’m with @ny2020ny. Don’t bring the kids back, and then only offer classes and nothing else. We are paying for all these other experiences.
I know at my kid’s school, Brown, they are trying to provide 2 different summer experiences to their full time students. Hopefully they (and other schools) will continue to look for these and other types of experiences for the students.
One experience is research/working with profs or other college sponsored substantive jobs. That’s terrific, but they are reserving those opportunities for kids with financial need first. I understand that they are trying to make up for the lack of regular summer jobs out there, but since Brown has a no loan FA policy and has agreed to waive the summer work contribution requirement, I think it is unfair that these learning opportunities are not equally available to all students. I know my kid would have dearly loved to have had this opportunity, and I feel like it’s precisely these kinds of opportunities that I’m paying so much money for. So I’m VERY unhappy that my kid is excluded.
The other experience is a 7 week virtual “class” where the first 4 weeks you work on a virtual case study in one of the following - technology & engineering, science & healthcare, business & entrepreneurship, communications & creativity, non-profit & public service - and then in the following 3 weeks you work on a project mentored by an alum or parent project leader. The ideas for projects that they mention are: creating a proposal for a start up, designing a scientific research study, suggesting a novel political strategy, editing a movie script, or creating a social media presence for a small company.
Have any of you at other colleges been informed of the types of things your colleges will offer to help provide the robust experience that we are paying for?
I agree with @Knowsstuff about the lawsuits for Spring semester. The pandemic was an Act of God. Colleges did the best they could do with a semester already in session.
@melvin123 are those credit opportunities? What are the associated costs with the summer experiences?
I’ve been thinking a bit about those who want lower tuition for online classes.
One example: What if one of the elite LACs out there gave $10k off fall tuition for the fall. In this example (which is typical of elite LACs), 50% of students are full pay. Let’s say that 1000 kids. That discount amounts to $10 million.
Where is a school going to get that money? The math does not work. What can they cut for four months that adds up to that? A cut like that would likely affect students long after fall semester. What are families willing to give up in order to pay less for online? Whole programs would have to be cut, generous financial aid policies would likely change.
Online itself does not cost less as colleges are still paying faculty and most of the staff. Even if they furlough some of the staff at the school (some cafeteria workers or janitors or secretaries), they still need some of those workers around to run the school. There are some kids still on campuses. The career center is still operational virtually as is the mental health office. Those people can’t be furloughed.
No credit. Just learning experiences. But I think that’s invaluable. And it’s free, just like during the Fall/Spring semester this would be “free” because it’s an EC, which is part of what you’re paying for when you pay $35k/semester.
We are not taking that as a given, by any measure.
I don’t understand…in general, people have been allowed to move to new cities, new states, even during this lockdown time.
Imagine the lawsuits if people can’t move into places that they have already paid for, and have a legal contract for…those lawsuits could be coming from both the renters and the lessors alike.
Further, there are many students whose school apartment/house rental is their only place to live and/or the safest.
@ChemAM and @ny2020ny Thanks for contributing your perspectives and please keep the posts coming.
I believe there are only two ways this ends:
- A vaccine
- Herd immunity (assuming Covid antibodies will protect against new infections)
If we don’t find a vaccine (and there is no guarantee that we ever will), then we either have to shut down the world for ever or we have to slowly develop herd immunity in the least dangerous way. I’ll leave it to the real epidemiologists to give us the best roadmap, but residential colleges (with large numbers of healthy, young people) might be one of the “least bad options” for early reopening and building immunity in the population.
D’s school is in the same price range, but no ECs like that, not now nor in normal times. My D participated in something like that pre-college and it was a good experience for her, so I definitely see the benefits. Her school doesn’t typically offer summer programming of any sort (other than on campus research assistantships) and hasn’t made mention of adding any. Good to see how different schools are approaching the off time as well as the fall. Thanks.
Princeton President’s message regarding the fall term:
- No postponement of the fall term.
- Decision on its format (in-person vs remote) will be made in early July.
So basically, most colleges are rejecting the BU ‘idea’ of nixing the fall semester and starting in January. I myself didn’t think that was a very good option since January could be shaky too.
Basically, most colleges that are saying something, are saying - classes will happen in the fall, we just don’t know if its on campus 100%, on-line 100%, or some hybrid model. We won’t know until late June-Early July.
More and more I’m thinking class will study online and colleges will keep analyzing risk in hopes that kids can go back as soon as possible even if it’s in the middle of a semester. This way, too, it will keep hope alive and kids who would maybe take a break if class is online would be more likely to go ahead and start online in hopes to be back on campus soon.
That means that you believe that cases will be lower in October than August/September? I don’t think so. The R naught is under 1, the weather is clearly a factor, chances are the lowest # of cases will be August/September.
I predict the opposite - classes will start on schedule on campus with the likelihood of kids getting sent home in late October if spread is happening.
Although no earth shattering news from Colby, here are a few excerpts from President Greene’s letter to the community:
“We are at our best when we are together, and I am focused on making that possible again. In fact, while our primary plan is to open on our regular schedule, should we need to delay for reasons outside of our control, my continued priority will be to have a full academic year on campus. That could mean a later opening with the possibility of using the January term for regular-semester instruction or extending the spring semester into the summer.”
“The longer we can wait on making final decisions the more likely it will be that we can definitively announce a fall opening. Our current intention is to announce a plan no later than early July.”
“My sense is that national standards will be promulgated for many of these matters, likely leading to a coalescing around opening dates for residential colleges, how intercollegiate activities like athletics can proceed, and so on.”
Online education benefits from economies of scale, depending on the format. The videos on Khan academy is able to reach many more people than the founder, Sal Khan, could practically reach through in person instruction.
Colleges could offer an online only program, admit more students than normal but charge each less tuition fees.
@suzyQ7 i don’t know that Princeton letter doesn’t sound like kids will be on campus in Aug. Neither did the Harvard letter or the Amherst one.
For one, this is a college site so of course the focus will be on how colleges will be treating on campus, in-person classes next academic year.
Two, K-12 is day school only. If a kid gets sick, the parents can easily pick them up and quarantine them at home. With the majority of colleges discussed on CC, there can be thousands of students from all over the world living 24/7 on their college campus which brings up many additional issues as it relates to how to limit the spread of the disease. Some of these campuses are huge (think mini-cities).
Lastly, parents need to get back to work and cannot afford to stay at home to watch their kids. There really is no other option.
In addition, K-12 could test every kid before they are dropped off, make them wear masks at all times, have them wash hands frequently and limit large group gatherings. The kids will need to follow the rules or they will not be allowed back to school. I’m not suggesting that K-12 will be easy or “normal”, but I think the process will be more manageable than residential college living…
Yup, as it defied common sense. Plus, it was likely only one option among dozens, under discussion.