The problem is becoming…not knowing “WHO” or what to believe anymore. Seems everyone has a motive for how numbers are reported…and the media coverage has also been very dishonest.
Then why are there posts like http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22859546#Comment_22859546 and many others that indicate that the college experience is the most important part of college, over academics? Or why is “fit” (usually implied to mean social or other non-academic fit, as opposed to academic and/or financial fit) so strongly emphasized in college selection on these forums?
I don’t think that Japanese government is doing a great job quick and effective enough like other Eastern Asian countries. And I said that by limiting testing, confirmed cases is nonsense. So, I don’t believe in their official numbers. But they can’t fake death numbers (950) that much. Let’s say if they are missing death numbers by 5 times, it is still less than 5000 death. If by 10 times, it is still less than 10000 death. There are 120+ million people living in very dense small country.
What I see and read daily in Japanese articles, at least, all people are wearing face masks. My son’s college has announced a face mask / covering mandatory both indoor and outdoor throughout campuses if they open in fall which at least makes me feel much better for now than an announcement just “face covering indoor / classroom”. I live in state with a face covering mandatory outside of own house.
^^ With regard to ‘faking’ death numbers, while you can’t fake the death, you can fake the cause of death. So a patient who has Covid and heart disease, the official cause of death might be listed as heart disease and thus not be included in the Covid number. This type of thing can vary not only from country to country but here in the US state by state, which may explain the vast differences in Covid mortality from state to state.
Thank you for the insight
You can’t hide big death numbers that way. Demographers and epidemiologists are already looking at excess deaths. If Japan had a huge number of excess deaths (they don’t) we’d know it.
This is a public health issue. Why would colleges get to decide? The plans the NYS governor is requiring all colleges to submit include shutdown plans in case of an outbreak. Whether or not they get to open at all depends on the data we have closer to fall, but reopening decisions aren’t being made by businesses or colleges. Those are coming from the state.
Sometimes, a death with cardiac arrest may have been due to COVID-19 but it was not known that the deceased had COVID-19, so even without intentional deception, the number of deaths due to COVID-19 may not be accurate.
However, if there is an unusually higher rate of deaths compared to the normal rate, with causes that could be due to COVID-19, that suggests that, at the very least, there may be something that needs to be investigated.
Article describes training dogs to detect COVID-19-associated smells in people’s sweat.
https://www.inverse.com/science/can-dogs-sniff-out-covid-19-study
Perhaps COVID-19-detecting dogs can be used for non-invasive daily screening of students and others entering classroom buildings?
With regard to a significant proportion of Harvard and Yale upperclassmen taking a year off thus making room for all students to have their own rooms, recent surveys by the Harvard and Yale student newspapers separately found that over half of Harvard and Yale’s rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors are seriously considering taking a gap year due to classes being online, with over half of Yale’s rising upperclassmen saying a gap year is “likely” for them.
So much for the online experience.
Academics is most important part of the “fit”. For a student who was (is??) completely undecided on major, going to an LAC will give them the chance to experiment more in smaller classes and really get a feel for what subjects they like best. That was S19’s academic priority.
As a freshman, he had very small math classes with professors, not TAs, who spoke English well and were excited to teach undergrads. He took upper level art history and history classes where he was one of only a few freshmen and was able to learn directly from experts in the very-specific subjects of the class. No need for break outs because class was fewer than 25 and discussion was the norm. THIS is the main reason he chose his school. That and also the location. Admittedly it’s a treat to be able to go to school in a state you like that offers experiences he would not get here. Running near the ocean? Sure, that’s extra. But it’s not finishing school. It’s about expanding his life in all kinds of ways. Some kids want to go live in a big city for college when they haven’t grown up in one. Some want to spend four years in the mountains and see some snow when they grew up in Florida. Not sure why that’s an issue with you.
Never once, did S19 or we consider social fit in the way you’re talking about which I assume is about climbing the social ladder. S19 met a lot of kids at Bowdoin. He liked them. They were friendly and had some of the same interests. That’s the only social fit he was looking for.
And your theory that these students from “certain types of schools” don’t want to pay for remote class taken from home because they don’t prioritize academics is offensive. Tuition is not just for class. We never looked at it that way. A college degree is not just about the knowledge you gain from class.
None of the colleges in this thread are trade schools. Kids at all of these colleges learn a ton outside of class as well. Students at all residential colleges are learning independence and how to make decisions on their own away from home. That’s part of what all of us are paying for. And for the guidance of professors who care about the kids and for experiences they just cannot get from their childhood homes. Those “experiences” are not like “finishing school”. They are an important part of these four years.
So, if S19 was not invited back to campus like some of the Harvard kids look like they may not be, he would absolutely be taking a gap year. No more online classes from here at home. He told us that on the day he finished his finals. He does not want to do that again he said.
@austinmshauri Actually, my dad is a liberal doctor, and he believes the government should have no say in whether colleges reopen or how they do it. He believes the only role the government should have in reopening is instituting a liability shield.
While there is always a risk of becoming seriously ill, the chance of someone under 40 ending up in the hospital is quite low. In fact, the rate of hospitalization for people who test positive for the coronavirus in their 20s is under 4%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For those over 60, the rates go way up, to more than 20%. The fatality rate for people in their 20s and 30s without underlying health conditions is about 0.1%.
No role for covid, or no role for any disease? Suppose there were a very infectious disease out there that killed any baby or toddler who caught it, but didn’t harm anyone else it infected. Would your father believe a college should be able to re-open, secure in the knowledge that none of its students or professors was a baby, and public health authorities should not have the right to shut that college down for spreading a contagious disease that was killing babies?
@ChemAM you said that Amherst is informally letting anyone who wishes to take a leave of absence to do so. But I thought in earlier posts you said that Amherst can’t promise those students that they can come back the following year because of enrollment constraints. I’m not picking on you or Amherst, but I strongly feel that any college that says you can take a gap year but can’t promise when you can come back isn’t really allowing you to freely take a gap year. You are taking an unknown risk of how long the gap will be, and a multi-year gap is a totally different animal than a 1 year gap. In fact, I feel like it’s a disingenuous offer, made so that they can say that they made the offer. A true offer would be: we will allow X number of students to take a gap year and return for the 2021/22 academic year, and Y number of students to return for the 2022/23 academic year, all on a first come first served basis, with the election opening up at 9am on ——— (3 weeks from whenever they announce their plans for this school year).
Do you agree that the colleges that are going online now will most likely remain online until everyone is vaccinated? They would also prefer that people don’t realize this.
If colleges pivot to online classes but require students to live on campus (room and board money), do we feel that is fair? If that switch happens a week or two after students arrive on campus would it be fair to say a school mislead families? Just curious as to what people think…
The need to pivot to online is reasonably foreseeable. Several top colleges will be online as it is. Colleges that pivot to online only once students pay their tuition, room & board will say that it’s because the state health authorities put a health order in place.
I don’t think any schools are Requiring students to live on campus, are they?
For me the problem comes in with the hybrid classes -part on-line and part live. At least for most schools you can also take that live section on-line instead, so you can stay home and do everything on-line. But I think you’d be in a significant disadvantage with your classmates who are taking it live. With few exceptions, I think you really get a lot more out of a live class. So in that event, even if you have concerns about your kid getting sick, can you really keep them home, even though they’ll be at a disadvantage?