The COVID class of 2020 is graduating this May. The article made me sad. I’m hoping this experience isn’t widespread on US campuses.
They Entered College in Isolation and Leave Among Protests: The Class That Missed Out on Fun
The pandemic left many students anxious and lonely, still choosing to go to class online, watch games on their phones and eat meals in their rooms. ‘We’ve never had a calm time when we can just focus on being kids.’
Thank you for this - I adjunct a class that moved on the calendar, so I have taught it this semester, having last taught it in Fall of 22, and the difference is SHOCKING. I’ve been so stressed out about it, I redesigned my class and cleaned it up significantly so was so excited to run it this term and I am currently buried under grading because probably half of the class waited until the last week to submit any work. I’ve always been forgiving on late work, especially through covid, but will be changing that when I run it next year, for instance. And the work is just shockingly off the mark considering all of the scaffolds built in!
I was feeling horrible about it, until talking to others in the department who have said “it’s this group, I don’t know what is up with them.” I just sent the link (and saved the PDF) because it was so validating (if depressing) to read.
My daughter graduated from Susquehanna in 2020. She missed out on all the graduation activities and didn’t get to say goodbye to her professors. So last year, I took her and a college friend to SU for some closure. We ran into several of her professors, and they all expressed the same opinion - the kids just weren’t doing well. They said it was very stressful. 
I’m thankful D got out of school just in time.
My kid graduated from medical school in 2020, the year of no medical school graduations. I will say, when she completed her residency, there was quite the celebration. It was acknowledged that this group had a very different type of residency than previous groups…and that the celebration of completing residency was actually celebrating 7 years…medical school plus residency.
And yes, even these professional students felt a different kind of sting than everyone else from 2020-2023.
DD graduated from MIT in 2020. She left Boston in March of 2020 and will be back for the first time next week. I was hoping she can have some kind of closure by returning to MIT campus but with what’s happening now that might not be a good idea.
I am not able to teas the article — it doesn’t show up as a gifted one for me.
I have a HS2020/college2024. The first year+ was isolated and challenging, but she has made up for it since. She has had more fun, more opportunities, and more academic success than I ever imagined. She is at a top university which is often in the news for the protests (and in previous years, work unrest), so her experience wasn’t due to being in some sort of bubble, either. She has FOMO because of what didn’t happen in high school and that feeling seems to push her to take advantage of everything she can.
That said, she has experienced a lot of anxiety (which pre-dated the pandemic) and some degree of depression (which did not).
Both things can exist at once. She has had so much fun and perhaps enjoyed college more because of not wanting to miss out, but she also contends with a higher level of anxiety, too.