Screening College Options from Home

The New York Times: "High school juniors hoping to begin college in the fall of 2021 are not able to visit campuses in person, but they and their families have many ways to explore their options while staying safe at home." For example: "The National Association for College Admission Counseling provides information from more than 1,000 colleges and universities on changes to admissions processes resulting from the pandemic. The tool lets students get an overview of resources available at each institution, including links to virtual tours offered ... StriveScan is offering the Strive Virtual College Exploration program through May 8 to take the place of in-person college fairs ... CampusTours offers tours of more than 1,800 schools in the United States as well as tours of schools in the United Kingdom, Canada, China and France." "YouVisit offers tours of more than 600 U.S. schools. The tours offer prompts that pop up asking students for input that is sent to college officials to respond, an attempt to replicate the questions and answers that come up during in-person tours ... YoUniversity: Students can click on tabs such as “safest campuses,” “most diverse campuses” and “top academic colleges,” as well as “best campus food” and “coolest dorms.” ... CampusReel: Students enrolled at colleges can upload their videos to this site for sharing, after being vetted. Students or parents must register to join." "The Gap Year Association offers videos on what it means to take a gap year and is building a new student membership platform — a nominal fee will be required to join — that will give students access to weekly calls to learn about gap year opportunities, said the association’s executive director, Ethan Knight. The website also offers information on accredited gap year programs and counselors."

Colleges Scramble to Fill Classes

The New York Times: "Of some 700 universities with a May 1 acceptance deadline, which include many of the country’s most competitive, about half have already given students an extra month to decide ... Some schools are waiving deposit requirements, particularly for foreign students, who are especially valuable to universities because most pay full tuition. And experts say that the number of wait-listed students who are now getting offers ... shows that even some of the most selective schools are acting more aggressively to fill freshman classes." "The coronavirus pandemic hit at a time when American higher education, which employs about three million people nationwide, was already suffering from a host of financial problems. Many liberal arts colleges have struggled to meet enrollment goals in recent years because of rising tuition costs, concerns about student debt and a shrinking population of young people. Since mid-March, when colleges abruptly shut down campus operations and moved to online learning, schools have announced hundreds of millions of dollars in losses and say that a $14 billion federal aid package will not be nearly enough to keep struggling schools afloat. Executives have taken pay cuts, endowments have shrunk, hiring has been frozen and construction projects have stopped." "Colleges have sent out optimistic letters to try to reassure prospective students that they will get a classic campus experience ... In a Zoom session, Texas Christian University said courses could be held in alternating shifts, with half the class attending live and half online ... At Cornell, admissions officers took 99 students off the wait list last week and extended them offers, said Jonathan Burdick, the school’s vice provost for enrollment. That is a fairly typical number, he said, but the university would usually wait until after May 1 to make that move."

Fall Semester or Still Sequestered?

The Washington Post: "In a different year, incoming freshmen would already have in hand a tightly choreographed schedule for late summer and early fall: the move-in date, the orientation and, finally, the first day of classes. But on the coronavirus pandemic calendar, there are no dates yet for the next academic year. Just scenarios ... The possibilities range from a return to normalcy, which few higher education insiders believe at this point, to a fall semester with dorms shuttered and students taking classes from home until at least January." "U-Va. could start classes on Aug. 25 as scheduled, with students in Charlottesville but under new social distancing restrictions to guard public health. It could delay the semester and plan to open in person some weeks later. Or it could launch the school year without students on campus and teach remotely until circumstances allow a return. Schools everywhere face variations of these choices. All carry a degree of risk. Opening campuses, whether sooner or later, will require a plan for what to do when someone is found to be a carrier or falls ill with covid-19." "The most immediate question is how long higher education leaders can wait to make a decision. Several estimated they have until mid-June. Yale University President Peter Salovey said the school will make the call by early July ... Boston University, a private school with 34,000 students, made waves recently when it floated the possibility of opening campus in January. School officials emphasize they are focused on bringing students back in fall ... BU is consumed with planning to reopen research laboratories, clean dorm rooms, “de-densify” lecture halls and other steps."