OT: deferring college enrollment?

Glad not to have a kid in this situation yet. I will say that online course work, when pre-planned and done well, can be pretty effective. I did the on job / on campus MHSA from the School of Public Health at UM and it was well done and I learned a lot. The 11 three day weekends over two years were cool in getting to network a bit with my classmates, but we did a lot of group work throughout the two years so I feel like the experience and learning wouldn't have been that different if it had been 100% online. The big difference between that and what people are dealing with now is that it was supposed to be online from the start and didn't have to be thrown together at the last minute. 

Obviously depends on your financial situation and being able to find some good stuff for them to do, but I'd defer for a year, even if school is back in person to person its not going to be the same

A community college near where I live just announced they are going to offer what they are calling flex classes in the fall:

Classes will have scheduled meeting times, a room location, and a professor. However, the student can choose whether to take the class in the classroom, online, or a combination of in-person and distance learning.

“The FLEX classes will have rich online content and can employ live and recorded video and video conferencing in delivering coursework,” Rose State College Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Jeff Caldwell at Rose State said. “Right now, it’s all about meeting the students where they are in their educational journey,”

On the surface, this sounds reasonable, but I teach at a 4 college in the area, and to teach a class like this seems like it would be a lot of extra work.  Since all my classes were switched to online in March, at least I have all that classroom time that I can now devote to online, but unless they have the technology and staffing (which seems doubtful) to record the lectures given in the classroom to the few students who want to show up, this seems like a lot of extra work. If, as it would probably work out, everyone is just taking the class online but the teacher will be available in person for an occasional small group or one-on-one conference it could work.

The problem for universities though, is there will be a huge financial hit if classes don't start back up in the fall.  And if they are only going to be offered online, there will need to be a reduction in price, if not tuition, at least in all the added on fees that are charged, not to mention the loss of revenue for on-campus housing, food services, etc.

I wouldn't. What are your kids going to do instead? If they're not going to college over COVID, then that definitely means they're not taking any kind of gap year and traveling the world. If they're going to go out and get a job instead, then they might as well be in school, because going and waiting tables, washing dishes or taking tickets at a movie theater (common jobs for HS kids) expose you to COVID just as much as going to school. 

Let's put it this way: if I was sending my kid to school right now but I couldn't physically send him/her to campus, I'd want reduced tuition until my kid could actually get on campus. They're being deprived of 90% of the college experience. But having them just sit on their ass all day and waiting for normalcy to return should be the last thing you want. They'll want to get the fuck out, you'll want them out and being productive, its just not a good situation. 

Talk to your Governor Queen 

Very little chance of normal course study. No way are dorms/cafeterias/classrooms going to be deemed safe by this Fall. 

Schools will be extending their confirmation requirements from May 1st to June, July, then August.

Likely to be a Spring 2021 target for startup as normal, until then, ride out all the deadline extensions. 

Fuck this virus. 

Unless they offer a massive discount to make on-line classes have a cost equivalent to community college, I would have my kids take a year off and/or rack up some cheap credits at community college assuming they are going into their freshman year.  There is no way I would pay anywhere close to full boat for on-line education, which I’m sorry is half ass at best.

For me this highlights the need to get schools open in the fall.  My kids are younger, going into third and sixth grade and the current on-line education they are receiving is shit.  Nothing against the teachers, they are working their asses off and trying their best.  They just don’t have the tool for this and did not have time to prepare.  I also think on-line education is particularly difficult for younger kids.  At this point it is necessary to close schools but there is a cost.  Kids are being setback academically, socially, athletically and emotionally by all of this.

This year they will miss three months of school.  If we don’t go back in the fall its up to 7 months.  If we can’t go back in the fall can we go back in the winter? (seem like the odds of a vaccine that has been administered to a large percentage of the population by December 2020 are very low)

Primary, secondary and higher education administrators need to have a goal of students back in classrooms by September 1.

I see it as a positive as the parent of a college sophomore in the fall. She still gets the credit for the education but I don't have to pay room and board. That's a significant savings for me. She got enough of the "college experience" last year.

I think this would theoretically be a good idea, so students can get the full on campus freshman year experience, however, I'm honestly not sure what a graduated high school student would do during a gap year during this time. Community service? Figure out what they want to study? Idk

Hard to know what to do at this point. I don't know how much flexibility families have with tuition payments, but - depending on the cost of the school - I may opt to participate in online classes via the local community college. It would be hard to swallow paying either in-state or out-of-state to UM or another expensive school only to attend virtual classes (insert OSU football joke).

As someone that was an out-of-state student, my parents would have recommended I defer my entrance to UM, bust out the base courses at a community college next fall (e.g. English 101, etc.), and think about transferring back to UM (or other school) when campus and academic life return to some semblance of normalcy. 

Hasn't been announced yet, but a local community college where I'm at is going all online in the fall. I'd expect thats going to be the norm unfortunately.

As a parent of a high school senior, this has occupied my thoughts more than a little. While I sent in the deposit, I told my son to prepare for several different scenarios if college is online in the Fall. We'd be paying out of state tuition and I can't picture any interest in being online. Like those before me have voiced, paying $40K in tuition seems like a non-starter. His back-up plans include retaking SATs (if they have them again), working (if he can find a job), travel (if he is allowed). 

I work in higher ed, and while we have prepared a number of scenarios, I don't think we have any better idea as to what is going to happen in the fall than anyone else. I do feel, however, that pushing the fall semester back a few months, if needed, is better than continuing online.

I have a high school senior. I am hearing some parents and kids are thinking they want to defer because remote school in the fall is just not the same as being on campus.  Sure, classes are the same but what I think they really talking about is the social environment. I don’t blame them.

Mine wants to start either way. She is thinking if the first semester is remote she’ll/we’ll  save money on room and board, other expenses, and potentially tuition. The school is also looking at re-doing the schedule so that she would be getting some big lectures out-of-the-way in the remote environment.  You can imagine I am pretty proud of my kid for her maturity. 

My daughter is a sophomore at Stanford.  She got sent home just before spring break—-in fact, most of her stuff is still there.  She is soldiering one through spring quarter with online courses but it is not a great situation. 
 

We are supposed to be joining her there in the fall when we are on sabbatical, so we are extra  keen to have them back at school, because we will be renting a house nearby.  But if they are still on-line she is likely to stop out for a quarter and hope for some research work.  It’s pretty expensive to pay Stanford $$ for on line courses.  
 

This presumes that winter is still good I guess. (It does mean there is an outside chance that, if UM football happens, that I will have a pair of season tickets on offer.)