parents of college students -- how is your student reacting to pandemic planning?
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Anonymous
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I'm feeling thankful that my DD is a rising senior. She is living in an off-campus apartment with her 3 best friends, so her school's various changes haven't really affected her THAT much yet. They are all planning on coming back to their apartment and doing their (mostly) online work from there. They're responsible kids & are glad to all be together in one place, allowing them to social distance while still having fun with each other.
I'm also glad that she got to experience the majority of the "fun" college experience before all of this happened. That being said, she is still bummed about how her senior year might be altered and is beginning to get nervous about the uncertainty of post-grad plans. But we're taking things in stride... |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
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Rising GMU Freshman going to DL from home for at least the Fall. He has handled this whole nightmare extremely well, but has concerns about how well he will do learning remotely. He took a few classes online at Nova this summer and did well, but it wasn't a great experience.
If he had chosen to move on campus, it would still all be online. We didn't see the point in paying room and board and have him stuck in his dorm room 20 miles away from us. So far, all his friends are packing up and going to move onto their campuses--mostly in-state VA schools. We'll see how long that lasts. |
Anonymous
Regarding the bold -- I feel for your DD. She's excited but sadly, you are right -- she will find it very hard when things change. You probably don't want to burst her bubble since the virus is likely to do that for her, unfortunately, but PP, if you can rein in what she takes with her, you and she will be glad you did, if (when?) she has to return home suddenly. My DC's college is very strongly telling everyone to "pack light" and bring only what is really the pared-down essentials, not decorative extras. This is because they know that if they have to send everyone home again, as they did in the spring, it's a huge mess and requires extra travel (and additional virus exposure) if parents have to come haul a bunch of stuff home. One post on here a while back was a parent saying their DC's college was allowing two suitcases this fall and nothing more....The more your DD takes, the more she will have to pack up quickly and haul out if the school closes and they need to vacate dorms. Especially if she is more than a couple of easy driving hours away, please, try to curb what she carries. I hate having to write that. Sigh. She should be able to be enthusiastic but times are not conducive to it. I'm sorry. |
Anonymous
What is your strategy to try to get your junior into some connection with reality before he goes? Asking seriously and without judgment, PP. A lot of students will be in his position and not want to accept things need to be different. It's tough. Is his college communicating clearly with students about parties or have they dropped that ball? Are you trying to talk to him and point out the college's punishments for violations? I would, if only because if he's kicked out (or more likely, kicked back home to take classes online), it affect the rest of the family too, and he'll come home pretty angry.... |
Anonymous
+1 although my DD isn't buying too much to decorate her dorm. She will have all but 1 class online and we thought about keeping her home but it's not really conducive to online learning and she would rather have an on-campus first year experience regardless of how short it is. |
Anonymous
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As of now my rising freshman will be going to her LAC for mostly in person classes. The school will only have freshmen and sophomores there this fall to help de-densify the campus. She'll be remote learning from home for the spring semester unless things miraculously improve since the school has prioritized juniors and seniors for the spring semester.
She is very motivated to keep moving forward although I have encouraged her to take a gap year. She says she's prepared if her college changes course and everyone is remote for the fall semester. But, I'm sure she will be very disappointed like many others. |
Anonymous
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My freshman’s school gave several options - defer for 1 year, stay home and do distant learning, or come to school (dorm or off campus). They require all students coming to dorm from certain areas to come 2 weeks early to quarantine in their rooms before classes start. If there are roommates 1 will be put in another room or hotel. School is covering cost of delivering 2 free meals a day and administering 2 tests during that time - 1 on day 1 and another 11-14 days in. Anyone with positive test will be isolated.
Kid will be able to go to lobby to pick up packages and Deliveries and can hang with kids on his floor only, but I guess if 1 tests positive they all must quarantine. DS insisted on going. To him, This is so much better than staying home another year. And we are okay with it, but expecting him to be back hone if things change fir the worse. This fall He has 3 classes 100% online and the 2 that have less than 15 students will be blended/in person (altho all classes have an online option fir kids who want to do virtual). Moving in will be tough, as everything has to be taken up in 1 trip (to avoid contacts) and only 1 parent/helper is allowed (period!) and can only stay for an hour or so. But my son doesn’t have much. I can imagine it’s harder for the kids who bring a lot of clothes and decor. Trying to find the silver lining we think that this situation could be a good gradual adjustment into college - the smaller class sizes at least. |
Anonymous
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I have a Sophomore who is excluded from campus and stuck home with distance learning. Freshmen will be on campus, juniors and seniors are always off campus. They just kicked sophomores out of their housing assignments this week when they decided they wanted to go with all single rooms at the last minute. My kid is devastated. One semester on campus and now potentially facing a year and a half away from her friends before she’s back on campus. She feels like she has been kicked out of college.
Is that overdramatic? I would have said yes a year ago, but I was just laid off after 20 years at the same company and the sudden separation from both work and friends is genuinely shocking and it hurt like hell. I’ll be fine, she’ll be fine, but I can guarantee she’ll never love her college like a lot of people seem to. |
Anonymous
| is there a plan to bring her back in the second semester? |
Anonymous
| iI think we parents need to realize that this is just their reality. Everyone their age is going to be going thru the same thing. There's no FOMO, because nothing to miss out on. They are all in the same boat. |
Anonymous
No. They have made no plans for the spring semester. No mention of sending freshmen home and bringing sophomores back like some other colleges have planned. |
Anonymous
Duke? |
Anonymous
That is not true at all. Many kids are back on campuses already, with dorm roommates, preparing for sorority or fraternity recruitment, hanging out with friends. Every college has a unique plan and every kid is in a different situation. My son goes to Georgetown. A lot of kids teamed up and rented apartments and houses, a lot got left out of those plans, and some couldn’t have afforded it anyway. There is huge FOMO. |
Anonymous
| Mine is thankful to be able to go at all. After the disappointments of senior year, we were determined to make the best of freshman year. Her school is doing a great job of planning for students to return. Our daughter is well aware that the semester could be cut short and is planning to make the best of her time there. |