Current HS seniors deferring college for a year?

[Anonymous]

But a lot of people are dying.

This is more than inconvenience.

As someone who lost a family member, you do not want to be cavalier about this illness.

[Anonymous]

If it helps, my DC is at a small LAC she picked for great teachers and good fit. Her online classes are different but they are small and teachers are adjusting. She is participating in clubs and activities, having study groups, going to office hours, learning, and developing friendships. It is hard and far from perfect. But she still loves her college for all the reasons she picked it. I’m sure next year will be different but colleges will use their strengths to help everyone through it.

[Anonymous]

My kid is missing enough of the milestones that mark the change to adulthood already. If The outbreak is such that college is online and unemployment is 25%, it’s unlikely he’s working. And he isn’t traveling. So it seems like sitting in the basement with video games and watching a lot of his friends start college makes the transition even harder. I have high hopes he gets on campus for at least orientation and the first month or two of school, even if he then ends up back home to finish the semester.

He is registering for classes with the hope of being on campus and reality it might be at home. Deferring lab science, taking freshman seminar, capped at 15, and knocking out distributionals with low enrollment caps and that should translate well to distance learning. It’s better than Minecraft.

Plus, he has a significant merit scholarship to a SLAC. And they are saying He can defer (with a plan, as if that’s possible), but they can’t promise to hold merit awards for kids who defer. They will try, but their budget and financial aid is a mess and might look very different in a year. Now, he has 4 years of merit locked in.

I have a friend who doesn’t want her kid to start online and believes there is no way dorms will be safe at State Flagship. And she is probably right on both counts. But her kid is planning to travel to the Middle East and serve as a medical missionary in a refugee camp during a gap year (he family has roots in Palestine And Jordan).

I do not get the: my kid is unsafe from COVID in a dorm, but is safe from COVID doing medical missionary work in refugee camp mentality. But, it’s not my kid. Her call to make.