Anonymous wrote:Still no one here can explain why this makes sense other than keeping kids from traveling more in Nov and Dec.?

Campuses are going to be experiments where we see if putting thousands of people into close quarters will result in outbreaks. There's no precedent to study before students return because colleges shut down before the pandemic really ramped up. Other than colleges needing to show they're open and parents and students desiring it, what is the medical position on doing this? Lots of talk here saying "great idea" and worrying about summer jobs and wedding plans but not a peep about potential spread. Anyone's kid's college give you an actual explanation beyond just "we'll test everyone and cross our fingers re: dorm living"?

I agree. ND made this move and other colleges followed. There will be less outbreak if students don’t come back after Thanksgiving does nothing to stop a huge outbreak during September/October. It worries me that colleges are spending time with Congress so they won’t be held responsible. There is no unified state/country/world plan. Colleges want your money in August and they want the full tuition. They want to be held responsible for nothing. Will they be able to separate the infected from those that are exposed and waiting. It can’t be like the cruise ship and nursing home fiascos where a few people are infected and everyone else is locked up and ends up getting it. Do colleges really have all this extra space? Will they have doctors and nurses roaming the quarantined dorms 24 hours a day to make sure everyone is ok?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rumor that is going to be announced by DDs college very soon. We planned her sister's destination wedding for the week before school. Now with COVID, most people will not make the trip and now we think her sister probably can't attend as well. We are screaming.

Wouldn't that have been move in week anyway? My kids would hate being away during the time of getting stuff and getting settled!

+1
Many colleges are likely to stagger move-ins over a longer period of time and might push back if families try to put off moving in very close to the start of school. You might need to expect to be told your move-in date rather than choosing it during that extended period. And colleges may say that in order to test students they need students to arrive in certain groups at certain times. Parents need to grasp that they will have to roll with what colleges tell them if they want their kids to return.

Still no one here can explain why this makes sense other than keeping kids from traveling more in Nov and Dec.?

Campuses are going to be experiments where we see if putting thousands of people into close quarters will result in outbreaks. There's no precedent to study before students return because colleges shut down before the pandemic really ramped up. Other than colleges needing to show they're open and parents and students desiring it, what is the medical position on doing this? Lots of talk here saying "great idea" and worrying about summer jobs and wedding plans but not a peep about potential spread. Anyone's kid's college give you an actual explanation beyond just "we'll test everyone and cross our fingers re: dorm living"?

I wouldn't really care one way or the other unless it conflicted with summer school at the college he is currently attending.

Agree with cancelling breaks and ending on campus at thanksgiving, but starting a week early means doesn't take in consideration kids that are in summer classes or internships

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rumor that is going to be announced by DDs college very soon. We planned her sister's destination wedding for the week before school. Now with COVID, most people will not make the trip and now we think her sister probably can't attend as well. We are screaming.

I know it's disappointing, but I'm kinda surprised you hadn't written off the entire wedding quite a while ago.

I told my family and my work that the entire month of August was going to be a huge question mark, precisely because even back in March people were speculating on different start dates, pushing orientations to late summer, etc.

We have scaled back the wedding list to just parents and siblings. My DDs are extremely close so not having her best friend/maid of honor at the wedding is so sad.

Anonymous wrote:Rumor that is going to be announced by DDs college very soon. We planned her sister's destination wedding for the week before school. Now with COVID, most people will not make the trip and now we think her sister probably can't attend as well. We are screaming.

Wouldn't that have been move in week anyway? My kids would hate being away during the time of getting stuff and getting settled!

Our dd school has already announced they will end on campus teaching before Thanksgiving and students will be home until mid Jan. Move in was scheduled for August 14/15. We were told last week that move in is going to be stretched out so that there are less families on campus at the same time and may span the first 2 weeks in August. The move in plan with dates is due out later this month. I think the school is doing everything possible to have students on campus (which we love) and keep everyone as safe as possible by stretching arrival out. It means we are moving our previously planned party to the end of July. The celebration was originally a grad party planned for the end of May. Then it was switched to a college send off the weekend before dd left for college. Now it is just simply a party for the extended family to celebrate or dd and wish her luck on a day that will hopefully be safe for us all when dealing with COVID and early enough to happen before an early move to campus.

Anonymous wrote:Great idea. I am more worried about kids going back in January at the height of flu season

In the new covid world, the best schedule for all schools here would actually be to start in March and end in late September. Colleges and all other levels of schools. We don't know for sure yet if this virus really will abate in hotter months, of course, but if it does, and to avoid flu season, March-Sept. would be much better. But unfortunately for public health, families in the U.S. will never wrap their heads around any shift that radical, and probably neither would professors, teachers, staffers etc. We all have too strong an ingrained belief in summer = vacation time off. Might work in countries with real year-round schooling, though.

Waiting for our DC's college to announce plans. Early start and home at Thanksgiving is possible. A friend who is an employee at another mid-sized college said her college just announced they too are going that route. I can't get friend or anyone who can explain to me adequately why this schedule makes sense from the perspective of viral spread--sure, it makes sense to the colleges financially but I don't yet see that it's medically more advisable than another option DC's college was considering--starting later, in October, and having a "winter session" for Dec-Jan with on-campus classes. At least a later start would give maybe another two months for infection rates to drop, treatments to get developed further, better understanding of the virus, more time for colleges to buy tests and PPE, etc.

I get that the idea generally with Aug-to-Nov is to prevent having students go home for Thanksgiving/fall break, then returning for exams and spreading virus on campus after travel; but having them go home Nov through Jan will still mean they return in Jan just as potentially infected. And I've heard some talk of "it's so we don't have kids at college during the height of flu season." But the peak of flu infection in the US in the past few decades has been February, not Nov-Jan (according to CDC records).

Have posted these questions before and still can't get anyone who can explain it other than as a case of getting students back to school, period, with fingers crossed and no way to know what really will happen. Yes, testing, yes, PPE and distancing etc. But classroom distancing really means little to students who still have to share dorm rooms and especially dorm bathrooms. And I'm still not hearing anyone explain why early start, early end to a fall semester is really any better than a later start -- other than the cultural "need" for students to go home for winter/Chriistmas breaks.

Anonymous wrote:Rumor that is going to be announced by DDs college very soon. We planned her sister's destination wedding for the week before school. Now with COVID, most people will not make the trip and now we think her sister probably can't attend as well. We are screaming.

I know it's disappointing, but I'm kinda surprised you hadn't written off the entire wedding quite a while ago.

I told my family and my work that the entire month of August was going to be a huge question mark, precisely because even back in March people were speculating on different start dates, pushing orientations to late summer, etc.

New Zealand wedding seems nice now...

My DS is taking a summer classes and his school just announced that they are starting a week early. He now has finals for his summer classed and during his first week of the fall semester.

U of Memphis announced they are starting a week early and wrapping up classes before thanksgiving. We are playing wait and see. We are not going to do anything other than planning until after July 4. I think by then we will have a better sense of the impact of things opening back up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rumor that is going to be announced by DDs college very soon. We planned her sister's destination wedding for the week before school. Now with COVID, most people will not make the trip and now we think her sister probably can't attend as well. We are screaming.

Daughter should elope. In this environment that’s all that makes sense. Screaming? Seriously?

Definitely an eloping kind of time or a small local wedding then she can go on a trip on her own (call it a honeymoon maybe). I'm anti destination weddings anyways though.