College Enrollment Crisis due to Covid-19?

[mjkacmom]

A lot of merit based aid is only available to incoming freshman - so taking classes at community college for a year and then transferring can make a previously affordable school unaffordable since you become a transfer student and lose the first year student status and the associated merit.

My daughter will stay at her OOS college because she can’t risk losing the merit (plus she loves it, plus I signed a one year lease).

 

[pryncess527]

Online education quality varies, greatly. Ive taken beautifully designed courses developed by experts in the field worth every penny. Ive also seen great online cc options to knock out core. Ive also seen awful examples of both. Of course, thats also true of in person

i wouldnt refuse to pay high tuition for an online, but i probably would want to learn as much as possible about the quality of that professors online teaching ability when picking classes

 

[gwynne]

In general, it's easier to be admitted to a college as a transfer student than it is as a freshman. Colleges lose students every year so they need to fill those spots or they are losing expenses that are budgeted for, though not sure about financial aide today but when I was a transfer student I got plenty. I also went to a school I'd never have gotten into straight out of high school. They relax their standards quite a bit for transfer students.

I would not count on old norms holding true in 2020 and 2021.

Parents and students are going to have to make careful decisions whether the choice is gap year, online or on campus.

Read everything. Know what the student and school has agreed to. No one wants to end up with an unpleasant surprise.

 

[mom2rtk]

Oddly, enrollment is up at the law school i used to work for
But undergrad numbers and other grad enrollments have everyone worried.

I wonder if grad school enrollment in general is up so students can delay entering the employment world in such a bad market.

 

[JimMIA]

Online education quality varies, greatly. Ive taken beautifully designed courses developed by experts in the field worth every penny. Ive also seen great online cc options to knock out core. Ive also seen awful examples of both. Of course, thats also true of in person

i wouldnt refuse to pay high tuition for an online, but i probably would want to learn as much as possible about the quality of that professors online teaching ability when picking classes

One resource we have used is Rate My Professor ( https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ ). We found quite a bit of very good information about classes and instructors there...with one caveat.

The caveat is that DD has not actually taken any classes from any of the people we researched, so we have no real way of knowing how accurate the ratings were. That said, we got the idea here on the DIS and people recommending it had good things to say.

 

[mom2rtk]

Smart kid. Not the best time for a gap year, either, imo because who knows what they can do during that year. Might not even be able to work. I think online schooling and knocking out the basic courses is a good idea, as long as they ensure they will transfer to their college of choice.

DD is just finishing up her freshman year. Most kids these days come into college with a fair amount of credits. Depending on your major, it can be hard to give up that first year to gen ed stuff. As an engineering major, this is going to get a lot more dicey for her next year. She doesn't want to take advanced Calc and Physics online. And I don't like the idea either. Fingers crossed, her school is one of the first to have announced they plan to have classes back on campus in person in the fall. I guess time will tell if it really pans out.

 

[LouChris]

One resource we have used is Rate My Professor ( https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ ). We found quite a bit of very good information about classes and instructors there...with one caveat.

The caveat is that DD has not actually taken any classes from any of the people we researched, so we have no real way of knowing how accurate the ratings were. That said, we got the idea here on the DIS and people recommending it had good things to say.

My dd is just finishing out her freshman year online at our local community college. She ended up going there after my ex passed away the first day for her senior year. It ended up being a blessing in disguise with the pandemic. She has used https://www.ratemyprofessors.com for each for the 3 times she has signed up and only once has it steered her wrong. Even then it wasn't horrible. Her stat's teacher is good, just a little quirky and not the best about entering his grades. She plans on putting that in at the end of the class.

It has helped her find a wonderful Anatomy teacher that she has taken two courses with and signed up to take a Micro Biology course next fall (if they go back to campus). So it's definite worth a whirl.

 

[billlaurie]

My son will be a freshman this fall and we have discussed the CC route but don't want to lose the substantial scholarship he was offered. The other thing we are concerned about is the potential tuition increase to make up lost revenue and whether it will disproportionately affect out-of-state students. States need to protect their residents first. His current scholarship brings it down to our in-state school and increases in out-of-state tuition could make it unaffordable.

 

[pryncess527]

I wonder if grad school enrollment in general is up so students can delay entering the employment world in such a bad market.

I'm not sure, my contacts in other types of grad programs are more limited so i haven't heard.

Law does tend to get an enrollment boost in interesting legal times, so people fascinated by the legal ramifications of this may be applying.
They may have more interest locally because people don't want to go away for school, and their application numbers aren't actually reflective of a boost in nationwide applicants.
It's also possible that online law holds new appeal. It was previously not possible under ABA standards to be an acredited law school & offer the bulk of education online, but this situation has forced flexibility some may be excited about.

 

[Colleen27]

My daughter will stay at her OOS college because she can’t risk losing the merit (plus she loves it, plus I signed a one year lease).

My daughter is leaning toward going back for the same reason. No one can tell her definitively how taking a year off would impact her aid, so she's got little choice but to suck it up and deal with being online. I'm not sure how we're going to handle housing, though, if the dorms are closed. They're talking about hybrid learning, with lectures online but labs in person and minimal campus services in operation, but we're 2500 miles from campus and renting an apartment in San Francisco would be many times more expensive than her dorm room and meal plan. Hopefully they'll have some housing available for out of state students if they go that route, like they have now for international students who couldn't just go home when the city locked down last month.

Several of her friends in the class of 2020 are planning on community college in the fall rather than dealing with the uncertainty at their chosen colleges, but they were mostly bound for in-state universities anyway so they can be more confident in credit transfer than if they were headed out of state or to private universities.

 

[MarkLT1]

One resource we have used is Rate My Professor ( https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ ). We found quite a bit of very good information about classes and instructors there...with one caveat.

The caveat is that DD has not actually taken any classes from any of the people we researched, so we have no real way of knowing how accurate the ratings were. That said, we got the idea here on the DIS and people recommending it had good things to say.

You need to be careful about that site, especially if there are not a lot of ratings for a particular class/prof. When i was a post-doc I taught a second-year undergrad course in our my department for a few years. At the end of the course, we gave out feedback sheets, which the students filled out (anonymously), which i took very seriously (and adapted the course to improve it). The last year I was teaching it, one of the comments was something like: "This course was fantastic, I like how much you connected with us, etc.. I was really nervous to take the course after seeing the 1.0/5 rating on rate my professor, but I don't know what they were talking about!" At the time I had never heard of it, and so I went and looked it up. I had 2 ratings, from the prior year, both 1.0/5.0, complaining about how horrible a person I was, how the class was useless, etc. I recognized the writing style of one of the students, and from that figured out who the other student was.

In the prior year, I found out that two students who were roommates, had been cheating on assignments and take-home exams all semester long. When I confronted them about it, essentially allowing them to take a lower grade, but needing to re-do new assignments/tests, they became extremely belligerent, and challenged me: "and what are you going to do about it?" Well, both students ended up in front of the university's ethics committee, were failed in my course, and were suspended for a semester. It was also discovered that they had been cheating in other courses they took together. It was a really nasty situation. When I contacted that site about it, their response was "We don't take down student comments," and at least at the time, there was no way for me to even respond to the comments. Word got out, and my profile was swarmed with positive comments. I just did a search for my name, and I don't come up any more. Maybe they purge old profs/courses who haven't had any activity in a decade (or maybe I was mistaken and it was a different, though similar site). Just be aware, that any anonymous ratings site like that, can be gamed either way.

 

[jlwhitney]

The U.S. has a serious shortfall of trade workers...maybe this will be the impetus that re-directs some young adults into these fields that still pay well and don't require massive student loan debt.

This would be so good for so many and our economy. Trade jobs are area that is going to be hurting for workers in the coming years and many that choose that route are going to make more than many with some fluffy 4 year degree.

 

[bethbuchall]

DD is just finishing up her freshman year. Most kids these days come into college with a fair amount of credits. Depending on your major, it can be hard to give up that first year to gen ed stuff. As an engineering major, this is going to get a lot more dicey for her next year. She doesn't want to take advanced Calc and Physics online. And I don't like the idea either. Fingers crossed, her school is one of the first to have announced they plan to have classes back on campus in person in the fall. I guess time will tell if it really pans out.

DS is a junior in chemical engineering. He has always done very well in his classes, but this distance learning in a few of them this semester is kicking his butt. He seriously thinks that he is in danger of actually failing one of them. It's much easier to get together with people that you don't really know and brainstorm when you're there in the class. Plus, it's all of the stress and none of the fun of college. I really hope that they can have in person classes in the fall.

 

[mom2rtk]

DS is a junior in chemical engineering. He has always done very well in his classes, but this distance learning in a few of them this semester is kicking his butt. He seriously thinks that he is in danger of actually failing one of them. It's much easier to get together with people that you don't really know and brainstorm when you're there in the class. Plus, it's all of the stress and none of the fun of college. I really hope that they can have in person classes in the fall.

That's rough. My son got a ChemE degree. And those upper level courses are really challenging (even on a good day with in person teaching). I can't imagine trying to do that online. Fingers crossed he can get back in person for class this fall.

 

[HeatherC]

My daughter is a freshman now and things are up in the air at her school as well. First all the housing for fall filled up before her time slot to choose. So she had one option...a suite style room with kids she doesn’t know. That of course, means she can’t room with who she wants. This happened because all the upper classmen grabbed dorm rooms since they don’t want to sign leases for off campus housing if the school stays online only. The girls she wanted to room with were not able to get any housing at all.

At this point, she is thinking of just doing online classes and commute for fall and then reassessing things for Spring term. This would save a ton of money as well.
The problem is that her school requires students live on campus for the first two years if you live over 60 miles away. We live about 58 miles away so she should be ok as far as that goes, but we just don’t know at this point or how it might affect her scholarships.

‘Right now they can’t tell us anything so I told her to just register for her classes when it opens but we will just wait until the final payment date to pay anything and make a decision.
It just stinks all around. She was thriving at school and having so much fun. I’m sad for her, but she is handling it all great.
And we are still waiting for the refund on her meal plan and room and board for this semester.

 

[mom2rtk]

My daughter is a freshman now and things are up in the air at her school as well. First all the housing for fall filled up before her time slot to choose. So she had one option...a suite style room with kids she doesn’t know. That of course, means she can’t room with who she wants. This happened because all the upper classmen grabbed dorm rooms since they don’t want to sign leases for off campus housing if the school stays online only. The girls she wanted to room with were not able to get any housing at all.

At this point, she is thinking of just doing online classes for fall and then reassessing things for Spring term. This would save a ton of money as well.
The problem is that her school requires students live on campus for the first two years if you live over 60 miles away. We live about 58 miles away so she should be ok as far as that goes, but we just don’t know at this point or how it might affect her scholarships.

‘Right now they can’t tell us anything so I told her to just register for her classes when it opens but we will just wait until the final payment date to pay anything and make a decision.
It just stinks all around. Plus we are still waiting for the refund on her meal plan and room and board for this semester.

What a mess.

 

[HeatherC]

What a mess.

It definitely is. And it’s happening everywhere.

 

[mom2rtk]

It definitely is. And it’s happening everywhere.

I just relieved after reading your story that our DD had housing selection before the world fell apart.

 

[scrapquitler]

Plenty of parents of seniors in my community are talking about their kids taking a gap year in fall. If my kid was a senior now, o way would I pay the tuition for online school at a State or private school. I'd just have them take classes at community college (online) for that year.

If I had college student in my house, we would definitely be having a gap year next year. Why pay the full tuition for online classes only? It seems to me that missing out on lab classes, practical hands on experience, extra curricular activities, etc. Will make it worth waiting a year and getting to the full experience and education later.

 

[mom2rtk]

If I had college student in my house, we would definitely be having a gap year next year. Why pay the full tuition for online classes only? It seems to me that missing out on lab classes, practical hands on experience, extra curricular activities, etc. Will make it worth waiting a year and getting to the full experience and education later.

Unfortunately kids on scholarships might not even have that as an option. And it's hard to get answers right now.