What will college be like in the fall?

Word from our union meeting today was about anticipating staff/faculty cuts, pay cuts, and furloughs for fall.

Our younger son’s college gives the option of pass/fail, and they have until pretty late in the semester to decide. He thinks his grades won’t hurt his GPA (which is way, way higher than his high school GPA ever was), so he’s not going pass/fail.

I works at a college.

First of all, most students were sent acceptances before the quarantine. I’m figuring the number who will send in deposits will be a lower percentage than usual, as people are unemployed (though historically, a bad economy boosts attendance).

At this point, the fall classes are still scheduled as usual. Our summer courses will be online, but several were going to be that way, anyway.

Those of you who had kids at college and living in dorms or apartments.
Did you get any of your deposit or rent back?

You did that on purpose, didn’t you?

I will be surprised if the fall is normal.

At the boarding school, each dorm is small and subdivided into small apartments with 4 or 6 students each. Historically when some sickness was spreading through the population they made one of the dorms “sick bay” and moved everyone who wasn’t sick to other dorms temporarily. Medical staff would check on the sick ones a couple times a day and meals would get delivered rather than having the students come to the dining hall. The students had video games and didn’t have to attend class, so they were always ok with this setup.

On campus there are no dorms so it was never an issue.

Not without a vaccine

Daughter, in a dorm at a small liberal arts college, got around $3000 back

Son, in an off-campus apartment, mid-size university in a big city, got no rent back. Fortunately he’s still getting paid around $400/month for his school work-study job even though he’s not working. Students living on campus and paying for meal plan did get a refund, maybe $2000 or so.

At our son’s college there’s a choice of getting a partial refund for room and board or having the balance applied to fall semester.

I haven’t heard yet. I’m glad you ask, because now I’m motivated to go check into it.