How is COVID going to change higher education?

This is really making me nervous. My daughter (a senior in highschool) has worked so hard to get into a good college. We’re paying more than we can afford to get her there, and there will be significant loans involved. The last thing I would want for her would be some remote learning nonsense.

And on a personal level, I really wanted her to have the college experience. It’s upsetting that she spent years working so hard, never got to have her senior activities or graduation. Now, after all this work, the promise of college seems like it’s slipping away as well.

If things are going to be locked down in the fall, I’d rather colleges delay until learning can proceed again.

@hmmmmmm I hope admissions and attendance are so dismal once we return that colleges will be forced to lure students back with lower costs. Like you, I feel the “college experience” is very important for young people to have over distance learning. I’m doing a distance course right now and the cost is over the top. No f’ing way I’m going to continue to pay this for what I’m getting out of it.

So much of an undergraduate education is more than just the classroom. It is living away from home with peers and learning one’s way in the world. It is as much a late night discussion of existential literature or how to engineer an app as it is the lecture by a professor.

Even before the pandemic, much of the formal learning was on line, but having the students and faculty mingle in person is necessary for a top education.

Online learning is a poor substitute for learning in person. Yes, the information can be communicated in a similar way, but college is more than just getting that information no matter the medium. A significant part of the college experience is socializing, maybe having your first job (for me, it was), studying together, joining clubs and organizations, experiencing independence for the first time; sitting at your desk listening to a lecture can’t replace that. I agree that costs are out of control, but I don’t think online learning is the solution. I wouldn’t trade my undergrad experience for anything.

@zenvelo I agree. Some of the best times I had in college were meetings with a small group in my professor’s office. Group discussions online suck.

I agree with all of you. There is nothing like the residential college experience for social development and in person interaction with students and professors for intellectual stimulation.

I hope the pandemic doesn’t destroy the college experience. There is a place for distance learning and online courses in education but not as a complete replacement. I fear that many small liberal arts colleges will be forced to close but hope that the next administration will find some relief for the high cost of tuition.

My undergraduate learning was an exceptional experience with small seminar classes and bi-monthly individual meetings with professors for independent study projects. While it probably cannot be replicated widely, in person access is immeasurable.

A colleague who still works at the community college I retired from, is worried that the move to online courses only will be more of a likelihood as a result of this. And the population is served are arguably the most in need of direct contact.

The average age of students will be nineteen, nuh nuh nuhnuh nineteen!

I remember in college, some of my best memories are of walking by a small lounge and finding a lecture going on, or hearing that my favorite professor was giving a little lecture in a lounge and popping in to hear what he or she had to say, and participating in that discussion. I went to a state university that specialized in art and the performing arts, and I used to love going to a free show or strolling through the halls to see the art the students did. I didn’t live on campus but what I experienced of the whole thing wouldn’t compare to sitting in front of a computer and doing some online crap. I think of online college as being for people who want to knock out a degree, or a course, for the sake of having the paper document of the degree or needing the course for work.

My 7th grader’s school work is lacking compared to sitting in a classroom. I can only imagine what college learning is like online, especially paying 70k for it.

I feel especially bad for students who are going to college for the first time, who can’t even look at their dorm or apartment to pick it out.

If I were a parent of a high school senior, I might be considering putting college off for a year to wait for the virus to be under control, if that would be a possibility.

@jca2 I saw an Op-Ed piece where the writer was recommending that entering Freshmen take a gap year first during the pandemic.

@jca2 I loved being able to drop in on lectures or attend plays or concerts or hang out on the quad…

I remember touring Stanford campus before attending and at one point while walking toward a fountain a group of a cappella singers came by singing “Loch Lomond” and sat by the fountain. I was like I am. in. heaven. Felt like I had stepped into a painting.

Obviously I’m being a bit romantic and there are valid criticisms of traditional universities (ridiculous costs, issues with free speech that weren’t as much of a thing in the “old days” of the early 2010s when I attended), but I would never want to see them become obsolete.

@janbb: Where online was that? A friend’s niece is due to attend Yale in the fall. She can’t even go look at apartments, from what I understand.

I think it was in the NY Times. About a month ago. If I can find it, I’ll post it.

Tried several search terms but couldn’t find it.