College Planning in the Time of COVID-19

Greetings! Long time no blog...

My theory in refraining from extraneous posting has been that everyone is, by necessity, spending far too much time online these days as it is, so why add to the information avalanche and its concomitant anxieties?

Instead, I’ve been reading and drinking coffee—two great tastes that go great together....

I break my silence to share a recent Chronicle of Higher Education column which contains crucial information for families to consider in planning for their college students’ near futures. Unfortunately, it’s behind a paywall; key points quoted below.

Please get in touch for free, individualized consultations about what these rapidly changing conditions mean for high school and college students, and how families can best respond...

“Politicians and public-health officials — not college presidents — are going to determine when colleges are allowed to open. Higher education will be one of the last industries to resume business as usual, because of concerns with social distancing, contact tracing, and the intermingling of younger students and older faculty and staff members. This means that a full reopening of most colleges in the fall almost certainly won’t happen...

“Nobody wants to be among the first presidents to announce that classes will be fully online in the fall. The financial and political risks can't be ignored. But the scenario is almost a certainty, and the risks will be even greater for colleges that take too long to prepare for it.”