Weekly Update: August 13
Another busy August week, another late weekly update :)
BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK
AND IT BEGINS.. (OR NOT?)
Ughhhhh. The University of Florida is planning to switch back to virtual learning for the first three weeks of classes during the fall semester. I wonder if this is going to be the first of many such decisions? Closer to the home front, FCPS is holding a “Return to School Town Hall” next week and they appear to be optimistic about sending kids back for five days. Fingers crossed!
Edited 8/14: Looks like UF reversed course on this after all! There was a lot of backlash last night, and the school sent out another email to the campus community less than 24 hours later.
COLLEGES AND VACCINES
Another week with a huge amount of news about colleges and vaccine requirements (or lack thereof). The issue of vaccines for colleges has gone beyond the campuses themselves, with state and local lawmakers weighing in on vaccinations. While Texas public colleges are not allowed to require vaccines (and UT Austin plans to start its school year online for this reason), the city of Philadelphia has issued a vaccine requirement for colleges.
Vaccine requirements are likely to stand, at least for now - the Supreme Court recently rejected a case that students brought against Indiana University’s requirement. But if you are thinking about faking your vaccination status to attend school next year, don’t! This wouldn’t only lead to disciplinary action from the school, but is also a federal crime. Not to mention, you certainly don’t want to be the cause of a campus outbreak.
P.S. If you’re headed to Tennessee State in the fall, get your vaccine on campus before August 27 and receive a $100 gift card!
SMALL COLLEGES CHARGE “COVID FEE”
In one example of an extreme vaccine incentive, West Virginia Wesleyan College has announced its intention to charge unvaccinated students a $750 “COVID fee” to cover the costs for testing on campus. So though the college does not mandate the vaccine, there is certainly a cost to not receiving one.
Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama implemented a similar fee, charging unvaccinated students $500 in lieu of a vaccination mandate. So don’t be fooled by the article in the Onion - these COVID fees are a real thing!
ELITE COLLEGES REQUIRE COVID-19 TESTING
This week, Stanford joined Brown, Harvard, and Princeton in requiring mandatory weekly COVID tests for all students, even those who have already been vaccinated. Students will also be required to wear face masks on campus. This is a shift in the university’s previous policy, which allowed vaccinated students to skip weekly testing.
BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK
Jeff Levy and Jennie Kent are two educational consultants who take the time every year to compile data on RD and ED decision rates - and I always look forward to it! They put it together based on the Common Data Set information, which is really the most updated and the only truly accurate information available online.
We highly recommend that students and families check out the CDS data for themselves - it is easy to find if you Google the school’s name and “Common Data Set,” because most schools make the data publicly available - they just don’t advertise it! But knowing this information is really key to educating yourself on the difference between ED and RD acceptance rates.
Here are some standouts from this year:
On a lighter note, we always love to check out dorm room decor, which has gotten more and more elaborate in recent years! According to a study from Deloitte, Americans will spend nearly $7 billion on dorm room appliances, furniture, and decor. This article covers many of the retailers and online spaces where parents and students are discussing and purchasing their dorm room decor for next year.
Can you believe those are DORM ROOMS? Incredible. And speaking of dorm rooms, this was a sweet blog post on Grown & Flown about taking time to grieve after dropping your kids off at college.
OFFICE HAPPENINGS
Hard to believe we are halfway through August already! We have been starting to submit applications with several of our seniors, and even more of them are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as they finish up their essays. We had MULTIPLE students who completed 8-10 essays in this past week alone - their hard work is so impressive and inspiring for all of us.
Despite some power outages last week (for us and for our clients), we still managed to have over 100 hours of client meetings this week - and that doesn’t include all the post-meeting follow-up! Shannon or I do an additional review of every single supplemental essay, so there’s a lot of behind the scenes work.. not to mention Donna tracking every single document, appointment, you name it for every single kid (she is a saint)!
Have a great weekend!