Weekly Update: August 20
We made it!!!! The weeks between August 1 and the start of the school year for FCPS are always the craziest of the year for our office.. but we reached the finish line and have so many students finished as a result. Because of this, we just took a few students off our Late Start Waitlist this past week- don’t hesitate to reach out if you are a rising senior family that needs some last-minute help!
BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK
FACULTY PROTEST LAX COVID-19 REQUIREMENTS, AND STUDENTS SEEK TO SPREAD INFORMATION
Tensions are on high this week as students have returned to campus and cases have risen. At Duke, more then 100 mostly-vaccinated students tested positive, which is very alarming. As a result, faculty at many colleges and universities are protesting the lack of strict COVID-19 precautions on campus. At Penn State, the faculty senate passed a vote of no confidence in the administration’s plan to allow unvaccinated students to return to campus. And students heading to Clemson may be in for a surprise - faculty are planning a walkout on the first day of classes to protest the lack of a mask mandate.
Yet the faculty aren’t the only ones concerned! Students at 40 different colleges and universities across the country have joined the Covid Campus Coalition, an organization founded by a Cornell student, and are working on TikTok and Instagram campaigns to educate their peers with science-backed information.
DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH COLLEGE REALLY COSTS?
Turns out, many students and families underestimate the cost of attending college. On average, parents of high school students expect to pay $22,000 annually, even when asked to include room and board, books, and fees. In actuality, this number isn’t too far off for students who attend in-state public colleges, but students interested in private schools can expect to pay more than double: $51,000 per year on average. And keep in mind - that’s an average that encompasses many types of private institutions. The more selective private colleges that many of our students put on their lists cost right around $80,000, all in.
VACCINE REQUIREMENT RULING SETS A PRECEDENT
Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s denial of the lawsuit against Indiana University, which we covered on the blog a few weeks back, may have set a precedent about what colleges and other organizations are allowed to require of their students. It sets up a way, for instance, for the NCAA to require that student-athletes be vaccinated - something that hasn’t occurred yet, but that we’ll be watching closely as the Delta variant continues to spread.
BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK
We know that parents are getting nervous about sending kids off to school, and I LOVED the advice in this guide for parents of new college students and thought that so much of this was spot on - except the frequency of contact part. To the contrary, I actually think it would be almost strange for an 18 year old NOT to be in touch with a parent once per day or so via text to say hi. I am 36 and I still text with my mom most days! These don't need to be long conversations but just a way to stay in touch. Also, if you have a student at UVa, there was exactly one spot left in the author’s class as of earlier this morning!
On a more somber note, this article is definitely worth reading for the parents of any (soon-to-be) freshman boys (and though the article is specific to boys, a lot of the advice could help parents of girls too!). But generally, boys tend to share less with close friends and family, and so may need a more watchful eye to make sure that they are staying healthy and taking care of themselves when they’re away from home.
This interview with University of Maryland president Darryll Pines is a much-needed shot of hope in a time that has been so tumultuous for higher education. Despite the crises in his first year as president (a global pandemic and a nationwide racial reckoning), he turned these challenges into opportunities for UMD to change and move forward.
OFFICE HAPPENINGS
Good luck to all of the FCPS students heading back to school next week! And a special congratulations to our rising seniors, who have been putting in serious work on essays and applications and are on the final stretch.
If your student is heading back to school, now is the perfect time to check out academic coaching. Many students and families don’t think they need a coach when the workload hasn’t started up yet, but really, this can be the most effective time to start working with a coach! Shannon can help your student go through their syllabus, plan out major projects and assignments, and work on figuring out what organizational systems and study skills work best for them - before things get too crazy later in the semester. Book an academic coaching Meet & Greet to talk more with her about how we can help your student succeed. Trust me, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and you don’t want to be scrambling to bring up grades and complete late work during finals week!
And for students who struggled with finding productive opportunities for enrichment this summer, you’re in luck! Cornell is offering their pre-college program online this fall, including some little-known language courses and an Introduction to Evolution and Diversity. A great way for a student interested in biology or environmental science to get some helpful experience this fall.
Lastly, we can’t sign off without mentioning that we can't get the situation in Afghanistan out of our minds this week. If anyone knows of any refugee families in the DC area who need help with anything relating to education as they are resettling, please let us know. It’s so hard to watch this without being able to help in some way, and it would make us feel good to be able to do something useful for them - whether helping to get their children placed in the right classes at school, finding ESL courses, or anything else related to secondary, higher, or even elementary education. Let us know if there is a need and we will either take care of it ourselves or find someone who can. You can email me (Colleen) directly here.