[UltimateCard]

Domestic Enrollment
Some of you have already talked about questioning the value of paying sticker for expensive private schools when your kids are sitting the next room over absorbing lectures by Zoom. My guess is we'll see increased enrollment at community college (in part for folks retraining who were laid off), as well as commuter state schools where a lot of students lived at home anyway. I doubt many 18-year-olds would put off college for a year altogether, but I have to imagine that, at the margins, if I live in SoCal, Pomona suddenly looks a lot more attractive than Williams. If I'm choosing between Georgetown and Berkeley and I live in Maryland, Georgetown seems obvious. My suspicion is that we'll see a return to more regional patterns in college attendance that had diminished over the past several decades. 

*For those of you with kids deciding on college, or with friends and family who have kids deciding, what are they thinking? I'd be curious to hear how this decision calculus is being made.

FWIW - I feel so sorry for the Class of 2020 and the Class of 2024.
The Class of 2020 will enter the worst job market, potentially in the more than a century.  Ugh.
The Class of 2024 might start their time at colleges without ever stepping foot on that colleges' campus.   Virtual Freshmen Orientation sounds like an awful experience.  If I had a child set to be a member of the Class of 2024, I would definitely encourage my child to explore Gap Year opportunities.

Ummm, that would be me. Older son graduating from Northwestern, admitted to Master's program at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Younger son graduating from high school, admitted to Brown. Still committed to attending but seriously considering taking a gap year if distance learning is the default. They're thinking about continuing their Mandarin language studies at a university in China or Taiwan, which would be kind of a fun adventure for them to study abroad together. Maybe things will then be back to "normal" by Fall of 2021 or at least distance learning will be better by then (whether $70k better remains to be seen). Younger son is a bit torn as he'd like to start college with his cohort. We've got a couple of months before deferral deadlines force a decision. 

P.S. +1000 on Mary Sunseri. She made Calc at 8 am bearable!

An update: Son #2 learned that Brown has moved their deferral deadline UP to May 15 before there is any certainty about the fall. Seems like president Paxson (who is an economist) and her administration are trying to preserve their enrollment numbers - totally understandable from their standpoint and was basically the point in her NYTimes op-ed. So much for leaving options open and making informed decisions if you’re paying the tuition.

[UltimateCard]

Domestic Enrollment
Some of you have already talked about questioning the value of paying sticker for expensive private schools when your kids are sitting the next room over absorbing lectures by Zoom. My guess is we'll see increased enrollment at community college (in part for folks retraining who were laid off), as well as commuter state schools where a lot of students lived at home anyway. I doubt many 18-year-olds would put off college for a year altogether, but I have to imagine that, at the margins, if I live in SoCal, Pomona suddenly looks a lot more attractive than Williams. If I'm choosing between Georgetown and Berkeley and I live in Maryland, Georgetown seems obvious. My suspicion is that we'll see a return to more regional patterns in college attendance that had diminished over the past several decades. 

*For those of you with kids deciding on college, or with friends and family who have kids deciding, what are they thinking? I'd be curious to hear how this decision calculus is being made.

FWIW - I feel so sorry for the Class of 2020 and the Class of 2024.
The Class of 2020 will enter the worst job market, potentially in the more than a century.  Ugh.
The Class of 2024 might start their time at colleges without ever stepping foot on that colleges' campus.   Virtual Freshmen Orientation sounds like an awful experience.  If I had a child set to be a member of the Class of 2024, I would definitely encourage my child to explore Gap Year opportunities.

Ummm, that would be me. Older son graduating from Northwestern, admitted to Master's program at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Younger son graduating from high school, admitted to Brown. Still committed to attending but seriously considering taking a gap year if distance learning is the default. They're thinking about continuing their Mandarin language studies at a university in China or Taiwan, which would be kind of a fun adventure for them to study abroad together. Maybe things will then be back to "normal" by Fall of 2021 or at least distance learning will be better by then (whether $70k better remains to be seen). Younger son is a bit torn as he'd like to start college with his cohort. We've got a couple of months before deferral deadlines force a decision. 

P.S. +1000 on Mary Sunseri. She made Calc at 8 am bearable!

An update: Son #2 learned that Brown has moved their deferral deadline UP to May 15 before there is any certainty about the fall. Seems like president Paxson (who is an economist) and her administration are trying to preserve their enrollment numbers - totally understandable from their standpoint and was basically the point in her NYTimes op-ed. So much for leaving options open and making informed decisions if you’re paying the tuition.