In today’s episode of “College Admissions Real Talk”, Dr. Legatt discusses college this upcoming fall and the impact COVID-19 will have on your upcoming college decisions.
Transcript
VO: Welcome to College Admissions Real Talk with Dr. Aviva Legatt, a podcast for students seeking to get admitted to top-tier colleges. Each episode will feature an important tip for your college admission success, delivered with candor and love. If you’ve ever wanted to take a peek inside the mind of a college admissions officer, this is your chance. Have a question? Text Dr. Legatt at 610-222-5762. So, what’s your dream school?
AL: Welcome to College Admissions Real Talk. This is Dr. Aviva Legatt, founder and Elite Admissions Expert at Ivy Insight and author of “Get Real and Get In”. Today, we’re going to be talking about what will college look like in the fall? And this is a really interesting question. We’re going to cover some of this in our virtual summit. Please check it out at collegeadmissionssummit.com if you haven’t signed up. There’s been a lot of reporting going on in The Wall Street Journal, and in other sources, about what colleges are trying to do to build a more normal fall and what exactly that will look like. If you check online, different colleges and universities are beginning to announce plans for next fall. They’re anticipating bringing more students back to campus, having in person classes and perhaps even a concert or sports game. So it definitely will look more like pre-pandemic life this fall, which is really good news. I’m pretty optimistic that the colleges indeed will be able to bring you back in the fall or to the college in the fall for the first time. I do think things will look a bit different. Concerts and events that will be an interesting one. I know that these days in our state, they’re starting to increase the capacity of different restaurants and making new guidelines for in person events. Of course, it could change if things don’t go as planned. But I’m feeling very encouraged these days because I’m seeing every day people I know people I’m connected to getting the vaccinations and the vaccinations seem to be working very well to prevent the spread of COVID-19. So my hope and I for everyone is that you have access to the vaccine as soon as you can and that you choose to take it so that we can all get back to this normal life as soon as possible. The good news is, though, that colleges are going to be a resource for students who are not yet vaccinated or who aren’t able to get vaccinated in their community. I actually wouldn’t be surprised, even if colleges end up requiring these vaccines to return to campus. Oftentimes when you enroll in college, you’re asked to fill out health information and to verify your vaccinations. And unless you have some kind of religious or health-related exemption, you have to be vaccinated. If colleges end up requiring you to be vaccinated from COVID-19 in the fall, that means that they have to provide you with a vaccine if you haven’t gotten it yet, or you could provide proof of being vaccinated, which will make for a safer and more pleasant experience where people can gather where social distancing is not as much of an issue. My hope is that number one, you’ll all be able to get the vaccines in your community as soon as possible. And number two, if you can’t that colleges will be to step up and help vaccine people and require people to get vaccinated as long as it doesn’t conflict with other health or religious beliefs so that they can return to campus as soon as possible. Some schools that have announced that they’re returning to in-person classes include Michigan University, University of Oregon, University of Pennsylvania, and more every day. There are more colleges announcing that they’re coming back, so that is really exciting and very hopeful news for the graduating Class of 2021 and the future classes as well. All these colleges are being a bit cautiously optimistic about it, but I’m pretty optimistic. I have to say. As long as the colleges are doing what they need to do to get things going with keeping people safe and healthy, I would say for you one of the great resources to look at is the College Crisis Initiative. This is a resource that’s been tracking the schools’ pandemic responses for the past year. This will be a great source if you’re looking at which colleges that you want to attend next year to see what their responses to COVID-19 are and if you look at this data, you can see that many colleges that are under 5,000 people are more likely to be in person than those that have more than 5,000 people. So if you’ve been considering the question of should I to a large college or a small college? I think during these COVID times, a small college may be in a better position To serve of students in person Given that many more of these colleges have been able to bring the students. Back earlier, keep them in pods and to have somewhat of an in-person experience. Albeit certainly different from the former. In person College experience that we all know and love. With that, I think you can expect some kind of mix across institutions of in person and online classes. For example, UNC is planning to have residence halls operating their normal capacity for the fall compared with its current 30% rate. They’re also setting aside two facilities for quarantine and isolation if needed. I would say that you could also look at the question of on campus versus off campus housing and what the flexibility is of that when you’re making your college choices in the springtime. Around now, if you’re getting your decisions back. Unfortunately, we can’t do a complete celebration and happy dance that this is all over. But what I am seeing is that things are starting to get roaring back to life. If you want some more ideas on how to get roaring back to life during these COVID times, I definitely suggest you sign up for our college admission summit which is happening all week. You can access the replays all week for free. Go to ivyinsight.com/virtual-summit or collegeadmissionssummit.com And we’ll get you registered. Talk with you soon.
VO: College Admissions Real Talk is hosted by Aviva Legatt, edited by Stephanie Carlin, and produced by Incontrera Consulting. I’m Caroline Stokes and this has been your daily boost of college admissions insight. Have a question? Text Dr. Legatt at 610-222-5762. For more information on Dr. Legatt and Ivy Insight visit www.ivyinsight.com. And you can pick up Dr. Legatt’s book, “Get Real and Get In”, at major retail outlets across the world. Insight out.
