How was that first semester of College 2020?

[JimMIA]

SOOOO....

With all the drama of this fall, how was your student's first semester in college this year?

 

[design_mom]

Not sure if you're looking for JUST freshman parents or not. My son's a sophomore living in a dorm and he said it was "okay." (I voted "okay" although it was probably somewhere between okay and mildly disappointing.)

He had one in-person class, with the rest online. He was looking forward to having a bunch of friends in his dorm this year (sophomores got to pick their own rooms last spring, and he was supposed to be near a bunch of friends). However, in an effort to lessen density in the dorms, they offered the sophomores the opportunity to move off campus or stay home. However, you had to make the decision/secure housing within a few days (it was a very last-minute option). We did not choose that direction, but a fair number of his friends did, so the dorm didn't turn out to be as much of a "the gang's all here" situation as he was expecting/hoped.

He had to wear masks everywhere except his own dorm room. Due to fewer kids in the dorms, they had fewer dining halls open (his nearest dining hall closed on the weekends, and his favorite from last year wasn't open at all) and less selection at ones that were open. All extracurriculars were virtual.

Overall, it wasn't the experience he was HOPING for, but he's still glad he went rather than staying home. He is planning to go back next semester although it looks like it'll likely be more of the same (next semester, he's supposed to have 1 in-person class, 2 hybrid, and 3 fully-online. Hopefully that'll "stick" and more won't go to online).

Academically, he's got one final left to take, but thinks he's on track for Dean's List, so it was a successful semester.

 

[mjkacmom]

I too have a sophomore, she had already committed to an off campus townhouse so she stayed there. She didn’t mind all online classes, stores and restaurants were open, there were still gatherings but not the massive parties that are the norm. She had friends, sorority sisters, boyfriend, so better than being home. There were only 1200 student# in the dorm instead of the usual 10,000, they are allowing 4500 in the dorms next semester with the priority going to freshmen. She has straight A’s, says virtual makes classes easier, but she is learning less. She is graduating a year early so I’m sad she’s missing out on so much.

 

[ronandannette]

I'm torn somewhere between very disappointing and awful for my DS. He's a second year student who lives at home, like the majority of Canadian students do. We have a lot of public universities throughout the country and kids tend to stay local when they can. Almost all on-campus instruction and activities ceased abruptly in March and this academic year started with 100% on-line learning except for those needing lab time or practicums.

DS's classes are all delivered via the school's website and are not interactive; he says it's basically like watching a TED talk on Youtube. No on-site access to the library or other resources and in-person study groups are highly discouraged (banned now actually as our area is restricted to no personal in-home gatherings of any kind and restaurant/coffee shops can only seat parties belonging to the same household). His grades are fine; he purposely chose throw-away courses just to wrack up the credits but it may end up costing him an extra semester, depending on what his major requires (he's currently undeclared - called "open studies" here.)

In addition to school closing, he also lost his part-time job back in March and with it, most of his momentum evaporated. His world has gotten incredibly small - he is depressed and isolated and has regressed to living like he did when he was 16. We all realize this isn't forever, but the time that has been lost here can't be reclaimed. We pray daily for a resolution to Covid that will allow him to get his life back on track.

 

[mom2rtk]

says virtual makes classes easier, but she is learning less. .

Same with my DD. Which concerns me for her next 2 years as an engineering major. Next up? Differential Equations online.

Mine was also in an off campus apartment, so away from home. Not a terrible semester, but more stressful than freshman year. She's happy for the brief break that starts in a couple weeks.

Her assessment of the semester? "It's a lot".

 

[JimMIA]

I voted "Okay," because some of it was really good, some was okay, and a small amount was awful. DD is a freshman at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. For those who are not familiar with UCF, it's a huge school -- 69,000+ students -- so the main campus where she is is very large.

All of DD's classes were online, but she lived on campus in a dorm apartment with 3 other girls. The apartment and roommates really could not have been much better. She didn't know any of the girls going in, but they'll be together the rest of this year, and next year they're moving into an off-campus apartment together.

She had three very good profs and one really awful one for Chemistry. She's got finals all this week; she's fine in three classes, we're very worried about Chemistry. That's actually my bad -- I should have had her withdraw from that class 2 months ago.

The vast majority of extracurriculars were either virtual or non-existent. All club stuff was virtual. There were only a couple of big events, all VERY socially distanced. UCF played football with limited attendance, but DD did not attend any games.

On the bright side, the amazing main Rec & Wellness Center (gym) was open. You had to schedule, and access was limited, but it was available and well-used. She and one of her roommates also got their basic CPR certifications through an RWC course. There are also an abundance of walking/jogging trails on campus which the girls used, and DD and her BF also went kayaking at a large on-campus lake.

The biggest disappointment was Spring 2021 registration. Originally, DD had selected 4 in-person classes/labs and only one online course. Overnight just before actual enrollment opened, the school switched ALL of her classes/labs to online. We're not totally satisfied with the ethics of the management of that mess.

All in all, I'd give it a 5/10. With some in-person classes and without the idiot Chem prof, it would have probably have been 8/10 even with the lack of non-academic things to do.

 

[Kitty 34]

I'm torn somewhere between very disappointing and awful for my DS. He's a second year student who lives at home, like the majority of Canadian students do. We have a lot of public universities throughout the country and kids tend to stay local when they can. Almost all on-campus instruction and activities ceased abruptly in March and this academic year started with 100% on-line learning except for those needing lab time or practicums.

DS's classes are all delivered via the school's website and are not interactive; he says it's basically like watching a TED talk on Youtube. No on-site access to the library or other resources and in-person study groups are highly discouraged (banned now actually as our area is restricted to no personal in-home gatherings of any kind and restaurant/coffee shops can only seat parties belonging to the same household). His grades are fine; he purposely chose throw-away courses just to wrack up the credits but it may end up costing him an extra semester, depending on what his major requires (he's currently undeclared - called "open studies" here.)

In addition to school closing, he also lost his part-time job back in March and with it, most of his momentum evaporated. His world has gotten incredibly small - he is depressed and isolated and has regressed to living like he did when he was 16. We all realize this isn't forever, but the time that has been lost here can't be reclaimed. We pray daily for a resolution to Covid that will allow him to get his life back on track.

My sons are way beyond college but it's still so disappointing to see parents and students suffer in these weird times. Hugs to you RonandAnnette and to others.

 

[JimMIA]

virtual makes classes easier, but she is learning less.

I think that's a LOT of us! I'm very worried about this aspect of it, especially with another semester of purely online classes.

DD is in a very challenging biomedical research major, and I do NOT think she is learning as much as she should be. I'm afraid she's going to be paying a price for all this online later.

 

[design_mom]

The biggest disappointment was Spring 2021 registration. Originally, DD had selected 4 in-person classes/labs and only one online course. Overnight just before actual enrollment opened, the school switched ALL of her classes/labs to online. We're not totally satisfied with the ethics of the management of that mess.

We had a similar situation. When he scheduled, all classes were in person. Several switched to online but he still had 3 in-person. Then they announced that all classes would be online for the first month, then switch to their prescribed format (in-person
for 3 of his) after the first month. Two of the 3 never switched.

The school has said that for spring semester, they're going to do their best to ensure that classes are delivered in the manner in which they were listed at registration -- but they allowed the professors a lot more leeway in choosing their delivery methods, so there weren't that many in-person/hybrid classes available. Hopefully the ones he has scheduled will at least stay that way -- but I think it's all up in the air dependent on how the pandemic goes.

 

[Heather07438]

DS just finished his first freshman semester in a dorm. The school planned to be done before Thanksgiving and they stayed on schedule. Everybody left that Wed. He didn’t need need to clean out his dorm fully.
I picked mildly disappointing... weighed between not being able to go or getting a reduced experience.
Having some in person definitely helped but for someone like him who is not outgoing, the social aspect was near zero.

 

[mjkacmom]

I think that's a LOT of us! I'm very worried about this aspect of it, especially with another semester of purely online classes.

DD is in a very challenging biomedical research major, and I do NOT think she is learning as much as she should be. I'm afraid she's going to be paying a price for all this online later.

My daughter is an exercise science major going for a DPT. She has labs every semester, bio, chem, physics... I told her everyone is in a similar boat. My oldest majored in accounting, the next finance, I think it would’ve been easier for them.

 

[JimMIA]

I switched to "Mildly disappointing."

As great as the dorm and roommates were...all online classes two semesters in a row, the last minute switches, and the one really bad prof sorta puts it in the "Can't put lipstick on this pig" category.

And it's not only the online classes. The nature of the online class presentations also leaves a lot to be desired, and there are no actual class presentations. For a class that would normally be 3 one-hour class meetings per week, many profs are only doing one video and/or PowerPoint per week + a homework assignment.

No way that's a 3 hour college course! That's actually just "phoning it in." Even if the professor is very good (and 3 of DD's were), that's still a very low-cal, watered down course that's easy on the professor and less worthwhile for the student.

I also thought it was very telling that as soon as the university announced they wanted to greatly expand the in-person classes for Spring 2021, the faculty union filed an immediate grievance.

We still like the school, but....

 

[LuvOrlando]

Social side of things has not been great, both hate being home and they have had moody episodes because no-one wants this but on the flip side their GPA's are through the roof and DD picked up an extra 9 credits over the summer since they aren't working and have no social distractions. Also I am saving a bunch of money on housing and food.

 

[Colleen27]

Too soon to say for sure. Her semester ends next week and she moves home on the 14th.

Academically, she agrees with @mjkacmom's daughter - grades-wise it has been an easier semester but she doesn't feel like she's learning as much, which could set up a very, very difficult fall next year because she'll be going into upper division classes with almost no hands-on lab experience. Getting an A in O-chem is quite an achievement... but not so helpful if she hasn't learned the material! And watching someone else do a lab on YouTube is not an adequate substitute for doing the same experiment yourself.

Socially, she's in a dorm-style apartment building so she's had a roommate and other students that she studies with. The university said they were going to facilitate student connections for safe, distanced, outdoor small group gatherings to help with the isolation but never did, so she's had almost no contact with anyone from her school. Most of those in her building are grad students in the UC system. She's a mentor/advisor (would have been an RA if there were dorms) for a freshman living-learning community and did occasionally meet with the couple students in that group that are in the area. She had no homesickness at all first year, but really struggled this semester with being so far away from everyone here and so isolated from everyone there. But it wasn't bad enough to keep her from going back for spring, even though the campus will remain closed and now in-person student gatherings are expressly prohibited (except sports, of course @@), because most of her classes have at least some synchronous elements and doing them with the time difference and in a house full of people was really hard last spring.

 

[Southernmiss]

Boy, some of y'all know a lot of details about your college kids lives!

My kids went to college, had some zoom classes, a couple in person classes, like their roommates. Feel like they made the best of the experience considering the year.

Made good grades.

And came out healthy.

And will go back next semester.

Pretty much all I need to know.

 

[mjkacmom]

Boy, some of y'all know a lot of details about your college kids lives!

My kids went to college, had some zoom classes, a couple in person classes, like their roommates. Feel like they made the best of the experience considering the year.

Made good grades.

And came out healthy.

And will go back next semester.

Pretty much all I need to know.

I think parents know more because the kids are frustrated and worried. My daughter has 3 semesters left before grad school, and she’s only had in person classes for 1 1/2 semesters. With my older kids I had no idea what classes they were taking or their grades, and they graduated. My daughter was also home an entire week after not seeing her for over 3 months, and I don’t even talk to her once a week when she’s at school.

ETA that while my daughter, her roommates, her boyfriend, and most of her friends got COVID, she was healthy otherwise, which is unusual at college.

 

[bjscheel]

Boy, some of y'all know a lot of details about your college kids lives!

Well DD is a talker, when she calls or comes I hear about EVERYTHING.

Anyway, she was a sophomore in an off campus apartment with her roommate. I voted Very Good. She had some online, some in-person, and some where you went to every other session. She liked her schedule and the classes that were all online were ones that were well suited to the format. She and her circle hung out together every day. SO glad she already had a group of friends, being a freshman might not have gone as well. I was happy about her college striking a balance between precautions and normalcy and not freaking out.

 

[design_mom]

Boy, some of y'all know a lot of details about your college kids lives!

My kids went to college, had some zoom classes, a couple in person classes, like their roommates. Feel like they made the best of the experience considering the year.

Made good grades.

And came out healthy.

And will go back next semester.

Pretty much all I need to know.

Good for you. Mine’s not a talker. I know because I asked... and I don’t regret it.

 

[mamamary]

I’m gonna say okay for my daughter. She is living in an off campus apt with 3 great friends and she’s getting top grades. That being said it is all online, her sorority is only online, not getting the whole college experience etc. I’m sure next semester will also be online and I doubt they will have a graduation for her in May.

 

[Heigh-Ho]

Boy, some of y'all know a lot of details about your college kids lives!

My kids went to college, had some zoom classes, a couple in person classes, like their roommates. Feel like they made the best of the experience considering the year.

Made good grades.

And came out healthy.

And will go back next semester.

Pretty much all I need to know.

If everything is working out or it's not too stressful a brief conversation may be all that happens. If the parent is the go to for rough times and they are experiencing rough times the conversations may be longer and more often.