The pandemic has had some odd effects on the world. Many of them were to be expected. The proliferation of masks and social distancing guidelines make sense. The cancellation of sports seasons and concerts was sad, but inevitable. Now, however, some odd effects are taking place. Colleges are beginning to feel the uncertainty.
Due to distance learning requirements in place by many schools, students are not signing up in the same numbers for the fall semester. Everything from RN to BSN online programs have replaced their physical counterparts.
Many students have stated that they don’t like paying full tuition for what they feel are less robust online courses. Students have noted that the in-person college experience is part of what they liked about their universities.
Without any guarantee that physical classes will begin again the fall, students are biding their time. This has led to colleges being uncertain of their finances going into the end of 2020. This has led many colleges to delay “College Decision Day” to June 1, from May 1. May 1 is usually the last day that colleges will accept applicants for the fall semester.
The coronavirus canceled spring break and graduation for entire swaths of students. Now, universities are feeling that disappointment in the form of tuition they might not collect in the fall. Not only are students unsure if they will be in person, many don’t know if they’ll have the money to even attend college.
The pandemic has brought havoc to the jobs sector. Unemployment reached historic highs in the US aid the lockdown effort. Some protesters and economists have blasted the lockdowns as a “panic response.” These lockdown skeptics argue that, while the measures may have saved lives, they’ve also caused chaos for the working class.
Still, medical experts stand by their call that the lockdowns serve an important role in slowing the spread of the virus. The majority of states in the US are still under some form of stay-at-home order. National polling shows that most people are more concerned about the economy opening too quickly than too slowly.
At the end of the pandemic, when the data is tallied and historians begin to make sense of the numbers, we’ll have a clearer picture. Perhaps then we’ll learn just how many lives were saved, versus how many could have been saved. Until then, however, the US is operating on the best advice that medical experts can give, while weighing that against the economic realities of the shutdown.
