From High School to College: A Journey to the Future

With the upcoming fall semester getting closer, colleges are hastily making plans to accommodate students during the Covid-19 pandemic. As some states see rises in Covid-19 cases, colleges are changing a fundamental part of the college experience: the ability to be on campus. From work opportunities to classrooms to extracurricular activities, the upcoming semester still has many questions and concerns about the changes and plans in moving forward after the fall semester. Many colleges have extended the deadline for student deposits in order to give students enough time to decide what they want to do for their upcoming school year. They have also changed the starting time for some schools in order to avoid having students on campus in November and extend their winter break. Although college life will certainly be different, colleges are doing their best to ensure that students have the best possible experience under these circumstances. I interviewed several incoming freshmen and asked them questions about the upcoming school year: Will you be in-class on campus? How do you feel about the virus and what concerns do you have? How are you looking forward to the new academic year? Do you feel cheated from the overall college experience because of the limited interaction on campus? How has your school addressed Covid-19 concerns?

Tyler Williams, 17 (Lives in Roxbury, graduated from Boston Latin School and will attend Wentworth Institute of Technology)

I’ll be at home for the semester, and all my classes are online. I’m a bit worried about students that have classes that are on campus as a necessity (depends on major/courses).

I’m not looking forward too much to the year as I had hoped to make friends in my classes and only being able to talk to each other online is a huge barrier.

I don’t feel cheated. It isn’t the college’s fault, it’s just a bad time for the pandemic to be happening. The school’s taking a lot of measures to ensure that students that are on campus living in dorms, and students that are having classes on campus will remain safe, and the school is also trying to make it so that all services that are now online will be able to replicate the experience they should have on campus as best as they can.

Kit Houng Li, 17 (Lives in Allston, graduated from Boston Latin School and will attend Boston University)

I will be staying at home since most of my classes will be virtual, but I may go on campus for some classes that will have in person sessions. I’m still very much looking forward to the new school year (mainly because my classes really appealed to me), but there are concerns about contracting Covid-19 especially since some members in my family are more vulnerable. I hope that I can limit how often I have to go on campus to ensure my family and my own safety.

I don’t feel cheated at all. The virus has certainly limited the amount of actions that we can take, but our college experience is what we do with our time. We can’t easily make friends in person due to barriers and limitations, but we still have social media and other outlets that allow us to communicate with others.

The school has made sure that students that are living on campus in dorms are either in singles or doubles to limit interactions and to keep social distancing protocols in place. They have also given special guidance to those moving into dorms and emphasized the importance of social distancing. They also require that every incoming freshman test for Covid-19 two times weekly to ensure that those who have contracted Covid-19 are quarantined. Their main focus is to keep students safe and as such, they have implemented online courses, but also have allowed smaller courses to meet in person to still have some part of the college experience.

Jeffrey K Zhao, 18 (Lives in East Boston, graduated from Boston Latin School and will attend U-Mass Amherst)

I will be living on campus even though most of my classes are virtual due to being far away from campus usually.

I still look forward to the school year as I believe that it is possible to properly isolate myself on campus and remain as safe as possible. If there would be any worry for me it would be the higher chance of contracting the virus due to being on campus.

I do not feel cheated at all as it is understandable why colleges would limit interactions due to the virus. In terms of connecting with other students it would certainly be harder to meet them but with social media it is still possible to interact with friends.

The school has taken plenty of measures to allow students to be able to study at home as well as on campus safely. They are currently developing a delivery system in order to limit interaction and are being strict on testing for the virus. Although the decision to open campus during the outbreak is not necessarily the most ideal decision, I believe that the actions they have taken since then have made it more appealing and safe.