COVID-19 and the Future of College Admissions

On April 16th, Boston University was the first US university to announce that it will postpone its Fall semester until January 2021, according to Forbes.  This announcement came as a shock to many as it was the first example of what the new face of higher learning will be in the future. 

I’m now forced to think about the future of my graduate studies and admissions of incoming undergrad and graduate students to TSU or any college.  I had the chance to talk with the Dean of Graduate Studies at TSU about the future of admissions recently, and it was stated that the school is in preparation to make sure that all classes can be taught online for the fall semester.  I didn’t get the chance to ask about undergrad and on-campus housing, but I did ask if admissions are going down due to the pandemic.  She informed me that the school is waiving both SAT/ACT scores for undergrads and GRE scores for incoming graduate students.  

I think this is a beautiful accommodation given the circumstances, but what happens when we get over the pandemic?  Will the school go back to requiring entrance exams, or will they see that maybe these exams are obsolete and not needed?  If the school does go back to using the entrance exams, will this be unfair to that particular cohort?  These are all major things to consider from the administration side.

As an ex-student athlete, my heart goes out to the high school seniors that may have previously committed to play a sport at a university this upcoming year.  Most of our fall sports start training the summer before the first semester.  I’m no longer in the college sports world, but I wonder if these students will still be able to keep their athletic scholarships.  Also, most college athletes have to adhere to the regulations set forth through a clearinghouse, and usually, you are only allowed one year to redshirt and four years to play on the collegiate level.  Would it be fair to force an automatic redshirt year to the incoming freshmen and returning athletes, or would it more sensible to not even consider this year eligible for play? 

This virus has touched so many aspects of our lives. I’m hoping that the traditional four-year school will not fall by the wayside due to lowered admissions or because of the lack of “college experience.”  Nothing is more heartbreaking than seeing the class of 2020 not be able to enjoy the standard traditions of their senior year: no prom and no official commencement.  I saw a video today where a high school principal printed large yard signs for each graduating senior and then drove around to each of their homes to present the sign in their front yard.  Accompanying him was a firetruck full of firefighters and a police sheriff who all congratulated the senior (from a safe distance). He did this for every single senior in his school.  If may not have been an official graduation but I’m sure that display of effort to the student would be an everlasting memory.

I’ve mentioned in other posts that I like to look at the bright side of things, and I think there may be a positive side to universities going entirely online.  Albeit, I hope we will return to the classroom at some time, but I think this was a push for good and the future of education.  Having all of our classes forced online allowed both professors and administrators to see that despite previous friction from instructors about going online, it is a possible task to fulfill.  I also asked the Dean how online classes would work for the sciences, especially for biology or chemistry labs.  I’m under the impression that a student will need to go into the lab and run the experiments to have hands-on experience.  She told me that they would have “virtual labs.”  She also mentioned how some medical schools have already started to implement virtual reality 3D labs for their anatomy classes and that TSU can do the same. 

The use of virtual labs is not ideal for graduate studies in agriculture or any other science, but it is nice to see this is an option.  I would love to take a virtual reality biology class.  I think professors should embrace the change. It just maybe for the better.