Why Can’t Favored College Students Observe Pandemic Rules?
The costs of college, and the sacrifices and costs of getting into college are immense. This is especially true at the nation’s top schools, like Notre Dame. The question is why can’t the students there obey simple and common pandemic rules, to allow in-person classes? Clearly, I don’t have the answer, or I would be selling my advice to universities. Here, it is just a rhetorical question to point out the sacrifices that students and their families pay for a college education, which a few students compromise for a party or two.
I do not mean that attending college for a year virtually is a great educational sacrifice, although it is a social sacrifice. First of all, you still get the courses from the same invaluable faculty and assistants. Second, having observed some classes, students didn’t necessarily attend in person before. When they did, they often were on their laptops, not always taking notes. This is especially true of large Freshmen and Softmore classes not in your major. The buildings and labs that you may not access are built on long term loans, which still have to be paid off. When you graduate with your degree from a distinguished school, it is no less valuable.
I use Notre Dame as an example only since they are trying to reopen with in-person classes early, and because they have great capabilities and I have a great respect for them. If they can’t do it, other campuses will also have troubles.
This is a tv screen photo on CNN of colleges having problems opening in-person because of Coronavirus cases.
Notre Dame charges about $53,000 a year in tuition, and with an estimated $72,000 a year for total costs including room and board, books, and fees. Obviously, if you get sent back home, you get to save on room and board. The admission rate has been 18%, with 2,051 of new students enrolled. Their average SAT score is 1445, and the average ACT score is 34. The average GPA is around 4.
The preparation of students nationwide for SATs is a $1.1 billion industry. Around 3/4ths of wealthy students get extra help on the SATs. The children of the wealthy may also go to $40,000 a year prep schools. A typical SAT prep course is $2,600 for 10 hours of private tutoring. The Princeton Review and Kaplan charge $1,600 for 54 hours of preparation. A cheaper private tutoring is $70/hour for 20 to 30 hours.
In supporting DACA students, I had calculated that by the time we have graduated a high school student in California, the State has put $140,000 into their education
With all of these college costs, mostly borne by parents or loans with some small federal grants, and the earning of grades for at least high school years, and the time and costs of test preparation and taking, why can’t college students obey the simple pandemic rules? Again, I don’t know the answer.
In the old days, we used to call on “social pressure” to get people to follow common rules. While this really comes down to “personal responsibility”, we have been led for five years by the “cult of Trump”, which celebrates a boss who obeys no rules, and has spent six months flouting the pandemic rules.
The inspiration for this article is the song “Why can’t the English learn to speak?” Sung by Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) in “My Fair Lady” by Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. It has the chorus line “Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?”
