Coronavirus & Academia 2020

[Psychological Yam]

i work for a university and having some of the graduate students start a semester later is certainly on the table. while a lot of classes can be done online, there are pros and cons to that experience.

edit: however, i'm sure universities will go to great length to avoid this.

but, it would still be difficult for me to move and spend thousands on rent in a HCOL area when i don't technically need to physically be there. understandably, universities won't be able to make those decisions until june, maybe even july, about how to conduct classes. the waiting game is difficult and anxiety inducing.

Edited April 23, 2020 by Psychological Yam

[Mickey26]

"We do not expect a return to face-to-face teaching for at least the fall term; winter term may see resumption only of smaller classes. (Note this does not mean campus will not reopen for Fall; we hope to see a return to work and reopening of labs in ways that allow safety and physical distancing, while avoiding packing large numbers of students tightly into classrooms.) This means that individually, and as a department, we need to start thinking about how to offer our curriculum in an online format for at least this fall."

Email today from the Chair of the Psych department. I'm at Dalhousie Univeristy (Canada). 

They did mention that students can choose to take a semester/year off. 

[jujubea]

@Paulcg87 posted this in another thread, thought y'all might wanna see it here too: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/us/universities-students-returning-fall-2020/index.html 

regarding some universities reopening for fall.

[PokePsych]

Faculty here got instructed that they should prepare their classes online for the Fall semester as it is unlikely we'll return.

[PsyZei]

On 4/23/2020 at 9:50 AM, Psychological Yam said:

i work for a university and having some of the graduate students start a semester later is certainly on the table. while a lot of classes can be done online, there are pros and cons to that experience.

edit: however, i'm sure universities will go to great length to avoid this.

but, it would still be difficult for me to move and spend thousands on rent in a HCOL area when i don't technically need to physically be there. understandably, universities won't be able to make those decisions until june, maybe even july, about how to conduct classes. the waiting game is difficult and anxiety inducing.

I hadn't thought about this happening. I wonder what would happen with student loan deferment if this happens- since if you graduate from the previous program in May and haven't started a new program by December you have to start paying on the loans. Would they then go back into deferment in January? Or would we be stuck paying on them and trying to attend grad school at the same time?

[PsyDuck90]

7 minutes ago, PsyZei said:

I hadn't thought about this happening. I wonder what would happen with student loan deferment if this happens- since if you graduate from the previous program in May and haven't started a new program by December you have to start paying on the loans. Would they then go back into deferment in January? Or would we be stuck paying on them and trying to attend grad school at the same time?

You can always go back on deferment when you go back to school. I was out of school for three years before going back and was able to file for deferment upon starting my new program. I only have federal student loans, so I just had to get the form from my loan servicer and have the director of my program sign it attesting to my tentative graduation date of 2023. I haven't had to do any renewal or anything and I am finishing up my 2nd year. If I remember correctly, it took about a month or so to process, so I did have to pay a few months.

[PsyZei]

7 hours ago, PsyDuck90 said:

You can always go back on deferment when you go back to school. I was out of school for three years before going back and was able to file for deferment upon starting my new program. I only have federal student loans, so I just had to get the form from my loan servicer and have the director of my program sign it attesting to my tentative graduation date of 2023. I haven't had to do any renewal or anything and I am finishing up my 2nd year. If I remember correctly, it took about a month or so to process, so I did have to pay a few months.

Thank you for taking the time to explain this, I appreciate it.

I honestly hadn't even thought about it before yesterday as a potential issue- so had never looked into whether it was possible to go back on deferment. I'm already paying some on it monthly (but not as much as the anticipated monthly amount will be once out of deferment) in order to reduce the amount I'll pay per month once I'm done with school, but I hadn't looked into the intricacies of it beyond that. I only have federal student loans too and they are all managed by the same company, so it sounds like it wouldn't be too difficult of a process.

[SocDevMum]

On 4/23/2020 at 9:50 AM, Psychological Yam said:

but, it would still be difficult for me to move and spend thousands on rent in a HCOL area when i don't technically need to physically be there. understandably, universities won't be able to make those decisions until june, maybe even july, about how to conduct classes. the waiting game is difficult and anxiety inducing.

I spoke to my PI about this Fall, we haven't made any official decisions about Fall yet apparently, but I was told that whether it's online or f2f, all grad students are expected to relocate to the area and be available as of Aug 15.  

[jujubea]

Our campus just announced all remote through at least both summer sessions.

Talk on the town but nothing confirmed about a hybrid fall term and partial reopening of library via curbside pickup.

[springxsummer]

My university just announced mixed delivery for fall. Some smaller classes may still be in-person. Curious to see what this will mean for my program.