Harvard University announced this month that it will not hold in-person classes for the 2020-2021 academic year and will instead meet online due to the coronavirus pandemic. But here’s the catch: Students will be required to pay full tuition anyway.
The school will allow 40% of its student body, mostly freshmen, to return to campus this fall for a brief orientation. Those students will then transition to distance learning along with the rest of the student body. And in the spring, seniors will be allowed to return to campus for graduation. On top of this, the students among that 40% will be tested for COVID-19 every three days and will be required to wear masks while on campus.
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Other Ivy League schools have adopted a similar approach. Princeton University announced that it will divide its enrollment and allow one-half of its student body to attend on-campus classes the first semester and the other half to return to campus for the second semester. But unlike Harvard, Princeton is aware that the changes must be accompanied by financial changes, too.
Princeton will shave 10% off its tuition, according to school officials. That’s not much, but it’s still better than Harvard, which will not change its annual $49,653 tuition at all. Many other schools have also refused to reconsider tuition prices, which has prompted several students to reconsider returning to college at all.
“Our faculty are doing a good job of working with us,” said 22-year-old Pavan Patel, who is supposed to graduate from Johns Hopkins University next spring. “But at the end of the day, it’s not the same as in-person learning. … It shouldn’t just be a part of the business model where, no matter what happens, you have to pay the same amount. The cost needs to reflect some of the realities.”
This is the reality facing many college students. They enrolled in expensive four-year universities and now, if they didn’t already, feel like the entire experience has been a rip-off. And they’re probably right: Higher education already costs way too much for very little return. Now, thanks to COVID-19, that return is shrinking further.
But if there’s one good thing to come out of all of this, perhaps it’ll be the realization that college isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — at least not when you’re paying $49,653 a year to sit at home and take online classes.
