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Shaky fall semester plans cause students to consider options

With lingering concerns of fall semester cancellations, many incoming college students are considering taking a gap year.

Although the worst of COVID-19 appears to be over, many universities are still wary of solidifying fall semester schedules for fear of another outbreak. Many universities who have released fall semester calendars have made it clear that due to COVID-19, these calendars are liable to change.

When closures swept the country in March, few thought the consequences of the pandemic would stretch into the fall. Now, incoming college students are being forced to re-evaluate their plans.

Over the last few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more newly-graduated high school students are considering taking a gap year. For many, it is a better alternative than risking enrollment at a university – and paying all the hefty fees that come with it – only to have classes move online again should another outbreak occur.

About one in five current students is unsure of plans to re-enroll or has decided not to go to college this fall, according to a national survey by the American Council on Education and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

“No school in the country or the world can be certain what the fall will bring,” said Terry Hartle of the American Council on Education in an article by the Washington Post.

Many predict continued online, remote learning through the fall semester as vaccines will not be readily available before then.

Harvard College has a page on their website for students considering a gap year, encouraging students to defer. “Each year, between 80 and 110 students defer their matriculation to Harvard College, and they report their experiences to be uniformly positive,” the page says.

A popular decision among students at Harvard, students formed the Harvard Gap Year Society, a group, “…designed to support students who are taking or have taken a gap year, as well as promote the benefits of taking a year off,” the page continues.

As the fall semester draws nearer some students have, as expected, gone forward with enrollment at a university. Many more however, have left to decide.