With Friday’s long-awaited senior decision day fast approaching, Lori Filby sat across from her son Ian at the kitchen table in their Elk Grove Village home for a heart-to-heart talk about the teen’s hopes to attend Illinois State University as an education major in the fall.
“We visited ISU for a second time, right before the campus closed in March, and Ian decided that was where he wanted to go next fall, so we sent in our deposit,” said Filby, whose son attends Conant High School in Hoffman Estates. “Now, if it turns out there’s going to be only e-learning at ISU in the fall, we’ll have to talk about it, as maybe Harper (community college) makes more sense for his freshman year.”
After COVID-19 closures quashed end-of-high-school rites of passage like prom and graduation, senior decision day on May 1 — when most colleges require students to commit — feels more like indecision day this year. Many seniors and their parents struggle with an uncertain future amid public health and financial crises with no end in sight.
Decision day has always been fraught with anxiety, as students worry about selecting the right school. But the pandemic has added a new layer of unpredictability, as families wonder if their preferred school’s campus will reopen in the fall, and if not, whether to save money and have their student enroll in online classes at the local community college.
At New Trier High School, officials are getting scores of emails from parents of graduating seniors who are seeking advice on everything from how to defer enrollment if a campus remains closed in the fall, to whether or not it is wise to pay expensive tuition costs for private and out-of-state universities if students might end up taking their classes online from their laptop at home.
“I think for the parents I’ve talked to, health is the number one concern, and finances is number two, and from what I’m hearing, there are many families whose financial situation and ability to afford paying for their student’s college education has changed because of the pandemic,” Jill Cervantes, chairwoman of the Winnetka high school’s Post High School Counseling Department, said.
“I think a big part of the challenge is it remains unknown what most colleges will look like in the fall,” Cervantes added.
Daniel Cates, superintendent of Palatine-based Township High District 211, said decision day has arrived amid a disappointing end of high school for students and looming financial insecurity for their parents.
“Families are really in a compromised position. … So many heartbreaking losses for these seniors make this a really tough year, and it looks like it could continue into the fall,” Cates said, adding that the cost of university tuition could “cause a family to reconsider the investment relative to the rigors of the university classrooms and the college experience. Colleges are trapped, too, with many facing steep financial challenges. I think we could see our community colleges taking on increased enrollments.”
Colleges nationwide are grappling with fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, which is affecting everything from finances to the format of classes. Most students vacated the dorms early and returned home to finish their studies through remote instruction conducted on Zoom, YouTube and other virtual means.
Even the decision timeline for prospective students has been muddled. Some colleges have delayed their deposit deadlines until the summer, or even September, to give students and their families more time to consider their options.
Still, some selective schools — including the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — are sticking with the May 1 date.
Further complicating the decision, colleges cannot guarantee that classes will resume in person or whether students will be allowed to live in communal residence halls when the fall term begins. Some schools are considering putting students up in private apartments off campus or renting hotels rooms to space students out more than usual.
Public universities in Illinois have said they hope to make a determination about fall classes sometime in June or July, based on recommendations from public health experts and the governor’s office about whether it’s safe to convene on campus.
Despite all the uncertainty, Illinois Board of Higher Education Chairman John Atkinson encouraged high school seniors not to give up on college plans.
Speaking Thursday at a virtual board meeting, Atkinson said: “For high school students about to graduate … college is still an outstanding option. Your path does not need to change. … We are here for you. Illinois is here for you.”
Maggie Nielsen, a senior at Lane Tech College Prep High School, is sticking with her plan to attend college, not in Illinois but at McGill University in Montreal, though she’s not yet sure when dorms will open, if classes will be in person or when it will be possible to make the international move.
She already applied to the dorms and had to make a down payment, expecting to find out her placement in June.
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One factor in her decision was that McGill draws students from all over the world. At Lane Tech, she found she learned just as much from talking to her peers of different backgrounds as she did in classes, she said.
If classes do start online, she’ll miss the chance to meet other students in person, along with all the freshman traditions and orientation.
“There’s so much to the university experience aside from the academic portion of it, and we will be missing out on that,” Nielsen said. “It’s really frustrating, after missing out on a lot this year.”
One of her friends is going to Arizona State University, which has announced in-person classes will resume in late August, the start of fall semester. Another is going to Yale, which has said it will make decisions about the fall by early July.
For Shayla Turner, a senior at Chicago’s Sarah Goode STEM Academy, attending DePaul University in the fall depends on whether classes can resume in person. Even with a few scholarships, tuition and housing at the private school will require her to take out loans, she said.
“It’s extremely expensive, and there’s absolutely no point paying for it if it’s (online),” said Turner, 18. “I’d probably take a gap year or even just not go.”
Turner, who lives with her mom and younger sister in the Ashburn area and hopes one day to teach in Chicago Public Schools, said she is still hoping to double major in education and something creative, or maybe sociology.
“Not being able to go at all, having to stay here, inside … that would just put a hold on everything,” Turner said. “I’ve been ready to get out on my own and do what I’ve been wanting to do for the longest, and the fact that I’m not being able to kind of sucks. Having the college experiences, you only get them once, but there are people dying.”
Some students, like Nielsen and Hoffman Estates High School senior Andrew Luzwick, 18, are determined to forge ahead with their top choices, even if college classes are held online in the fall.
“My mom has already been telling people, but I will probably officially announce on Instagram Friday that I’ll be going to the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University,” Luzwick said.
The jazz studies major, who was awarded a scholarship, said he’s not sure if he’ll be able to take his classes and live in a dorm at the downtown campus next fall, but he remains optimistic.
“I want to be at Roosevelt, and be a part of the university in the fall, even if classes are only online,” Luzwick said, adding, “Then once it reopens, I’ll be 100% a part of it.”