I was always under the impression that the word "frosh" was weird slang for freshmen, not a word considered just as proper for written communication.
They say "frosh" now because "freshmen" is gender-specific. Many schools do this.
Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus
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Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus
#12I firmly think there is a sea change going on from standard “college” degrees to more practical training that will be a mix of apprenticeship and solid training like air/vac, electricians and online skills, since the vast majority of jobs don’t really need a college degree.
This has actually begun already at the high school level.
Once again I believe net/net the beer virus will be positive for America in the long run - even if only on the educational level.
Some will insist that a portion of the population will be disenfranchised and that is true.
But our education assumptions and priorities have been wrong for so long now that it has actually become the weakness of an entire generation for the last 10-20 years.
Just think of it! In a few months we are completely re-examining the utility of taking out a student loan that many cannot pay back in their working lifetimes.
We’re looking and complaining if colleges will go online or reopen in person classes - but there is so much more going underneath that conversation.
This is maybe (hopefully) the last generation of the “underwater basket weaving” so-called useless degrees.
Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus
#13My son's state university is forcing students to return in person. I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media noise, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again. Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now. Aside from the obvious safety issues.
It's absurd here in my state as well. We have peak number of cases in one of the biggest college towns, and students are moving in as we speak. I give it two or three weeks before we cancel everything again.
As an aside, equally scummy are universities that pulled the rug from under students very close to move in. My sister got kicked out of her housing by the university a few days before move in, and basically had to accept that she would be staying home for the fall, as rent prices near school nearly doubled overnight.
Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus
#14My son's state university is forcing students to return in person. I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media noise, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again. Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now. Aside from the obvious safety issues.
Leases seem like the worst aspect of this, at least a return flight is only half a month's rent (one would hope).
I agree that you are correct about this, even here in Boston we've just got so many colleges that even if the one I work at has no problems Boston in general seems likely to have a big enough uptick that it will impact everyone. That's a lot of students traveling here by plane all at once and even if they're quarantining when they arrive I bet their parents aren't...
Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus
#15My son's state university is forcing students to return in person. I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media noise, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again. Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now. Aside from the obvious safety issues.
Stanford cancelling on-campus education definitely feels like a major bellwether. It's hard to think of any school better positioned to make it work. Not just because of its wealth and elite status, but because the climate is so aggressively warm and non-rainy, and the spacious campus absolutely has the space (though perhaps not the seating/tables, at least initially) to accommodate all-outdoor classes and activities.
Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus
#16My son's state university is forcing students to return in person. I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media noise, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again. Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now. Aside from the obvious safety issues.
It's absurd here in my state as well. We have peak number of cases in one of the biggest college towns, and students are moving in as we speak. I give it two or three weeks before we cancel everything again. As an aside, equally scummy are universities that pulled the rug from under students very close to move in. My sister got kicked out of her housing by the university a few days before move in, and basically had t…
I hate to be all like "to be fair" but wouldn't it have been even worse if they'd waited until after she moved there and then sent her home and made her move twice instead of canceling a move once?
Do you mean they're still having in-person classes required but are just not offering housing? That's definitely scummy, that's the kind of thing that would have changed people's admission acceptance decisions.
Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus
#17My son's state university is forcing students to return in person. I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media noise, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again. Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now. Aside from the obvious safety issues.
They are transferring economic losses to the students/parent
Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus
#18My son's state university is forcing students to return in person. I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media noise, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again. Sucks because students are signing leases, moving crap, buying meal plans, etc, right now. Aside from the obvious safety issues.
>I fully expect a notable outbreak in some college to start a wave of media, followed by all the universities sending everyone back home again.
If you are referring to the USA, I disagree. Unless the local county health departments or states require schools to go virtual, I don't see it.
If a large public university experiences an outbreak, I don't think they will go virtual until someone dies. I do not think large private schools will go virtual unless the government requires it.
The USA has no centralized method of handling the pandemic, so each state is making their own rules and guidelines. We have professional sports teams playing outside bubbles and many college football programs are continuing.
Many school districts outside urban areas are opening and seeing outbreaks, but continue to stay open. As a country, we blew it and seem to have decided to go about this piecemeal.
I hope your son and your family stay well.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/us/georgia-school-coronav...
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-america-blew-it-b3d84ea3-7...
Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus
#19I was always under the impression that the word "frosh" was weird slang for freshmen, not a word considered just as proper for written communication.
Although frosh refers to a first-year student and has a resemblance to fresh, freshman is not believed to be the source of the word. More likely, frosh is from the dialectic German word for a frog, Frosch. ... Students already had a slang term for freshman, the diminutive freshie.
The question "what it is slang for" is different from the question "what is the word derived from". The prior may well change if everyone has a group delusion and believes it is slang for something different. The latter obviously not.
Re: Stanford cancels plans to bring half of undergrads back to campus
#20I was always under the impression that the word "frosh" was weird slang for freshmen, not a word considered just as proper for written communication.
My immediate thought to your comment was that "frosh" is actually very common and accepted slang for "freshmen". That said, I did not expect to see it in the article's lede – or in the president's official statement [0]: > We will continue planning with the hope and expectation of bringing undergraduates back to Stanford at the earliest possible time. If public health conditions allow, we plan to invite frosh, sophom…
I imagine that's because "freshmen" is problematic in $CURRENT_YEAR, but it sounds too weird to say "freshpeople" so they went with the existing slang of "frosh."