The Higher Education Thread

[GrantDawg]

As an update, he got into Albany around midnight. He got to the hotel and crashed. The next day went smoothly, and he was tucked into his little room until he has two clear test. We got the results Monday from his first test (negative). I think he gets his second test back tomorrow or Thursday. So far, only one student has tested positive (though most of the upper class won't be on campus till next week).

[HerRealName]

My daughter's been at Texas Tech for about 3 weeks and has come down with the Covid. She's not feeling well but no trouble breathing.

She's attended classes (most are online), worked, has roommates, etc. so no telling how she picked it up. It sucks that she's so far away during this but not much we could do anyway.

[cuervo72]

Man, sorry HRN.

Our daughter just called today saying that her roommate wasn't feeling well/was disoriented and went to get tested. Don't know what it is yet, but since the roommate is waiting on a test, daughter has to either go into quarantine housing or come home. So, wife (has worked last three nights, slept late today) is making the 4 hour trip to VT.

(I was just there over the weekend, after having been there the weekend before. And at Purdue the weekend before that.)

Hoping the roommate is negative obviously; if not, probably not great odds that we don't all get it. Daughter hasn't been adjusting well as it was and has no in-person classes so it might be for the best anyway. Well, assuming nobody winds up on a ventilator, that is.

[cuervo72]

Dola - daughter had already been watching the VT COVID dashboard. They went from 5 positive tests the week of 8/16, to 16 on 8/23, to 157 new cases the week of 8/30. That last week had a 15.5% positive test rate.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

if not, probably not great odds that we don't all get it.

Don't hospitalize yourself just yet.

I know one student with it, family continues to test negative. I know ... five(?) adults who've tested positive for it (2 symptomatic, 1 very mildly symptomatic, 2 asymptomatic) but not a single person in their household ever tested positive, regardless of age or underlying conditions.

You could get it of course, but I wouldn't assume the worst case either.

[cuervo72]

I suppose. Really I am wondering if the roommate just had some sort of freak-out episode brought on partially by stress/anxiety anyway. So I'm thinking she probably doesn't have it. And even then, daughter may not have it. If she does...then not sure being in a car with her for four hours bodes too great for my wife.

(Now, my wife DOES keep a pretty good space between her and me usually, so...)

[cuervo72]

Wife was wondering why the traffic on the way down to VT; apparently JMU decided to move to online classes*.

(For those who don't know the geography, I-81 goes right through the JMU campus.)


* Classes are supposed to be held in-person for the rest of the week, but I imagine plenty are already deciding to skedaddle.

[Alan T]

So far been pleasantly surprised at my campus. Last 7 days, 11,000 tested and 9 positive. We are only two weeks in to when the first students returned and this weeks test was the first for a good number of ones just returning though.

Quite a bit of students self policing being safe on campus, wearing masks, social distancing and such, but still college kids will be college kids so I guess we will see how this goes, especially when the weather gets colder and the outdoors seems less appealing


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[britrock88]

UW-Madison still with a positivity rate under 2% even as test volume increases (first day of classes today).

[muns]

First day of testing was 2 weeks ago for us. 50+ tested positive on the first day which threw us all for a loop. We were prepared for about 20 not 50+. We just finally caught up this morning with everything we needed to do as far as isolation/quarantine/ sending kids home, pausing move ins, contract tracing, talking to the health department etc (as everyday more kids got tested). Staff are just totally fried working 13+ hours a day for 2 weeks straight.

We went fully on line for 2 weeks so that we could give ourselves time to catch up. Our positivity rate was around 14%. As we continued testing we got down to around 7%. Still higher than our general region and higher than we want.

Not sure how we are gonna be able to keep it up honestly.

[JPhillips]

We're taking the President's advice and not testing. Our confirmed cases remains at zero.

[cuervo72]

Well, Jon was prescient. Roommate has it. We all got tested yesterday morning, all came back clear. There was only one other car there when we got tested, but still a little surprised all the tests came back that quickly. My wife is a nurse, so maybe they fast-tracked ours as well as hers. (She was actually hoping they'd be a little slower to get her out of working tonight. )

[GrantDawg]

Williams College so far still has only had one case. My son is out of quarantine now, and has been able to meet new people and make friends.

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[GrantDawg]

Simon is home, and just buzzing. He feels like he really found his place. I feel like he couldn't have ended up at a better fit. He did say many of the kids are from very wealthy families and had attended elite schools and boarding schools. It doesn't make him feel isolated, though. He has made many friends, and really has been able to fit in within a good group.
Here is my question to the board. He is going in with the idea of studying computer science. One of his classes this semester is Discrete Math that goes along with that major. When he talks about it, he just lights up. He has always found math easy, but not all that interesting. This class has changed his mind. So much so, he is thinking of becoming a math major. Give me an idea of what careers would use something like Discrete Math? All I know about it is that it has very little to do with actual numbers, but my small brain doesn't quite get it.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Simon is home, and just buzzing. He feels like he really found his place. I feel like he couldn't have ended up at a better fit. He did say many of the kids are from very wealthy families and had attended elite schools and boarding schools. It doesn't make him feel isolated, though. He has made many friends, and really has been able to fit in within a good group.
Here is my question to the board. He is going in with the idea of studying computer science. One of his classes this semester is Discrete Math that goes along with that major. When he talks about it, he just lights up. He has always found math easy, but not all that interesting. This class has changed his mind. So much so, he is thinking of becoming a math major. Give me an idea of what careers would use something like Discrete Math? All I know about it is that it has very little to do with actual numbers, but my small brain doesn't quite get it.

He could look into doing a double major in Computer Science and Math. When I was in school, the two shared a lot of courses so getting both was not too much additional work. I was able to get a minor in Math by taking 2 or 3 extra courses. CompSci seems to have changed quite a bit since those days, though, so they may not align now.

As for a career with Discrete Math, I'm not sure. Maybe a data scientist.

[britrock88]

I loved Discrete Math and ended up going to law school, so there's that!

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by britrock88

I loved Discrete Math and ended up going to law school, so there's that!

I can see how that could happen. For him I doubt he goes that route. I think he might end up being a Math major, but then adding something different in graduate school. He really loves languages, having taken Spanish, Latin and Arabic in high school and he is doing a whole year of Japanese in college. I would be surprised if he doesn't add some kind of International studies in there somewhere.