Students coping with coronavirus and college as pandemic surges on

From gap years to graduate school, students across the spectrum are struggling with best ways to cope with the coronavirus pandemic and how it is impacting their education.

“Some colleges don’t know whether or not they will be open for the fall, so I am working on a decision if I want to take a year off. I don’t want to just send in my money and then I can’t get a refund back,” said 19-year-old Printiss Smith, Roslindale resident and a senior at City on a Hill Charter School who is considering a gap year rather than cough up the hefty sum to attend college he might not be able to physically attend.

Smith got accepted to a local college and has until June 1 to make his decision. He hopes to study criminal justice and one day become a crime scene investigator.

A recent survey of 2,000 college students by SimpsonScarborough revealed many students are choosing to skip the coming school year.

About 10% of college-bound seniors who planned to enroll in four-year colleges prior to the COVID-19 outbreak have made alternative plans. Twenty-six percent of college students said they are unlikely to return to their current college in the fall or said it was “too soon to tell.”

Rhode Island College junior Aprile Daley said she’ll continue to work toward her degree even as teachers have told her to prepare for remote learning into the fall.

“I feel like I’m not getting the education I’m paying for,” Daley said.

The pandemic led UMass Amherst student Niall Curley to pursue more school — the sport management major decided to stay in school another year to earn a graduate degree rather than confront a job market with minimal prospects.

“What I’m hearing from employers and from friends is that jobs have either been rescinded or completely eliminated,” Curley said.

The Class of 2020 graduate will be participating in a virtual graduation ceremony on Friday. Despite everything he’s missing out on, he still counts himself lucky to be able to pursue a higher degree and — hopefully — “gain an edge” on the next graduating class he’ll be competing with.

“We lost our graduation, spring break, we got not closure and we’ve been thrust into the working world with no opportunities,” Curley said.

Boston University graduate Julio Membreno is enrolling in a fellowship program through Venture for America that will connect him with a job — something he said he’s very fortunate for.

“I applied in January — it was an option. I had hoped to have many options, but I feel very fortunate to have this,” he said.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3dc7UjJ