Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020
Last night ended in despair over university applications, with EM fearing all of her work on applications has been in vain.
Well there is hope that not all is lost. Some of the universities she has chosen are still very much viable options, just maybe not for early action. The latter is not necessarily a bad thing as it may widen her choices., given that if accepted to early action it is a take it or leave it decision right then. There is always the option to apply with the actual results rather than the predicted scores. One of her favored schools has admission on a rolling basis from early June until the end of July. For some of the other univeristies it might mean she will not begin with her studies until early 2022.
Again, this may actually not be bad news as she would be able to take a six-month break from studying in what has been an extremely challenging environment. Yet other universities offer the opportunity to explain predicted scores, stating explicitly that they look at results over several years and not just the final score. In an academic year in the age of Corona where all learning has been virtual, I believe this makes a lot of sense.
EM seems to have overcome her shock as at least she is talking to her college counselor again. I am finding that learning for our students is far harder in this environment as access to teachers for clarifications and explanations is infinitely harder. This is very much evidenced by EM’s struggles with her English oral and her recent ERQ for psychology, where only in the last minute, so to speak, we figured out the requirements leaving less time to actually DO the assignment.
It is not that she cannot do the work, it is more that she does notknow what is expected of her. Considering this, we are very much hoping that IB will again cancel exams. So much of the content has not been taught given reduced learning hours and students are rather overwhelmed with all they must deliver in this difficult environment.
On some level it is so pleasant to be dealing with normal life issues rather than spending time worrying about the virus or work or the moronic American politicians.
This of course does not stop the virus from continuing to spread. The USA reports 18.47 million cases and 326k dead and 201k people are newly infected. Worldwide 77.4 million have contracted the disease. As the virus rages Americans are beginning to travel for the holidays. I am not sure how many follow CDC guidelines and the complex process we went through to keep their loved ones safe; namely test, isolate, test, isolate test, meet. More than 2 million Americans have boarded planes over the past two days and many more are expected to drive around the country.
In the meantime European countries are trying to keep the mutant discovered in the UK out, the USA is not even trying. For all scientists know it might even have originated in the US, the US just does not have the technical surveillance capability required to assess this and other mutations. Scientists argue the virus is completely out of control in the USA anyway, whether this version or a previous version, the US cannot control the spread anyway. I doubt Europe will manage to block the new mutant from coming to the continent. Given it has been in London for weeks, it may well have arrived anywhere in the world already.
Vaccine distribution to rural areas is proving to be challenging. I expect Moderna will go to rural areas and BioNTech/Pfizer will be for easier to reach, urban areas. Twitter is exploding at the fact that COVID deniers from the GoP have jumped ahead in the line to get vaccinated.
The list of deplorables includes Moscow Mitch.