There are a lot of colleges that are posting virtual tours on their websites so that students and families can try to get an idea of their campuses. There are blogs and social media sharing from admissions officers, college representatives, specific departments, and students to help give a fuller picture of the campus environment. However, most on campus visit opportunities including special accepted student visit days have all been cancelled.
Prior to this year, the one thing that remained absolutely consistent across every college in the country was May 1st as the College Decision Deadline. May 1st was the date when every college expected students to submit their deposit to demonstrate their commitment to attending that college next fall. But, as a result of the Coronavirus, this year, that deadline date has changed for some colleges. There are multiple reasons behind the shift to a June 1st decision date for various colleges. Some were hoping that giving students an extra month to make their final decision would hopefully allow campuses to be opened back up to visitors so that students could come and explore campus in person before the new deadline date. Colleges also know it is possible that some families, from a financial perspective, could have difficulty gathering the money required to pay their deposit by May 1st. And the other rationale which I think plays into this is the realization that there is so much fear and uncertainty in the world right now that people might be hesitant to make any decision about where they want to go to college - particularly if distance is a factor and the areas where COVID-19 is currently hitting hardest. So, students might be deciding that they want to stay closer to home or they may be electing to avoid particular areas of the country that are being hit harder by the devastating effects of the virus. As a result, some colleges are wanting to give our world more time for the impacts of the virus to balance out before asking kids to make that final choice.
But, not every college is changing their decision deadline to June 1st and that is a BIG deal that you need to pay attention to when making your choices. If you are debating between 2 colleges and 1 pushes their deadline to June 1st and the other does not, then you essentially have to make your decision by the earlier, May 1st deadline. You don't have to pay the depoit at the other college until their June 1st deadline, but if you don't commit to the May 1st college by May 1st then you are most probably not going to have the option of attending that school in the fall.
This website contains the latest compiled information about college changes and you can sort to look for information that applies to you, but I also strongly recommend that you look at your desired colleges individual websites for the most up to date and accurate information.
The other possible change that I am starting to see information about from some more colleges across the country (this is still in very early stages though) is that for current juniors, there may be more colleges who will elect to move to Test Optional for your application cycle. This is because they know that you have at least 1 less ACT and SAT opportunity to complete the test than students in previous years. There have always been hundreds of colleges who have been test optional in their admissions approach, but we have already received emails from schools that have historically not been test optional indicating that, at least for the kids in the high school Class of 2021, they will move to a test optional model. Again, it is hard to predict how wide spread this trend will go, so unless you were set with the score from your February test, you will likely want to repeat the test this June/ July or in the fall.
Things in the college admissions world are changing fast. I am doing my best to keep track of it all - at least from a big picture scale, but I also encourage you to look for specific details on the college websites that you are considering.
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