Choosing which college to attend can be a very daunting decision. There is no right answer, and you really just have to trust your gut and take a leap of faith. Thinking back to my senior year of high school, I remember feeling overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of information I had to think about. Every day, I spent hours reading about degree programs, clubs offered, and campus life. However, what helped me make my final decision was attending the preview days of the colleges I was admitted to.

Walking around campus, observing how current students interacted with each other, and seeing the buildings allowed me to truly envision what my next four years could look like in what Princeton students call the “Orange Bubble.” Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the Class of 2024 will not have this opportunity. That got me to think about other ways incoming freshmen could observe the culture of the university.

Much like how consumers have been closely watching the behavior of businesses they buy from in the wake of coronavirus, students should also observe the coronavirus response of the universities that they are admitted to. For example, several major restaurant chains such as Ruth’s Chris, Shake Shack, and Sweetgreen were called out for receiving millions of dollars in loans from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was meant to help small business owners. Due to public backlash, some restaurants returned the money in order for those funds to be reappropriated to companies that cannot access other sources of financing.   

Similarly, colleges were slated to receive aid from the federal government through the CARES Act’s Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund. Princeton and Yale are among several universities that turned down the money to allow funding to go to universities that do not have large endowments and need financial aid the most. Other universities, such as Stanford, rescinded their applications after facing criticism, while Cornell and Columbia have stood by their decision to accept federal aid. Universities with large endowments choosing to reject federal emergency aid was a much-needed move, as experts have pointed out that historically black colleges and universities are disproportionately hurt by COVID-19.  Many of their students are Pell Grant recipients and may not have access to Wi-Fi or laptops at home. Thus, those universities more urgently need the money in order to facilitate their students’  transition to online classes and still provide a quality education.

Princeton’s decision to return its relief funds shows care and consideration for others in the broader community: an action that reflects a quintessential part of Princeton’s culture and is ingrained in our informal motto – “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.” That being said, it is important to keep in mind that this decision to turn down emergency relief funds may not have been feasible for other universities, due to legal constraints on how endowments are spent, the number of Pell Grant recipients, or the amount of money available per student.

 As a student, you can evaluate colleges that you have been admitted to through a similar lens: how did the universities treat their students and faculty once COVID started to become a nationwide concern? Did they take advantage of the CARES Act despite having large endowments? When did they tell undergraduate students to move off campus, and how many days were students given to vacate their dorms? Was consideration shown for international, housing-insecure, or immunodeficient students by allowing for them to stay on campus?

I can’t speak to how other universities went about this process, but I can shed light on what happened at Princeton. Students were given over a week to leave, and the university provided venues for students to receive emergency funding to buy Internet hotspots, flight tickets home, and moving supplies. Students in special circumstances, who could not return home for various reasons, were also able to apply to stay on campus. The university staff even went one step further and bought hundreds of boxes and rolls of tape to provide for free. I’ve always been a firm believer that the small things matter, and in this case, Princeton’s actions speak volumes.

In order to find similar information about other universities, student-run newspapers such as The Cornell Daily Sun and The Harvard Crimson are great resources.  Some questions to investigate how universities have handled this pandemic are:

• Are the universities hosting virtual campus visits for the Class of 2024?

• Was there any form of tuition reimbursement for current students?

• Have room and board fees been refunded to help students afford living off-campus?

• What was the University policy regarding Pass/Fail and the justification behind it? Were there avenues for students to express their opinions? How did administrators account for the various challenges that come with online learning? 

• How have the administration and academic departments accommodated students in the transition to online learning?

• How has the university taken care of its employees, many of whom are suddenly out of work due to school no longer being physically in session?

To the Class of 2024, good luck as you navigate the next few hours leading up to the May 1st  enrollment deadline. Hopefully, you find the best home for you, but as a Tiger, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say we hope to see you at Princeton next year.

To the Class of '24: BT is rooting for you, and we hope to see you on campus in the fall!

*Thumbnail image provided by Kavya Chandran ‘21, the author of this article. This image is from her sophomore spring, when Chandran declared ELE (Electrical Engineering) as her major.