For most high school seniors, this milestone year has really been ruined by Covid-19. Classes cancelled. Graduation cancelled. Prom cancelled. Senior trip, senior skip day, senior prank: cancelled. On top of that, somewhere around a million seniors are also trying to figure out if, where, and how they’ll go to college next year. Campus visits have been moved online. Some, but not all, colleges have pushed their decision/deposit date back by a month. Family financial outlooks are changing drastically. There’s just so much chaos, and it’s hard to know what to do. Unfortunately, I can’t make any of it better or easier. What I can do is give some tips and reminders to think about as you go through this process as best you can.

What will the fall look like at universities around the country? Nobody knows yet. Things may be close to back to normal. Or…students may be allowed back to campus, but with strict distancing and hygiene rules and no large gatherings like sports events. Or…students may be asked to stay home and take classes online, much like what’s happening right now. The colleges simply don’t know yet, and they probably won’t for a few more months. They’re doing their best to plan for multiple scenarios, just in case. You should too.

Do your best to plan for a “normal” beginning to college, whether that’s moving off to school or commuting from home. But also do your best to plan for being at home and doing your first semester online. It will be very different from this final semester of high school online: your new school and new professors won’t already know you they way your high school does; fall online classes will (hopefully) be better planned and executed than this year’s surprise shift to online learning; schools will assume that since you voluntarily committed to starting school that you’re ready and able to spend a lot of time doing classwork.

Don’t let the funky beginning to the school year have too much influence over the decisions you make now. While it may be perfectly rational to think “I don’t want to go to ____ college if I’ll just be staying home” or “there’s no way I’m paying ____ dollars to go to ____ school just for online classes,” you’re choosing your college for the next two to six years, not just the next two semesters. Whichever university you think is the best one for you to attend long term and graduate from is the one you should pick, no matter how awkward the first year is going to be.

If you double deposit, please be thoughtful about it. Double depositing means what it sounds like: you accept admission—and pay your nonrefundable deposit—to two different colleges. You do this because you still haven’t made up your mind, or because you’re still trying to get more money from one or both schools, or because you’re on wait lists and your fall destination isn’t settled yet. Double depositing is considered unethical and bad etiquette, and it’s usually something I wouldn’t bring up. But this year? Considering the different deposit dates, the daily-changing scenarios, and the fact that pretty much nobody has their fall settled yet, I think there are going to be a lot of double deposits without any guilt. It’s still unfair in that it’s a strategy only available to those who can afford to throw away a second deposit (and also likely a second housing deposit), but it feels a lot less unfair this year given how unfair the circumstances are for just about everything. If you double deposit, please work hard to make it as fair and ethical as possible. Set a goal date (perhaps June 15) to make a final decision and let the other school know immediately. Do not just pay two deposits and put off your decision until right before school starts next fall, just to see what happens. There’s a college in financial stress expecting you and your tuition to show up, and it’s mean to keep them waiting any longer than you have to. There’s some other student who would like to have that spot, and it’s mean to keep them waiting so long on a wait list that they can’t get the spot. If you double deposit, be as kind to the schools and the other students as you can, not just patient with yourself.

Hold on to all documents that show your family’s financial changes. If college savings accounts or college investment accounts lose a lot of value, make sure you have the documents to show that. (I got statements from my own kids’ 529 plans this week. Both have lost almost 20% of their value. The past three years of growth disappeared in a month. My kids are years away from college, so it’s not necessarily scary, but if you’re a senior then losing 20% of your college savings is very scary.) If a parent is laid off or their pay decreases, make sure you have documents that show that. If there are large and unexpected medical expenses, make sure you have the documents to show that. I’m expecting a lot of people to appeal their financial aid offers, and I’m expecting colleges will not have the resources to give bigger offers to everyone who asks. The larger aid packages are going to go to the people who ask first and who have all their documentation ready to go. If you need to appeal, do everything you can to be one of those people.

Getting on a waitlist may be a good idea this year. Normally I advise against taking a spot on a waiting list. However, given all the chaos of this spring I think it’s more likely that you’ll get the spot and more likely that if the call comes you’ll be ready to take it. That being said, I still highly recommend you set your own arbitrary stop date for how long you’ll wait to hear from a school.

If you decide to just put college off a year, have a plan. If you and your family decide that you simply cannot go to college this year as planned and will have to try again next year, that’s completely understandable. But also do your best to have a plan for what you’ll do for the next year and how you’ll apply to colleges next year. It makes sense to accept a spot to a college that offered you admission and then apply for a deferral. That way you don’t have to go through the application process again—you’ll have your spot. Understand, though, that not all colleges even offer this option. And the ones who do may be getting a lot more deferral applications this year, and they may not be able to say yes to all of them. It’s not feasible for colleges to simply put off a large portion of fall 2020 students until spring or fall of 2021. They need students for their school to run.

Community College is more attractive this year. Let’s be clear: community college is real college. While there are plenty of good reasons to prefer going straight to a four-year university than a community college, there are also good and valid reasons to start off at community college. If you were planning on going off to college this year, but financial circumstances or the sudden changes brought on by Covid-19 make that unfeasible, then “community college” is a great answer to “what will I do for the next year or two until things settle?” It’s structured; it’s academic and prepares you for the next step at a four-year college; it’s flexible; it’s closer to home. While it may be far from what you imagined for yourself next year, it’s immensely better than giving up on college altogether, even for a year.

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