1 in 5 students may defer upcoming academic year, Axios poll shows

/ August 19, 2020

By Andrew Trunsky

Over twenty percent of college students may defer the upcoming academic year, according to a recent Axios poll.

The deferment data comes as prominent universities across the country move from in-person to online classes in response to campus-wide outbreaks of the coronavirus. Of the 21% of students who may not return, most are working full-time in the interim, Axios reported. The statistic comes as 27% of students lost their summer internship, according to the poll.

Notre Dame University said that it would move to online classes for at least two weeks after nearly 150 cases were confirmed during move-in. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill moved classes online for the fall semester after outbreaks were reported in dorms and a fraternity.

The poll also found that though 83% of students on campus will follow their school’s coronavirus protocol, 58% of students would not notify their school if they witnessed another student breaking protocol.

Seventy-seven percent of students said that their school should “not participate” in fall sports, though it is unclear how students felt about postponing fall sports, which some conferences have said they will attempt, rather than cancelling them outright.

The statistic emphasizes universities like UNC which, despite moving classes online, plans to continue with fall sports, local outlet WBTV reported.

Some of the largest universities across the country have opted to transition to online classes in recent weeks. Michigan State University announced that it would begin the semester online Tuesday, telling students to avoid returning to campus completely. Both Harvard and Princeton said that their academic years would be online as well.

The Axios poll was conducted among 800 students from Aug. 16-17.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Darij & Ana

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One thought on “1 in 5 students may defer upcoming academic year, Axios poll shows”

  1. You don’t HAVE to go to college.. and you certainly don’t have to go right now.

    I worked in a college town and had a job that put me working and talking to a lot of students.
    I was always struck at how lost in it they were.. they had unrealistic ideas of things. They were victimized by people because they weren’t smart enough to see they were being exploited and robbed.
    I also met a lot of 26 year olds that were starting it all over again.
    They found out after being in the real world for a couple of years, that what they thought they wanted wasn’t going to work and now they were older, smarter, had some experience under their belts, and now could make a much better decision about it all.

    I’ve always felt it’s a mistake to rush a lot of these kids off to college. Take this time off. There are a lot of really good jobs out there that you can make a good career out of FOR FREE. There are things that are booming right now and begging for help- such as manufacturing.
    Go do some traveling.. it’s a good time to just take a break and learn about life..
    And I certainly would NOT take on the debt of college. There are tons of careers right now that probably won’t even exist anymore and what good did college do them?
    There are simply too many unknowns right at this stage in things.. let the dust settle a little more.
    You are also not defined as a person by a piece of paper.. don’t give away your Freedom by signing up for Debt.

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