Daily Lumina News 120220

Start early and get to Thanksgiving. That was the goal for many colleges holding in-person classes in the fall amid the pandemic. But how many got to the end of the semester in a healthy financial condition?
A new survey sheds some light on the financial challenges that colleges face as they approach a spring semester that might be even tougher to pull off.

Josie Chen is a first-year student at Harvard University. Chen, however, has never set foot on campus. Instead, she's taking courses virtually from her parents’ home in Oakland, California.
College isn’t normal for anyone this fall. Uncounted numbers of students like Chen have chosen to forgo the typical first-year experience to stay closer to home, whether to help out their families or to safeguard their own health. Their first impressions of college are turning out to be challenging, isolating, frustrating and confusing, with a few bright spots.

The United States is inching closer to approving vaccines for COVID-19. Two developers, Moderna and Pfizer, are applying for emergency authorization for their versions from the Food and Drug Administration. Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca are also developing a vaccine.
Ahead of a vaccine's rollout, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed an interim guide that contains multiple references to how colleges could help get it to the public.

When COVID-19 restrictions reduced his work schedule, Sam Smith turned to another time-consuming job: applying to medical schools. Inspired by health care workers during the pandemic, he plans to specialize in infectious diseases.
He's not alone. Even as college and university enrollment overall has dropped this fall, Smith is part of a wave of what officials say is an all-time record number of applicants to medical school.