Some Elite Colleges Require Weekly Testing For Vaccinated Students

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Anne Dennon
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Anne Dennon covers higher education trends, policy, and student issues for BestColleges. She has an MA in English literature and a background in research strategy and service journalism....
Updated on May 6, 2022
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  • Students at Stanford and three Ivies must be vaccinated and regularly tested for COVID-19.
  • Individuals returning to campus may see extra mandates and potential re-closures.
  • Unvaccinated students face more testing nationwide and may need to pay extra fees.

A handful of elite colleges — Brown, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford — will require weekly coronavirus testing on top of vaccination for on-campus students this fall. Citing the increased risks of the delta variant, college leaders walked back earlier policies that said students would not be required to take COVID-19 tests after showing vaccination papers. Students at these schools who live or learn on campus are required to take a test before arriving and then submit to weekly testing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told colleges that fully vaccinated campuses could return to normal this fall. However, at the end of July, the CDC reported that fully vaccinated people were still contracting and transmitting the virus.

So far, just a few campuses plan on mandating both vaccination and regular COVID-19 testing for students. However, many colleges have said that unvaccinated students will face regular testing. While other California college systems require the vaccine, Los Angeles Community College District says vaccination status will not prevent anyone from enrolling or attending class on campus, but unvaccinated students will need to be tested regularly.

The University of North Carolina (UNC) sidesteps requiring the vaccine by asking students to report their vaccination status in order to be exempt from regular COVID-19 testing. UNC sums up the rule as "Get Vaccinated or Get Tested Weekly" — or maybe even more frequently.

Some colleges that won't demand regular COVID-19 tests still plan on testing students upon their arrival to campus. The University of Texas, which has issued no mandate regarding vaccines or masks for the upcoming semester, will require all students — unvaccinated and vaccinated — to be tested within three days of the first day of class.

Most colleges will continue to foot the bill for COVID-19 testing, but some plan to pass along those costs. At the College of Idaho, unvaccinated students will be required to pay for weekly mandatory testing. Unvaccinated students at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama will be charged a $500 fee for weekly testing during the upcoming fall term. West Virginia Wesleyan College will also charge unvaccinated students a $750 fee. Additionally, the college says it will "be limited in the use of facilities and other indoor venues for the protection of the health and safety of the campus community."


Feature Image: Mario Tama / Staff / Getty Images News

BestColleges.com is an advertising-supported site. Featured or trusted partner programs and all school search, finder, or match results are for schools that compensate us. This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site.

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