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It’s an article from NY Times predicting people’s life after the coronavirus.

Below is a paragraph:

Thousands of stores and companies that were vulnerable before the virus arrived have disappeared. Dozens of colleges are shutting down, in the first wave of closures in the history of American higher education. People have also changed long-held patterns of behavior: Outdoor socializing is in, business trips are out.

What does “dozens of colleges” mean here? Plus, I don’t understand the last sentence: “Outdoor socializing is in, business trips are out.” Specifically, what do “in” and “out” mean here? Could someone help explain the sentence?

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  • If you don't understand these very common phrases, you should be using English Language Learners.
    – Barmar
    Commented Sep 18, 2020 at 7:12
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    You can also look them up in the dictionary. "dozens of" means "many". "in" and "out" mean fashionable/unfashionable or popular/unpopular.
    – Barmar
    Commented Sep 18, 2020 at 7:13

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Strict definition of Dozen = 12. Dozens of colleges are closing means that many colleges are closing, where many is in the order of tens rather than unity or hundreds or more.

Outdoor socialising is in = is in fashion, is done by many.

Business trips are out = are out of fashion, are not done.

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