I am a junior majoring in Psychology at Queens College. I hope to get a PhD in Psychology and pursue a career in research. In my family, I’m the older brother and the first to attend college. I’m the first one to navigate these websites and systems like FAFSA and TAP, so I’m learning how to do all this for the first time. I had to apply for FAFSA and TAP myself since I’m the one in my family who speaks English well, so it’s a lot of pressure. I have to translate FAFSA to my parents and then translate my parents’ documents to FAFSA to get them on the website. I usually have to submit the FAFSA application by a certain deadline and I struggle filling it out properly before then. I also feel like the website for TAP is very complicated. It’s not intuitive. I struggle to do what I need to do. I rely on FAFSA and TAP to pay for college. My financial aid doesn’t cover the winter and the summer semesters, so when I take those courses, I have to pay out of pocket. Science textbooks are very expensive. I rely on the library computers since I don’t have a laptop. Whenever I try to find a computer, most don’t turn on or are frozen, and you can’t even log in. Also, the printers are really difficult to use and don’t do a good job printing. In addition, I don’t think there are enough opportunities or programs on campus to help students prepare for job interviews and resume building, but I’ve had some good professors who have helped me get a better understanding of how to get internships, become more aware of how to present myself for job interviews, and connected me with opportunities etc.
