I am an international student at BMCC so I pay a lot of money for school. I remember a few days back at Chambers Street and BMCC, the train tracks caught fire and we were struggling to get out of the train station. The OMNY TAP wasn’t working to get in another station, and I didn’t have anymore money on my card. Unreliable trains have caused me to be late so many times. The A train sometimes delays from Broadway Junction. There have been more than a few times that I was 10 minutes late to my class because of the subway.  A previous semester, I had 4 classes. Four days a week coming back and forth is about 20 dollars a week. And I think that is too much. I think they should make it more affordable for people who need help, so that they can get to class.

I am a full time student at SUNY Cortland. I am a junior majoring in Business Economics with a minor in Spanish. I am from the West side Bronx, NY. I come from a single-parent family of 5 which includes my mother, and 3 younger siblings. When applying for college, I was determined to leave my community which I had been born and raised in order to have new experiences and be exposed to more opportunities. I primarily applied to SUNY and CUNY schools because the costs of a private education would have been too large of a financial burden on my family. The COVID-19 pandemic made my college decision process a lot more difficult due to the fact that it prevented me from visiting more schools in person. Therefore, I was a little skeptical about making the decision to accept SUNY Cortland’s offer at first. However, I was later informed that I had been accepted into the Educational Opportunity Program. This gigantic push and help from the EOP, combined with the help of Pell and TAP grants, have allowed me to have an opportunity at higher education. Although I am very grateful for all the help I have received, I still take out student loans to cover the remains of my college expenses. Although I am hard working and confident that if all goes wrong I will still be able to find a job with my major on my own, I am still concerned sometimes about having to job hunt after graduation and not having enough resources. I believe that a higher education should be made more financially attainable and student debt should be forgiven at least to some extent as well.

Angel Ybiles, BMCC
I am a student at BMCC and I live on my own and pay for my education out of pocket. I have had to sacrifice hours at work in order to go to school. With paying for education, transportation, and all my daily needs, that means less money going to other resources. Honestly free or reduced cost transportation would be one less thing to worry about. With paying for school and bills, it would make life a little easier in general.

I am a student at College of Staten Island. Public transportation has caused me to be late a couple times where I needed to take the bus to school and I was late to a final. And it’s the same situation when I’m going to work. Free or reduced price transit would save the stress on myself and other students in general. 

Hi, my name is Abigail Bang. I decided to go to SUNY Cortland because I was recruited for gymnastics. Also, it has a very good sports management program and they’re one of the tops in the nation. I am currently studying sport management with a concentration of facility and event management. My plans for the future are to be a personal trainer and a gymnastics coach on the side for higher level athletes. My parents are paying for the first year of school and I am paying for the rest through student loans. I have to pay for gas, food, and my rent comes out of my savings. I do have to work to cover expenses, and what I do is Instacart, personal training, and I work at a club gymnastics center in Syracuse. I work roughly 15 hours a week and three jobs total. College during a global pandemic was very mentally challenging because all of my classes were online while I was also working a full time job.  Getting a college degree to me means that I am much more likely to get a job in the sports industry because people look for college degrees. I am kind of worried about paying back student loans. I do not receive financial aid. Based off of Cortland, I’ve had a very good experience with my professors because they care about us, other professors have challenged me a lot because they don’t care as much, especially after covid was over. 

I’m in my last year at BMCC, planning on getting my Associates Degree in the spring. My major is studio art and painting. I plan on transferring to a four year CUNY to get my BA in architecture. Right now, I am paying for school with the PELL grant and it is the last year I’m able to. I tried doing the TAP application this and last year, but even though I’ve been living in NY since 2020, for some reason they say that they cannot figure out if I qualify for TAP because of residency concerns. I’m a US citizen but I have lived most of my life in a different country. When I first came to NY I lived in the shelter system and that’s not enough to determine residency. I have an appointment with the HESC to sort this out, which I have been trying to have since last year. I am trying to sort this out now, but it has been a difficult and long process to figure out. I’ve had two appointments with HESC so far and nothing has changed yet.  The PELL grant covers all of my tuition, but still it’s not enough because I have other costs such as rent, groceries, school supplies, and transportation. Last semester, I enrolled in the work study program so I could get some extra money but this semester I did not see that option in my financial aid. What I am going to try to do this semester is find a part time job to cover costs? I am applying for TAP so that I can have all of these costs covered so that I can focus on school. Because I have my tuition covered with the PELL grant, mostly food costs are the problem NY is expensive. My SNAP benefits do not cover this.

I am a student at the College of Staten Island. Where I live, the bus takes really long. Sometimes the bus doesn’t even stop. It’s a very common experience. I have classes on Tuesdays and the bus gets so full that they don’t even stop. I take two buses, so that bus made me late for class. I take the bus everyday to get around. Lower fares would make a huge difference, especially because they raise the price. It all adds up every day, week, and month.

I am a senior studying chemistry at Hunter College. I chose to attend a CUNY because it was much more affordable than a SUNY or private college. I live with my parents as dorming would be too expensive. I am lucky to receive the Pell Grant and TAP, both of which help cover my tuition fees. I also receive a scholarship per semester that helps fund my transportation, school materials, and food. While I rely on financial aid, I have come close to losing it during several semesters. This semester specifically, I was stressed about financial aid because I lost TAP. I couldn’t receive it because I was not taking enough eligible credits (the classes I needed to take were locked to the spring semester). I hope to see TAP’s eligibility expand in the future so that it accepts all the classes that students take. Attending college and getting a degree should not be blocked by tuition fees. Students need to be able to focus more on studying instead of stressing about working part-time/full-time to attend their classes.

I attend SUNY Cortland as a full-time student. I’ve been here for two years and  attended SUNY Broome my freshman and sophomore year. When applying for college I didn’t know where I wanted to go, but I knew that I didn’t want to be that far from home. That’s why I decided on  Broome because it’s about 30 minutes from home. I was able to live off campus and not commute so I was able to get a real college experience. After two years there I decided to go to Cortland because it was far from my home where I am able to be independent, but still close enough to go home if I need to. I am able to go to Cortland without having to have student loans because my parents can pay for it in full. That is a reason why I chose Cortland because I wouldn’t have student debt. Cortland comes with a lot of expenses though whether it’s parking, the price of textbooks (which I don’t always need), or materials teachers make us get outside of the classroom. My major is important to me so I will do whatever it takes to obtain my degree, but the price for many things have gotten out of control and I believe all SUNYs need to look at their finances and think about their students. 

I am a senior at Hunter College and a Psychology major. I am a mother of three going back to school now my children are grown up and would like to help young people since when I was young I didn’t have that support. I was at BMCC my first two years and I got my associate’s degree. It was really nice because I didn’t have to worry about the burden of paying for my tuition books and transportation since I had ASAP with an unlimited metrocard and I had an excellent adviser. Unfortunately when I transferred to Hunter I didn’t have the same experience with the advisement. They made me take a class that I already took in BMCC and I felt that the adviser didn’t take me seriously. I had to take that class online with 300 other students and I didn’t learn anything since the professor couldn’t take the time to explain. I think one of the changes that CUNY could benefit from is extending ASAP since it is a great program to hire more advisers that care about students instead of making it more difficult. Fixing the heating system since sometimes the professor had to let us leave because it was too hot and there wasn’t anybody to put the heating down. I think going to university shouldn’t be a struggle and administration should help us to navigate the system.