I am a first semester freshman at Bronx Community College from The Gambia looking to study International Relations.  I have four children, and my wife and I are both in school and have to work to support our family.  I drive a cab as a way to earn money.  I wouldn’t be able to go to school without the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), the Pell Grant and the ASAP program.

I am planning to go to a four year college and am worried because I won’t have ASAP for my bachelors.  I will continue to get Pell and TAP.  But if NY isn’t giving secure funding for more course offerings, it is unclear if I’ll have the courses available to ensure that I graduate on time.  Since I have a family to support, there is no way I will be able to afford to pay out of pocket if I run out of financial aid. This is why I we must have a Maintenance of Effort from our state government.

I am a freshman studying liberal arts.  I receive TAP and the Pell Grant and I am part of ASAP.  I use Pell to help pay for the bills since I live with my mom.  I would like to go to Brooklyn Institute to be a sonographer.  I think I am going to have to take out loans for my bachelors.  I used to work, but I am taking 17 credits this semester.  I used to work on weekends when I took 12 credits which would be the maximum amount of credits I’d want to take while having a job.  If I didn’t receive financial aid I’d have to take out a loan.

I am a sophomore studying criminal justice that wants to go to John Jay. I receive the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP)award and the Pell Grant and I am part of the ASAP program.  Since ASAP covers textbooks and metrocard, I can use Pell for food and other bills. I also have a paid internship with a cadet which helps me pay for some of the textbooks that don’t get covered through ASAP.  I am the first person in my family to go to college, my family is from Ecuador.  If I didn’t get financial aid I would have gone to the army because they pay for college.  I was part of CUNY Start originally and it helped me get through remedial classes by offering textbooks and advisers for much cheaper.    I would have liked to be in the ACE program at John Jay but it doesn’t cover transfer students.  I will probably rent textbooks when I transfer.  I’ve been looking for internships for credit so that I graduate on time at John Jay and don’t run out of my financial aid.

I am a freshman psychology major. I would like to eventually work at a school and work with teenagers or do social work. I receive the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and the Pell Grant and I am looking for a job to pay for the bus, food and clothes. I didn’t qualify for ASAP because they said I had too many remedial courses. But I had taken those classes in the summer already. When I went to try again to appeal, the spots in ASAP were already filled up. If I was able to get into ASAP I would get my metrocard covered which would be a huge help. I am the first person in my family to go to college. My family and I are from the Dominican Republic. If I didn’t get financial aid I’d have to take out loans. I am trying to work to save money in case there is a semester that I don’t get enough financial aid.

I have received help through the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and the Pell Grant. This federal and state assistance has helped me go to school and not have to worrying about paying for it. After taking a long break and working many jobs, I decided to go back to school. I realize that Pell and TAP don’t last forever. This semester (Spring 2017) has been a struggle because I didn’t receive full financial aid. I was able to save money and got loads of help from my parents. Because of this, I was able to meet the payments needed to pay half my tuition, books, Metrocard, and food.

I do appreciate the people that have to work full time and go to school because I know it is not easy. Paying for school made me realize how important programs are for many students such as SEEK, ASAP, and EOP because they help you get to where you need to go.  If it wasn’t for half the help from Pell, TAP and my parents, I wouldn’t be able to complete this semester.  I do wish free tuition in NY State had more support for part-time and undocumented students. Being a full time student and working full time is really stressful and leaves little to no time to actually study for the classes you are taking.

My first two semesters at Bronx Community College, I didn’t qualify for financial aid, even though my family lives on only my mother’s income and there are five of us at home with two of my siblings away for college. But, then I enrolled in the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), which has been a blessing for me.  The cost of textbooks and a MetroCard is just too much, especially when multiple people are in college at the same time. I remember I was on my way to the financial aid office with the loan application form for Spring 2017 filled out, when I stopped to ask my ASAP advisor a question. I brought up taking out a loan, but she told me that because I qualified for partial Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) funding, ASAP would cover the rest. I texted my mom in the office that I had great news. After I spoke to her I felt like I was going to burst out in tears because I was so relieved and blessed, like I had been stopped on my way to making a deal with the devil.

College is a time to be challenged but paying for it shouldn’t be the main stressor. At times, it consumes my thoughts and leaves with me with an anxiety about my education and future, when I want to focus on the hope and excitement of earning a degree. There needs to be a change so that the burden of student debt can be lifted from students. We’re the future, after all.

I am majoring in political science and theater, and aim to be a senator or mayor. I believe tuition and other costs to attend CUNY and SUNY schools should be state funded. I started college right after getting my GED. When I started to look into schools, I was worried I couldn’t afford it.  A huge obstacle was figuring out where my 2 year old son would go while I was in school. My mother was too old and sick to take care of him and I didn’t have any other family members around me so I felt stuck. My only option was to look for daycare but the prices were way too expensive. I felt like I would be drowning in debt and costs of tuition and childcare. I enrolled at BMCC since it had a childcare center. I decided to do 5 courses in order to qualify for full financial aid.

Luckily, because of the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), the Pell Grant, and the publicly funded childcare center at BMCC, I was able to afford to attend college. Textbooks and my monthly metrocard were a huge burden for me this year, though.  Luckily I’ve enrolled in Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) for next year so those costs will be covered. I have a part time job that covers these costs currently, but between textbooks, metrocards, and paying for diapers and food for my son, I often can’t afford to buy food for myself. I’m determined to get an education, failure is not an option but it’s come at a cost to my health.

Throughout my college career, I have received financial assistance through the Pell grant and the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). The assistance was a huge help for me because without it, I would not have been able to go to college. My father is the only person who works full time in my family. He barely makes enough money to pay for all the expenses of providing for a five-member family. I attended college full time while working part time to help take some of the burden off his shoulder, and at the same time pay for my own expenses such as books, metrocards, and food. However, work would sometimes get in the way of my studies. There were many times when I had to choose between studying for an important exam and going to work because I needed the money. While the assistance of Pell grant and TAP has been extremely helpful, I still struggle financially.

I realized, although too late, that there were other programs offered in college to help students with their everyday expenses; programs like ASAP and SEEK.  I wasn’t informed about these programs in high school or in my first semester of college. When I learned about them and went to the financial aid office in my second semester of college, I was told it was too late for me to be eligible for the programs. If I had the assistance that educational opportunity programs provide, I could focus more on my studies and less on working to pay for expenses. This would have made a huge difference in my academic life.

I would like to address the problems that I’ve faced so far as a student and how they would further worsen if tuition was raised. First, I pay out of pocket for part of my tuition. The only financial aid I get is from the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).  My problem is that the state doesn’t take into account that my mom has debt, like most Americans. Whether it’s from child support, paying for higher education for herself, or a credit card there should be a realization that not many Americans are without debt. This effects one’s ability to pay for school.

The government does not account for the debt my family has to pay off when deciding on how much financial aid I receive making it hard for my family to pay.

I am a first generation college student who started my academic journey at Hostos Community College. I am a bit older and have established a fairly decent job to pay my current bills, but not enough to pay for school.  I filled out my FAFSA and sent it in but New York State did not offer me a Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) award, because of my current pay so I have to take out federal loans. I found this to be extremely challenging considering I was struggling to make ends meet with my current expenses. I currently have my associates, which I am very proud of, but continuing my journey to achieve my bachelors has been a struggle. My current student loans exceed the 20 thousand dollar range. I would have loved for tuition cost to be much less or if New York State offered grants to help pay for even just textbooks.

Taking a full load of 15 credits or about 5 classes can be extremely difficult with a full time work schedule. My biggest fear is when I finally get my degree and enter loan repayment, my salary will not match what is needed to pay back the loans. Being a part time student during some semesters means taking much longer to graduate, but the financial burden increases since it is the same cost of a full time student taking 12 credits to 18 credits.