I am a super senior at Hunter College majoring in philosophy.  I personally have had to stay an extra year at Hunter College because I did not get one of the required courses I needed to graduate on time and now I must wait an extra year to graduate. As a result, I have run out of my TAP award because it only covers four years.  I still get the Pell Grant, but now I must buy my textbooks and other living expenses out of pocket.  Without enough classes available, without enough time with advisers to properly plan out our schedules, students suffer.   I have had classmates offer me money to hold spots in coveted bio courses when I have earlier course registration than them, because there are not enough bio course seats available to accommodate students at **the** CUNY school for students majoring in the pre-health sciences.  This is not acceptable.  Students deserve better, money is owed to education.  That is why Governor Cuomo must pass the MOE.

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 used to work construction before deciding to go back to school.  Although I had saved up some money before this transition, school tuition is not cheap at all, combined with rent.  I soon had to move back in with my mother but that did not work out, so nowadays I stay with my sister and brother in law.  I help out around the house and take care of my nieces, and I work part time but really all I can do is make enough money to pay some bills, and also pay a little rent money to my sister.  I borrow money from my mother for school tuition, and the expensive books.

When I first went back to school in 2016, I was told it was too close to my last W2 where I made full time income from construction. So unfortunately, I did not qualify for financial aid. I may qualify this September but, even then, it won’t be enough to subsidize my total educational costs. It may alleviate a bit of the money I borrow from my mother.

I believe an individual such as myself would benefit from SNAP.  It could help me afford food while not adding to my stress and financial burden overall.

I enrolled myself in the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) and basically, it looks at the amount of money my parents make in a year and based on that, it allows me to apply for special grants and pays off my entire tuition. It also supplies each student with money to buy textbooks each semester. Textbooks are pretty expensive and most times I wouldn’t be able to afford them without the EOP program. Also, the program provides a library of books that we can borrow from instead of buying and anyone is allowed to donate to this library. If it wasn’t for EOP, I definitely wouldn’t be in school, hands down. I wouldn’t be able to afford it at all and even if I was able to afford it, I wouldn’t be able to do it without my EOP tutors, counselors, directors and all their support.

After moving off campus, I found myself struggling a lot with affording food. I didn’t realize how hard that would be. I also found myself struggling to pay for my phone bill and other necessities. There are times where I wasn’t able to pay and I wouldn’t be able to use my phone to hear back from programs or jobs I was applying to. I’ve had to take on two jobs during my time at school. It’s kinda hard to balance work and school at the same time.

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 pay for the majority of my tuition through the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), and I have to pay out of pocket for the rest of my tuition and other costs which these programs don’t cover. In addition, since TAP takes an excessively long time to process for me, I  sometimes have to pay, on average, about  $1,500, up front.  This is to ensure that my classes do not get dropped in the beginning of the semester. Some semesters my classes do get dropped, without my knowledge, or any warning that there was a standing balance.  This is a huge problem, because due to limited class availability, seats fill up in classes very quickly.

I always expect TAP to not process properly for me, so I work during the summer to try to avoid this. Because I have to work long hours to make money in the summer, I lose the opportunity  to pursue internships related to my career goals.  My only  challenge should be learning new material, not dealing with all the hassles of getting into classes. Not to mention,  high tuition is not the only challenging cost that I am faced with. Books, transportation, and food are also costly and finding money for these expenses is equally difficult. This strain is not only taking a toll on my finances, but also on my health. The panic of finding out that my classes are dropped, that it might be too late to re-register, being forced to take a semester off, and struggling to afford all of these costs, has taken a toll on my mind and body. 

The recent divestment in CUNY and SUNY funding has affected me in many different ways.  I work in order to pay for the entire tuition out of my own pocket.  The job I work provides me with just enough to pay my tuition fees while leaving me with less to save for the future. I sometimes completely opt out of buying the textbook of a class in order to save the hundreds of dollars they can cost.  I instead have to spend time in the library waiting for the textbook to be available and then rent it out to do my studying and homework.  

This, along with working the same days I have class, is very exhausting and negatively affects my state of mind and how much I get out of my classes.  The job I have has nothing to do with what I want my future career to be.  I would love to be in a position where I can become an intern and gain valuable work experience in the field of my major. I hope that one day everyone can have the ability to become an intern in a field of their choosing.