I am majoring in linguistics and literacy. I hope to continue work in human services, whether this be through working in education, speech pathology, or research. My tuition is paid solely through federal and state grants. I support my other college expenses by working 20 hours a week. As an independent student, it was a very difficult process to get TAP. There should be much more support on the state’s end for things such as paperwork, since that was the main issue I ran into. It takes 8-12 weeks to review requests for independent students, which means I did not get my aid amount until the very end of the semester. My biggest challenge is knowing that my tuition might not be accounted for every semester. I have trouble affording transportation costs. This is part of the reason I chose so many online classes. At my school, it is such a hassle to get advised. Before my first semester, I waited on zoom for hours to talk to an advisor. Now, trying to get advised for the fall is another hassle. We don’t have designated advisors in my department, just professors who have other things to do besides advise us. I don’t attend many in person classes. But the many broken links of CUNY have made the sites hard to navigate sometimes.
I’m a political Science major at Hunter graduating this semester. I paid for my higher education through FAFSA. I’d want TAP to be more proactive in notifying students to file, or even of its existence. I feel like there are students are unaware of TAP. One of my biggest issues is transportation costs. I didn’t have enough money to pay for a swipe and the train was coming, so instead of refilling my card I jumped the turnstile. Cops pulled to the side and gave me a ticket instead of a warning, which was so frustrating because it was hard to pay that ticket off. I almost never paid for a textbook or book in college just because some of the prices were outrageously high. I always relied on student networking (group chats, classroom) to share the textbook/book with me. It’s frustrating to see that professors are prevented from sharing the textbook for free for their students. Honestly, the worst experience at Hunter is the support system. It’s so bureaucratic and burdensome, I can’t speak with an adviser without having to send an email or make a virtual appointment. I’ve never seen my advisor or talked to my advisor, until my final semester. These offices are not welcoming to students and reminisce the same vibe as a DMV. There’s also issues with the infrastructure is terrible, I was constantly reminded of it every where I walked in Hunter. It really feeds into the stigma of public schools. The elevators are consistently useless, it’s honestly faster to take the stairs.
I am a junior at Purchase College studying communications and thinking about minoring in film. I want to work in the entertainment industry, specifically the film industry. Financial Aid covers all my tuition and I usually have an easy job getting TAP, although I would like for the award size to be a bit higher. I am the first in my family to go to college and I had to figure out by myself how to fill out FAFSA and all the intricacies of college that no one in my family understood or had gone through. A very confusing and sort of solitary journey. Since I am a commuter, my biggest costs related to college been the fact that while my tuition is covered, my classes get in the way of time I could be working more time in order to cover more than just my transportation and food costs. Transferring from community college, I got used to there being a range of classes so that I could work the classes around my busy work schedule. At Purchase, I noticed that there were a smaller range of classes and I had to work my job schedule to my classes which has affected my finances, even more so now that there’s an increase in prices. It’s hard working an unpaid internship around my classes and work schedule causing an increasing amount of stress.
I’m a psychology major. I’m a junior here at City College, and I think CUNY should be free because cost of living in New York City is notorious for being so high, and between that, tuition, and MTA fares, there’s not really space for you to use that money for anything that you need or anything for you to move around financially, and it’s becoming really depressing, people are moving out of New York City and people are not enjoying New York City and hustle culture as toxic as it is.
I’m student here at City College New York and I think I can benefit from a free CUNY and more importantly other students can benefit from a free CUNY because the cost of going to university here, while CUNY is an affordable university, it is still pretty expensive for some, especially low income families. In my case I still have to take out student loans, in the 10,000s attending here, and even right now I still have to take a part time job just to pay for some of the expenses like the transport and travel with my metrocard and overall I think a free CUNY builds an important part of our society which is the next generation coming up and learning in such a prestigious university that boosts communities.
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 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.
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 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.
