My name is Jordan Gibberman and I am a student at  SUNY Purchase. My experiences paying for college all began in the summer of 2018 before freshman year. My family and I had to apply for student loans all because I decided to live on campus. We didn’t have a lot of money to afford housing and meal plans, so the loans were the only option. We applied for a federal loan that my school offered us, but even that wasn’t enough. Additionally, we applied for a private loan from College Ave. In other words, I have two different kinds of student loans. 

This would last up to the midpoint of the Spring 2020 semester, when I transitioned to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, I came to an important realization that going away to school is super expensive and staying at home is just right for me. So, my family and I stopped applying for student loans and focused on paying for school with financial aid, along with the Excelsior scholarship that I had throughout my whole college experience. That scholarship only helped me cover the tuition, and the only reason I qualified for it was because I go to a SUNY school and the governor at the time created it for students who want to go to SUNY schools, but have low household income. 

I certainly hope I qualify for student loan forgiveness. That would be a huge benefit for me as I would only be paying back less than what I currently owe, which honestly isn’t that much compared to what students normally would have during normal times. Overall, I wish I didn’t have to go through this experience paying for college — it’s honestly one of the reasons why I often think about if I should’ve gone to college or not.