I am a 19-year-old finance major at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. I tried to apply for financial aid, however my parents are categorized as middle-class citizens therefore I didn’t qualify for financial aid. My parents help with paying my tuition and I have to get myself everything else. I pay for all my textbooks and transport to and from school. These all add up and it gets expensive.

I work in the restaurant industry and have aspirations of becoming a restaurateur one day. I came to BMCC to study finance because I want to have a greater knowledge of business financials for my career path.

When I started at BMCC I had to see an academic advisor, someone I thought would be invested in my career choices and give me advice for future academic options — as well as be a consistent person every semester. This for was not the case, I was assigned a different advisor for each semester and found myself having to recite my story each time a saw an advisor. I felt that I didn’t matter, because the only advice I would receive would be what classes I needed to take next, how many credits I had earned and was still to earn. Honestly, things I could have done on my own.