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 pay for my tuition entirely out of pocket with no financial support from my family. I was forced to drop out of my four year public college because my family fell on hard financial times and TAP didn’t cover enough of my outstanding tuition costs. I worked for four years in order to afford to send myself back to school.

Even now, I am constantly at risk of having to leave school again because of financial reasons. I’ve had to choose between buying textbooks and buying groceries, and I’ve frequently gone hungry in order to make timely payments towards my education. Because of my independent status and other factors, I don’t qualify for any financial aid, state or federal. I will be transferring to a four year public college next semester, but without financial assistance from the state, my future at that school is uncertain.

I went off to college immediately after high-school and I did not have any idea of what I was getting myself into financially. In the first weeks of my first semester I found out that I had to take out loans because I didn’t have enough with my scholarship money, Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) award, and Pell Grant. I also needed money to pay for my books. A worker in the financial aid office told me I had to take out loans in order to pay my bill. I had already moved away from home, settled into the dorms and attended a few classes before I even found out that I didn’t have enough to pay for it. I kind of felt like it was a trap.

And I still had other expenses to pay. I spend most of my extra money on food because the on campus meal plan (financial aid covers this food option) doesn’t have healthy options. There are hardly any vegetarian options and since I’m a vegetarian I am always forced to find food at outside food stores. In order to pay for this, I work every school break there is, summer break, winter break, and even spring break. For me, finding affordable, healthy food adds more stress and anxiety than having to take a mid-term or a final exam.

My undergraduate days are coming to an end and I’m filled with anxiety because I’m already $30,000 in debt. It is estimated that I could pay that off in 10 years, meanwhile, it only took 4 years to obtain. I don’t think getting accepted into graduate school would be a problem because my grades are really good. However, paying for the GRE test, application fees and the cost to attend has lead me to pause. The price of one application fee is enough to buy food for 2 weeks and the cost of the GRE exam is enough to buy me food for an entire month! Sometimes I feel that eventually I will have to sacrifice my nutritional health in order to afford an education.