Loans to Lower My Work Burden
The student income contribution (SIC) has greatly impacted my Yale experience. With financial aid covering about half of my cost of attendance, my family is in the precarious situation where they are able to afford to send me to Yale but are placed under great financial duress by doing so. The student income contribution has contributed to this financial stress, forcing me to acquire a campus job and to take part in the balancing act between work, academics, and extracurricular life. In addition, the student income contribution has led me to take out loans in order to ease the financial burden on my family, and to permit me to lower my work burden and invest more time in my academics. As yearly revisions by the financial aid office have made my financial situation even more precarious, I have had to respond by increasing the amount of loans I take out each year. The SIC, by contributing to difficulties in paying for my Yale education in the present, increases my future financial insecurity.
Furthermore, the student income contribution has played an important factor in determining my summer plans. In order to pay for the summer portion of my SIC after freshman year, I returned home to take a job, instead of studying abroad or finding an internship in another city, as many of my fellow classmates did. Similarly, I had to undergo the stressful process of finding funding for my sophomore summer in New Haven. If I had not managed to secure such funding, I would not have been able to take the research position I was given, in large part due to the extra burden imposed by the SIC. While I understand that student experiences at Yale will be different, I find it troubling that some students have greater choice in deciding how they will invest their time at Yale. Ending the student income contribution would give students with financial hardships more choice in determining the form their collegiate experience takes, allowing them to participate in academic and extracurricular life at Yale to the extent that more financially secure students are able to.
Furthermore, the student income contribution has played an important factor in determining my summer plans. In order to pay for the summer portion of my SIC after freshman year, I returned home to take a job, instead of studying abroad or finding an internship in another city, as many of my fellow classmates did. Similarly, I had to undergo the stressful process of finding funding for my sophomore summer in New Haven. If I had not managed to secure such funding, I would not have been able to take the research position I was given, in large part due to the extra burden imposed by the SIC. While I understand that student experiences at Yale will be different, I find it troubling that some students have greater choice in deciding how they will invest their time at Yale. Ending the student income contribution would give students with financial hardships more choice in determining the form their collegiate experience takes, allowing them to participate in academic and extracurricular life at Yale to the extent that more financially secure students are able to.
