Why Do You Think We're Here?
My parents are American but I grew up in England. I ended up choosing to go to Yale partly because it felt more diverse and less exclusive than the British universities I was considering, like Oxford, where everyone was very rich and white and came from private schools. Most of my friends here have jobs and are on financial aid.
Applying to Yale from England was difficult, because it’s difficult to do if you’re not very rich. I had parents who could help, but even I felt like I had to work out a lot of it for myself, and for most people whose schools don’t give them help the whole process is almost impossible. I found out that there are more British people who got into Yale in my year who went to Eton than there are people from all the state schools in the country combined.
Yale originally didn’t give me any financial aid at all, which would have meant I couldn’t go. I appealed and got a better package, but still couldn’t justify going to Yale over Oxford, which was much cheaper. I appealed a second time, and didn’t get a reply until the day I had to decide where I was going. That is quite common but it’s awful because they keep you on edge. The morning I had to decide, Yale sent me an email rejecting my financial aid appeal. I was very upset, because I didn’t want to go to school in England. Later that day I got another email saying that the financial aid office had found money for me. This was hours before the deadline. It was very stressful. A similar thing happens to a lot of other students I know.
I had a pretty easy time finding a job once I got here. I work in the rare books department of the British art center. I was a white person who lived in Britain, and the job said it required fluency in British culture (which it doesn’t actually require). So of course they liked me, and that made it a lot easier. I know a lot of people who had more trouble finding a job.
It’s an ok job. I like my boss and the people I work with. A lot of it is just scanning things, which is really, really boring. I work eight hours a week, and do a five hours on a Tuesday, which is pretty intense. But of course eight hours is not even that bad. I know a lot of people who work more than that, which I don’t think I could do. Even as it is, I work and I do Fossil Free Yale and that’s it. I tried doing other things last semester and realized I couldn’t do more, so I cut it down to those two. It makes me jealous when I realize that other people in my classes are ahead on their work compared to me. I realize that if I had all of Tuesday to study, then I’d also finish my problem sets early. I think that I must be disorganized, because I see all these other people finishing their work ahead of me. But it actually has nothing to do with being disorganized. I spend every moment doing something, it’s just that I have to work a job.
I try to see the best of it, but it’s incredibly patronizing when Yale says that the student income contribution is necessary in order that people on financial aid appreciate their education. Why do you think we’re here? You think that just because someone’s parents are paying for it, they’re going to appreciate their education? In my experience it’s often the people whose parents are wealthy who don’t put as much into their education. They know they can get a job through their connections.
Applying to Yale from England was difficult, because it’s difficult to do if you’re not very rich. I had parents who could help, but even I felt like I had to work out a lot of it for myself, and for most people whose schools don’t give them help the whole process is almost impossible. I found out that there are more British people who got into Yale in my year who went to Eton than there are people from all the state schools in the country combined.
Yale originally didn’t give me any financial aid at all, which would have meant I couldn’t go. I appealed and got a better package, but still couldn’t justify going to Yale over Oxford, which was much cheaper. I appealed a second time, and didn’t get a reply until the day I had to decide where I was going. That is quite common but it’s awful because they keep you on edge. The morning I had to decide, Yale sent me an email rejecting my financial aid appeal. I was very upset, because I didn’t want to go to school in England. Later that day I got another email saying that the financial aid office had found money for me. This was hours before the deadline. It was very stressful. A similar thing happens to a lot of other students I know.
I had a pretty easy time finding a job once I got here. I work in the rare books department of the British art center. I was a white person who lived in Britain, and the job said it required fluency in British culture (which it doesn’t actually require). So of course they liked me, and that made it a lot easier. I know a lot of people who had more trouble finding a job.
It’s an ok job. I like my boss and the people I work with. A lot of it is just scanning things, which is really, really boring. I work eight hours a week, and do a five hours on a Tuesday, which is pretty intense. But of course eight hours is not even that bad. I know a lot of people who work more than that, which I don’t think I could do. Even as it is, I work and I do Fossil Free Yale and that’s it. I tried doing other things last semester and realized I couldn’t do more, so I cut it down to those two. It makes me jealous when I realize that other people in my classes are ahead on their work compared to me. I realize that if I had all of Tuesday to study, then I’d also finish my problem sets early. I think that I must be disorganized, because I see all these other people finishing their work ahead of me. But it actually has nothing to do with being disorganized. I spend every moment doing something, it’s just that I have to work a job.
I try to see the best of it, but it’s incredibly patronizing when Yale says that the student income contribution is necessary in order that people on financial aid appreciate their education. Why do you think we’re here? You think that just because someone’s parents are paying for it, they’re going to appreciate their education? In my experience it’s often the people whose parents are wealthy who don’t put as much into their education. They know they can get a job through their connections.
