Yale, What's Going on Here?
My name is Jorge, I'm a Berkeley college freshman, and I'm from Brooklyn, New York. My parents are both from Ecuador. My dad immigrated here when he was 18 and he only got to the 10th grade in high school. My mom only went to 6th grade because her parents couldn't afford to send her to college, and so she immigrated here as well. I'm Latino and first -generation. When I was very little my family lived in a studio apartment with my uncle, and the four of us would have to share a room. So we've always been in very, very small spaces, and the reason my parents did that is because they always tried to chase the good public schools that were usually in the whiter areas; in my case it was a very Irish, very Italian neighborhood. I went to Brooklyn Tech, and then my parents bought a small home in Brooklyn. Right now, although my parents do own the house, we live on the ground floor/basement. I've never had my own room, I've always had to do my homework at the kitchen table with everyone surrounding me, and it's something that I grew up with. Some people might say that it was a disadvantage, but I never really saw anything bad about it. I think the biggest asset that I had was the support my family always gave me. Although they couldn't give me everything money could buy, they always told me to do well in school, to maximize my potential, to do everything that I could want to do and that with hard work, I will achieve success, that was instilled into me at a young age and still is.
When I was applying to college, money was definitely, definitely a component; there was no way my family could pay $65,000 per year, period, so I did search for schools that had need-blind admissions. I applied to liberal arts schools – very small, wealthy liberal arts schools and big name schools like Yale. When I first heard about the financial aid process, they told me that if I got in I wouldn't have to pay anything and that it would be free if I made below a certain amount, and I was like "wow, I could go to a good school and afford that." I got in and, in terms of the FAFSA, I had to do everything, because my parents are not familiar with it, and at some points I just – I mean, I myself am not familiar with that – so we had to go to my dad's accountant for help, because my dad works as both a cab driver and a laborer/mover in NYC, so it's a different way of recording what you pay. He doesn't get a paycheck… it's a whole different process for him, and my mom as well, who's a housemaid in Brooklyn, and she gets paid a different way too, so we need an accountant to help us with that. So that process itself took a long time and was very difficult.
When I got my financial aid letter and saw how much I had to pay, I called up Yale to ask how this all worked, and I understood that the parent contribution was $0, meaning that I got maximum financial aid, and then I also heard about the Yale Health Plan that was included in the contribution, and that in itself was an amount that would be a burden to my family, so we decided collectively not to take the health plan because it would make going to Yale a little bit cheaper. When I came to Yale – like I said, my family is very supportive, and they always told me "school is first, don't work, do your schoolwork” – in the back of my mind I always knew that I would have to do something, that there was no way that I just couldn't work, because if I don't work, I'm imposing a huge burden on my family because if I don't, they're not only going to have to pay the tuition but they'll have to send me money if I want to buy a cookie at night, for example, I would have to ask them, and I knew it would be difficult for them. So I did get a job, and it wasn't too much, I worked 4-6 hours per week last semester, but I was adjusting to Yale college, I was taking classes that I had never taken before, and I was challenged at a level I wasn't challenged at in high school, and on top of that I was doing a couple of extracurriculars, so at times I felt very, very overwhelmed but I understood that it was something that I had to do, there was no way I could get around it. It was just something I had to do. And something I'm trying to do this semester, something I'm starting to notice now, is that if I get a job, I'm going to have to give up time on extracurriculars that I enjoy, so I'm trying my best to look for jobs that will be fun for me and can serve as an extracurricular activity that will also give me the money that I will need, which is why I applied to be a tour guide, but I feel like those kinds of activities are just so competitive that it just makes it so much harder to do something that you really enjoy and get paid for it. Just going into that I’m thinking of its acceptance rate, which is even lower than Yale's acceptance rate, and it's just like… how am I supposed to do this? I don't even know. That was one of my big ideas right now, that if I'm going to try to work to help my family, I'm going to try to maximize my experience here.
My parents were surprised when they found out about the income contribution because I had initially come to them with the idea that we wouldn't have to pay. I'm very blessed because they told me that they would just work extra hours, that they would just do everything that was possible to pay this, because the school was worth it, even though we would still have to pay when we were told that we wouldn't, the money should not be my concern, it would be their concern, and I know that's not everyone's experience, I was just very blessed that my dad is willing to work at night as a cab driver and to go out during the day to help people move in and out of apartments in New York City, get four hours of sleep, so he's willing to do that, and my mom is willing to work extra hours cleaning some stranger's house who may or may not respect her, so it's just – that's something I always have to live with in my head, I always have to think that, and there's also the fact that the financial stability of my family rests in my hands, in my success, in this school, and if I'm able to maximize what's available here, my likelihood of success will be much higher, since my family does not come from a wealthy background with the expansive network that so many people here might have. I have to do this on my own, come in on my own, learning how to network on my own, learning what kinds of classes to take, what majors to consider, that might bring about that financial stability that I'm trying to seek out, and at the same time I'm supposed to look for a job that I enjoy… so there's a lot going on in my mind right now, and like I said, I am trying to use everything to the best of my abilities, but it has been very, very hard, especially because my dad being a cab driver, it's not a job that's very steady. It’s not like he's going to make a certain amount of money every week so he knows how much he can give to me, how much he can give to my sister, how much he can give to his wife, it's not like he knows… with driving a cab, some weeks are better than others, when it's really hot outside, people will take the subway, when it's really cold, people will take cabs more, and now that there's Uber, there's more competition, taking that away from small cab companies in NYC and on top of that, because he's a mover, and people are more reluctant to move in the cold, they'll just stay where they are and wait until the summer, so it's a very jumpy, unstable situation where there's no assurance that we're always going to be okay, that I'm going to get $30, $100 … whatever amount. Some weeks I might get less, some weeks I might get more, it's a very unexpected kind of thing, and to realize that the only way to make sure that I'm getting this amount of money is for me to do it myself, because by doing it myself, I’m going to learn how to be financially stable, and I'm going to be comfortable with where I am, and I'm also not going to impose that burden on my family, that burden that they already have having to pay for a house, and having to pay for another child who is also trying to get into college who might not be as blessed to get into an institution that helps as much at this amount, might have to go to a state school or a city school where they're actually going to have to pay, they have to save up for that, so there's a lot going on in my mind in terms of money, but like I said, I’m very grateful for Yale, and for everything that's happened to me, and I recognize the opportunities that exist here, and so does my family, and so they never really complain about things like this. A lot of it is because they are grateful, but a lot of it is because they don't… I guess, grasp or understand what it really means or how it can affect them disproportionately to other families, because as Latino in a predominantly Latino community, from parents who aren't really college-educated and never really learned things that other families might have, a lot of my life has revolved around accepting things the way they are… like "Latinos don't do as well in school, Latinos are lazy.” my dad, when he's doing something at his job, he lets the white man speak, my mom lets the white man speak for her because Latinos are supposed to be subordinate to the white man, and we ourselves are not supposed to have our own voices, so looking at the student income contribution, my parents are like, "okay, this is how things are, this is how things have always been," just because of who we are and what culture we are and what race we are… we're put at a lower leaven than someone else, and “that's okay because that's. how. things. are. and there's nothing we can do to change that." But if they knew that there IS something that we could do to change that, I feel like they're outlook on things would be very, very different.
A lot of it for me personally is more learning about the topic and educating myself, and learning that the student income contribution is going to be the same whether you're a student of the highest need or barely on financial aid. The fact that it was like that for the longest time means that I’m obviously going to be affected disproportionately compared to someone whose family makes a lot more. A lot of it is for me to understand that things are not the way they are just because they are the way they are, but because people in power institute policies that disproportionately affect different groups. They're aware that they're doing this and they're still okay with that. I feel like once you understand that and grasp that idea, that's when I'm ready to say, "okay Yale, what's going on here? You're promising me an education that I can afford, yet this affordability is very disproportionate based on your income." To reiterate, I am grateful but I understand that Yale should do better because it CAN do better. 24 billion dollars, and to charge me $1,000… do you really need that much from me? When there's another family that could pay even a little more? Why are you charging me? Why are you putting me at this disadvantage when I have had so many other disadvantages in my life already? And I already have disadvantage, being here, being first-generation, not understanding how the system works already, and now that I have to work around this job to try to use the system… it can be infuriating.
The littlest things can have a big impact. If I'm sitting at Bass at midnight, and I want to buy a coffee, and that brings me up to $9 of the $40 they gave me that week, that's already a fourth of what they've given me. If I want something throughout the day, I have to manage my money carefully. In terms of my extracurricular spaces, now that I think about it, a lot of the things I do revolve around people of color. I'm part of the step team, and I’m doing this program with La Casa called Conexiones, and we had a discussion last week on goal-setting with our mentees, and something that had a huge impact on me was that, in that space, it felt like I could relate to people on so many different levels, because I have so many mentors there who are first-generation, whose parents work in construction, were cab drivers as well, housemaids… it was a space I could just talk and relate to people on a whole different level, not talking about classes or my major or what I'm doing on campus, but about our journey here and about how our parents have an impact here, and I guess the fact that, because we all had similar experiences and we are able to recognize what Yale really means and the opportunities it has granted us, it encourages us to get involved in this mentorship program and to give back to the New Haven community in a way that maybe someone who grew up with parents from Yale may not be able to appreciate, although they may understand how important it is to be here, they might not appreciate it in a way that we might be able to.
When I was applying to college, money was definitely, definitely a component; there was no way my family could pay $65,000 per year, period, so I did search for schools that had need-blind admissions. I applied to liberal arts schools – very small, wealthy liberal arts schools and big name schools like Yale. When I first heard about the financial aid process, they told me that if I got in I wouldn't have to pay anything and that it would be free if I made below a certain amount, and I was like "wow, I could go to a good school and afford that." I got in and, in terms of the FAFSA, I had to do everything, because my parents are not familiar with it, and at some points I just – I mean, I myself am not familiar with that – so we had to go to my dad's accountant for help, because my dad works as both a cab driver and a laborer/mover in NYC, so it's a different way of recording what you pay. He doesn't get a paycheck… it's a whole different process for him, and my mom as well, who's a housemaid in Brooklyn, and she gets paid a different way too, so we need an accountant to help us with that. So that process itself took a long time and was very difficult.
When I got my financial aid letter and saw how much I had to pay, I called up Yale to ask how this all worked, and I understood that the parent contribution was $0, meaning that I got maximum financial aid, and then I also heard about the Yale Health Plan that was included in the contribution, and that in itself was an amount that would be a burden to my family, so we decided collectively not to take the health plan because it would make going to Yale a little bit cheaper. When I came to Yale – like I said, my family is very supportive, and they always told me "school is first, don't work, do your schoolwork” – in the back of my mind I always knew that I would have to do something, that there was no way that I just couldn't work, because if I don't work, I'm imposing a huge burden on my family because if I don't, they're not only going to have to pay the tuition but they'll have to send me money if I want to buy a cookie at night, for example, I would have to ask them, and I knew it would be difficult for them. So I did get a job, and it wasn't too much, I worked 4-6 hours per week last semester, but I was adjusting to Yale college, I was taking classes that I had never taken before, and I was challenged at a level I wasn't challenged at in high school, and on top of that I was doing a couple of extracurriculars, so at times I felt very, very overwhelmed but I understood that it was something that I had to do, there was no way I could get around it. It was just something I had to do. And something I'm trying to do this semester, something I'm starting to notice now, is that if I get a job, I'm going to have to give up time on extracurriculars that I enjoy, so I'm trying my best to look for jobs that will be fun for me and can serve as an extracurricular activity that will also give me the money that I will need, which is why I applied to be a tour guide, but I feel like those kinds of activities are just so competitive that it just makes it so much harder to do something that you really enjoy and get paid for it. Just going into that I’m thinking of its acceptance rate, which is even lower than Yale's acceptance rate, and it's just like… how am I supposed to do this? I don't even know. That was one of my big ideas right now, that if I'm going to try to work to help my family, I'm going to try to maximize my experience here.
My parents were surprised when they found out about the income contribution because I had initially come to them with the idea that we wouldn't have to pay. I'm very blessed because they told me that they would just work extra hours, that they would just do everything that was possible to pay this, because the school was worth it, even though we would still have to pay when we were told that we wouldn't, the money should not be my concern, it would be their concern, and I know that's not everyone's experience, I was just very blessed that my dad is willing to work at night as a cab driver and to go out during the day to help people move in and out of apartments in New York City, get four hours of sleep, so he's willing to do that, and my mom is willing to work extra hours cleaning some stranger's house who may or may not respect her, so it's just – that's something I always have to live with in my head, I always have to think that, and there's also the fact that the financial stability of my family rests in my hands, in my success, in this school, and if I'm able to maximize what's available here, my likelihood of success will be much higher, since my family does not come from a wealthy background with the expansive network that so many people here might have. I have to do this on my own, come in on my own, learning how to network on my own, learning what kinds of classes to take, what majors to consider, that might bring about that financial stability that I'm trying to seek out, and at the same time I'm supposed to look for a job that I enjoy… so there's a lot going on in my mind right now, and like I said, I am trying to use everything to the best of my abilities, but it has been very, very hard, especially because my dad being a cab driver, it's not a job that's very steady. It’s not like he's going to make a certain amount of money every week so he knows how much he can give to me, how much he can give to my sister, how much he can give to his wife, it's not like he knows… with driving a cab, some weeks are better than others, when it's really hot outside, people will take the subway, when it's really cold, people will take cabs more, and now that there's Uber, there's more competition, taking that away from small cab companies in NYC and on top of that, because he's a mover, and people are more reluctant to move in the cold, they'll just stay where they are and wait until the summer, so it's a very jumpy, unstable situation where there's no assurance that we're always going to be okay, that I'm going to get $30, $100 … whatever amount. Some weeks I might get less, some weeks I might get more, it's a very unexpected kind of thing, and to realize that the only way to make sure that I'm getting this amount of money is for me to do it myself, because by doing it myself, I’m going to learn how to be financially stable, and I'm going to be comfortable with where I am, and I'm also not going to impose that burden on my family, that burden that they already have having to pay for a house, and having to pay for another child who is also trying to get into college who might not be as blessed to get into an institution that helps as much at this amount, might have to go to a state school or a city school where they're actually going to have to pay, they have to save up for that, so there's a lot going on in my mind in terms of money, but like I said, I’m very grateful for Yale, and for everything that's happened to me, and I recognize the opportunities that exist here, and so does my family, and so they never really complain about things like this. A lot of it is because they are grateful, but a lot of it is because they don't… I guess, grasp or understand what it really means or how it can affect them disproportionately to other families, because as Latino in a predominantly Latino community, from parents who aren't really college-educated and never really learned things that other families might have, a lot of my life has revolved around accepting things the way they are… like "Latinos don't do as well in school, Latinos are lazy.” my dad, when he's doing something at his job, he lets the white man speak, my mom lets the white man speak for her because Latinos are supposed to be subordinate to the white man, and we ourselves are not supposed to have our own voices, so looking at the student income contribution, my parents are like, "okay, this is how things are, this is how things have always been," just because of who we are and what culture we are and what race we are… we're put at a lower leaven than someone else, and “that's okay because that's. how. things. are. and there's nothing we can do to change that." But if they knew that there IS something that we could do to change that, I feel like they're outlook on things would be very, very different.
A lot of it for me personally is more learning about the topic and educating myself, and learning that the student income contribution is going to be the same whether you're a student of the highest need or barely on financial aid. The fact that it was like that for the longest time means that I’m obviously going to be affected disproportionately compared to someone whose family makes a lot more. A lot of it is for me to understand that things are not the way they are just because they are the way they are, but because people in power institute policies that disproportionately affect different groups. They're aware that they're doing this and they're still okay with that. I feel like once you understand that and grasp that idea, that's when I'm ready to say, "okay Yale, what's going on here? You're promising me an education that I can afford, yet this affordability is very disproportionate based on your income." To reiterate, I am grateful but I understand that Yale should do better because it CAN do better. 24 billion dollars, and to charge me $1,000… do you really need that much from me? When there's another family that could pay even a little more? Why are you charging me? Why are you putting me at this disadvantage when I have had so many other disadvantages in my life already? And I already have disadvantage, being here, being first-generation, not understanding how the system works already, and now that I have to work around this job to try to use the system… it can be infuriating.
The littlest things can have a big impact. If I'm sitting at Bass at midnight, and I want to buy a coffee, and that brings me up to $9 of the $40 they gave me that week, that's already a fourth of what they've given me. If I want something throughout the day, I have to manage my money carefully. In terms of my extracurricular spaces, now that I think about it, a lot of the things I do revolve around people of color. I'm part of the step team, and I’m doing this program with La Casa called Conexiones, and we had a discussion last week on goal-setting with our mentees, and something that had a huge impact on me was that, in that space, it felt like I could relate to people on so many different levels, because I have so many mentors there who are first-generation, whose parents work in construction, were cab drivers as well, housemaids… it was a space I could just talk and relate to people on a whole different level, not talking about classes or my major or what I'm doing on campus, but about our journey here and about how our parents have an impact here, and I guess the fact that, because we all had similar experiences and we are able to recognize what Yale really means and the opportunities it has granted us, it encourages us to get involved in this mentorship program and to give back to the New Haven community in a way that maybe someone who grew up with parents from Yale may not be able to appreciate, although they may understand how important it is to be here, they might not appreciate it in a way that we might be able to.
