The worst part about dealing with financial aid at Yale was that I had spent my entire summer saving up so I wouldn’t have to stress out about working an on-campus job during the school year. It was so stressful to have an on-campus job my first year, so I Read more…
Hearing about wait times and the fact that you sometimes had to wait so long deterred me from reaching out. When I really needed it, I thought, “Why spend so much time trying to get help when it’ll take so long for it to happen?” I didn’t get help until Read more…
In my first-year at Yale, I struggled with alcohol dependency due to my rising depression. Through the process of getting counseling that first-year, I was met with unpleasant demands, counselors who didn’t seem to relate or understand what I was going through, and a lack of communication. This led me Read more…
“In the 2017-2018 academic year, I worked three different jobs on Yale’s campus, ranging from box office work to calling alumni for donations to cover my student contribution. While my peers worried about arriving late to an extracurricular activity or campus event, I worried about maximizing the amount of time Read more…
When I got home from Yale in March, I immediately had my access to gender affirming therapy for my transition taken away, and my healthcare was back under the control of my parents who never supported my transition to begin with. When I got home, I lost the typical supportive Read more…
Recently, I was assigned a new psychiatrist. My former psychiatrist had asked if I would prefer my new one to be Asian or white; I said Asian. Even so, I ended up with a white woman who asked me to explain (read: prove) to her how race has affected my Read more…
The Student Income Contribution unfairly forces students on financial aid to forgo unpaid opportunities that they would love to take, but otherwise cannot afford to. If it weren’t for the SIC, I would have spent more time during my Yale Career dedicated to my studies and passions, and less time Read more…
In my first two years at Yale, I dealt with a lot of anxiety about not being as smart or as talented as everyone else. This feeling of inadequacy negatively impacted all areas of my life. I thought about using Yale Mental Health services, but I had heard so many Read more…
“This is a light on this disparity, illuminates it in particular in this moment…There’s no guise of safety. If Yale cares most about the people who make up its community, releasing students from a nominal contribution to its budget…It makes such a difference in the lives of students to not Read more…
People told me that I would find the support that I needed at Yale as a first-generation, low-income student. Advertisements from the University made it seem like I had little to worry about—that despite my lack of knowledge on how to succeed as an undergraduate, the school would help guide Read more…