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i am going to be incredibly transparent about finances & ND & the situation i find myself in as a ND student this semester, to further complicate some of the discourse abt gratitude and whether we love it HERE or not:
I don’t see it said that often but when people say things like “if you don’t like notre dame’s plan you could have stayed home” they forget that many literally can’t. this school costs 70,000 dollars a year and my need-based aid pays ~64000 of that, but only for 4 years
there wasn’t a guarantee that my family would be able to keep the same aid if I took a leave of absence, and there wasn’t a guarantee that I’d be able to get an exemption for another reason because i have no medical conditions
yes i feel really guilty for coming to this city and being a radioactive college student and participating in this plague outbreak Sponsored By Here
and Champion Clothing but ND didn’t give me or students like me another option and I have to get my degree somehow
and Champion Clothing but ND didn’t give me or students like me another option and I have to get my degree somehow
there’s little way to describe that except coercion, while acknowledging my gratitude for the financial aid. if i’d taken a semester off there was no guarantee that I would be able to graduate with a Notre Dame degree, and indeed it is very likely I would have had to transfer
Because 70,000 dollars a year is a large chunk more than my family’s (both parents combined) current yearly income :)
So like, maybe morally i should have sucked it up and transferred, sounds like a huge privilege to be like “but i wouldn’t have a notre dame degree :(“ but to be very clear: Notre Dame is less expensive for my family than LSU would have ended up being, because of need based aid
so it’s complicated, and I wish I could have been given more of an option or been told explicitly that I’d be protected financially had I made a different choice this semester. And there are many students like me, who feel uncomfortable or unsafe but are HERE anyway
anyway
and are simultaneously grateful and confused and guilty and feeling trapped and sad and betrayed and, again, grateful. but it’s complicated.
this school has given me so much. so, so incredibly much, and every day I’ve had here is a huge gift. I would not be who I am if I has not come here. but to love things is always complex and painful.
(also just so everyone knows, my southern upbringing is absolutely killing me for talking about money. this is incredibly embarrassing and difficult for me, but i thought it was important to say out loud & I ~objectively believe~ we should talk abt money even if its hard)
