Without having read the book, the utility story is common in my area or at least it was. The adults run up the bills and can’t pay. Electric or gas is shut off. New account established in child’s name to regain service. No one is telling the utility that it’s a 12 y.o. Very different than trying to get a cable promo.
How many of you know that gas & electric cannot be shut off for nonpayment between 11/1 and 4/1 but promptly will be 4/1? I do. Heating your home is several hundreds of dollars a month here in the Northeast and it gets overwhelming. More people have the savvy to access services now but growing up, there was less available and people didn’t know how to navigate what was there. Not everyone used to have a phone which makes a big difference. Internet too helps.
this is not true at all and varies greatly by school.
My husband was an international student at a peer school of Amherst. He had a full grant which covered tuition, housing, food, and books. It was and still is the school’s policy not to include loans in international students’ packages. Loans are a part of domestic student packages. Both include work-study.
Amherst offers financial aid and is need blind for International students.
Professor Jack will be speaking alongside Tara Westover at Amherst this week.
There is no limit to some people’s sense of entitlement.
Is this something new for Amherst? It’s a common practice at many small colleges, presidents, professors, coaches, resident advisors regularly have students
over for food and there is always some event for kids staying on campus during holidays.
Nope, not new at Amherst.
I do think giving scholarships to very poor students and expecting they can find a place to live when dorms and cafeterias are suddenly closed shows a lack of thought of the students by those in charge in colleges. My husband went to a school like Amherst on full scholarship, something for which he will always be very grateful. He has no complaints about anything and only gratitude, but I learned from him that during school breaks he was expected to leave campus. He thankfully had other students and professors who offered to house him over those breaks. Without that, he would have been homeless. He didn’t have access to work anywhere but on campus. He got jobs on campus some summers but the cafeteria was closed. I asked him how he got food at those times and he and other students on campus learned to find out where there were campus events and wait until they ended and then go collect what food they could find. He didn’t have a car. There wasn’t a bus running to down that was miles away. No Uber Eats. He would sometimes be hungry while working on campus. He would store bananas in case food ran out.
If a college really wants these students, I think they should at least give some thought to how these students will do basic things like eat food in the summer when they have a summer job, or live when the campus closes for breaks. Otherwise it seems these students are there more for decoration.
But my husband would say he was the luckiest guy and will always love the school. As I said, he has no complaints.
yes, I agree with you