MEMOIR COLLECTION
"I dropped out of college the first time I attended. I couldn't choose a major, and the idea of paying for something that expensive when I wasn't sure if it would contribute to my future income seemed dumb.
I also wasn't raised around science and tech people or doctors and didn't even really know that was a thing I could choose. I wasn't encouraged to pursue science, and in fact when I told my family I wanted to go to med school, I was encouraged to go to nursing school instead. We are not a family of high achievers.
I think being raised that way had a lot to do with our income and the people my family associated with (no doctors, no lawyers; the people I remember being around were janitors, bookkeepers, and people who worked in manufacturing). I was not good at math or science in high school and was discouraged from trying it in college."
"My mother had saved up enough for me to go to college without taking out loans. This affected my choice of school which is why I said that money was a factor in the previous question but without a doubt, I am very lucky to have been given the money to attend an excellent school for undergrad."
"Coming from a low SES, I was shocked at the quality of some opportunities that others had starting in high school (for example, the quality of public school seemed wildly different, less violent, etc.). Further, resources, university opportunities that added cost, better housing, was a constant struggle at BU, even separating me from friends who could choose expensive campus housing while I chose budget options."
"I could not afford all my books and supplies and didn't have a laptop for over a year. I also had to work part-time, which took away from the time I could have spent studying or socializing."
"The only time that I felt limited was in choosing a school. I wasn't allowed to go somewhere in the states that was exorbitantly expensive (>20k/year) that would leave me with loans. So I chose a Canadian school that was still excellent (and much cheaper), but at first I was admittedly pretty ungrateful because I felt forced to go there for money reasons.
This was incredibly short-sighted. I never had to work a job in college and was able to play varsity sports throughout my undergrad. In all, this was less of a limitation and more seeing that others around me were able to go to whatever school they wanted regardless of whether they had loans.
I realize now how lucky I was and how grateful I am to have had the opportunity that many didn't. Both of my parents had college degrees and were in science which really set me up to enter the science world. My mother was an immigrant from Europe but this never impacted me negatively."
"Due to the cost of tuition, I considered dropping out of my undergraduate education. I had to work full time on top of taking 20 credits and juggling my business, and I had to think about alternative options for careers."
"I went to a community college to save money, and I think my education there was better than I anticipated but some of the opportunities that I was afforded when I transferred to my in-state public school were not present at my community college so I felt limited there."
"In undergrad, I worked approximately 20 hours every weekend at a minimum wage job to support my living expenses. That was valuable study time for a person in 2 labs per semester with a full roster of science classes, and instead, I studied late into the night on weeknights. I know the lost sleep impacted my performance, especially when other stressful life events occurred like the death of my grandfather. Everything was compounded."
"Not being able to take an internship that was exciting because it was unpaid and the cost of housing was expensive"
"On top of tuition, I was not able to purchase textbooks that were required for class, and I had to find alternative ways such as borrowing books from the library. There were also times when I couldn't get to school because my bus pass wouldn't work."
"I was educated in a relatively egalitarian society. Information and access to books and IT were mostly within my reach in the school system. It only struck me that I had to miss out on field trips, workshops and UROPS because of our SES when I became an undergrad. That didn't deter me from finishing my degree and from getting lab/field experience. I befriended graduate students and postdocs and asked to shadow them while they work. Mostly I started with offering my services for free and/or got paid in meals. Several PIs would end up hiring me as a student intern or research assistant when they have seen me around enough and felt I added value to their team. It was an unconventional route to getting scientific training as I also took on odd jobs in between classes and informal lab work. Overall I felt I could adapt better to sudden changes and big challenges so I did not see our SES as a disadvantage to me."
