By Choice or Circumstance, the Pandemic has Brought Change for CUNY Students
As the pandemic continues past the full-year mark, it has already begun to shape college students’ lives in a potentially long-term way.
One trend, or countertrend, that gained force during the pandemic was that more college students began questioning the need for a four-year degree. CUNY students are no exception.
As of May 31, 2021, according to Brooklyn College’s Office of Institutional Research and Data Analysis, “Undergraduate enrollment is 15.64% lower compared to what it was this time last year.”
When the pandemic hit and lingered, students found themselves trudging through a shell of the educational experience they were used to, all for essentially the same cost as their past in-person schooling. Adding to their growing disillusionment, many CUNY students no longer had the privilege to dedicate the time and attention that their studies demanded.
As Sabine Saint-Cyr, Assistant Director of Brooklyn College’s Magner Career Center put it, “I think a lot of the students are missing opportunities because of external factors like, maybe their parents lost their jobs, right? So there’s a lot of that happening. Maybe they can’t do an internship now because they need to look for a part-time job, or even a full-time job to help their household, so that has been a shift that I’ve seen in students [since the pandemic began].”
She added that, “what probably has shifted is their nervousness,” to which she continued, “the seniors are a little bit more anxious in terms of getting a full-time position because of the unemployment rates.” She reiterated the uncertainty she encounters in students, who often come to her with the same question regarding finding employment, “Where do I begin?”
Ajani Stewart, 24, Brooklyn College senior and JAMS student, dropped out twelve credits shy of finishing his degree. “The pandemic made me realize that my time in higher education might not be worth it. That I might not have the time and money to give to both school and the things that I really see myself doing,” He said.
For a college that reports a mere 28% of students graduating in four years, with a larger 62% graduating within eight years, the investment of time and money can exceed many students’ initial expectations.
Stewart decided to exit academia to invest his time and money elsewhere, and has been doing a variety of production work while teaching himself investing strategies.
For other students, like 21-year-old Izzy Bruschi, the effect of the pandemic didn’t steer them away from college, but instead turned them in an entirely new direction within it.
Previously a violin performance major with budding ambitions to write musicals, Bruschi was growing confident in their life plan.
“My parents really hated that, but I was really committed to it. I started doing an internship, all that kind of stuff, then the pandemic happened, and I was stuck at home,” they said.
They explained how their parents’ heavy-handed influence on their life became inescapable while quarantined at their Staten Island residence. After months of being pressured and compared to their siblings’ more traditional career trajectories — doctor and teacher — they made a decision, “I got completely worn down by my parents for the past few months. I decided I’m going to do law school.”
That was months ago, and when asked how things are looking now, Bruschi replied sincerely, “Every five minutes I say to myself, I’m like, is this really who I am? Is this really what I’m doing? But the LSAT is now three weeks away, and the applications are going. This summer I’m visiting all the schools and it’s just like, sometimes I feel like I’m just walking down a path with my eyes closed and just trying to go through the motions and do it and hope I won’t regret it.”
When asked if their life would be any different had they lived elsewhere, and not been forced into isolation with their parents, Bruschi didn’t skip a beat, “I would be a completely different person, I think.”
The pandemic created a circumstance for Bruschi that gave them a difficult choice, and that choice is now changing the course of their life. The same can be said for the once fellow-CUNY student and now full-time barber, Tyler Reddy, 23, who chose to withdraw from Hunter College after going through the first COVID semester in Spring 2020.
“Once COVID hit it, I did not want to be online because I don’t learn well online, and I didn’t want to commute into the city from Long Island [during a pandemic]. At all. It just wasn’t the right time for me. So I just said, I’m gonna go full in on my trade.” His trade being barbering, something he picked up as a kid and committed to in his early college days, cutting his peers’ hair for money to offset his rent and education costs.
Like Stewart, Reddy’s choice to opt-out of another remote semester is increasingly common. Based on recent data collected by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, “Three months into the spring semester, undergraduate enrollment is in its steepest decline so far since the pandemic began (-5.9%).”
Reddy explained how while his choice to commit to his craft has been paying off, similar to Bruschi’s experience, not everybody in his life approved of his ambitions, “I’ll say that my mom was not fucking happy.”
He was quick to add that despite his mother’s initial protest, she has had a change of heart after seeing the life he has been able to create for himself since he chose to depart from college.
“She’s coming around now. Because now I’m starting to think about my next move as far as like, you know, I want to move out of New York State and I’m thinking about getting a house somewhere. Now it’s hard to doubt the decision that I made being a good one,” said Reddy.
Echoing Stewart’s beliefs about departing from school to invest in himself, Reddy offered this, “My client list grew so much just from the pandemic. I was able to capitalize on a lot of new people whose barbers weren’t working, and really just put the extra work in that I wasn’t putting into school into myself, and honestly, the returns that I’ve gotten back from it are exponential.”
If current sentiments remain, his still-enrolled peers may soon be following his lead. According to the previously cited New America and ThirdWay.org survey, “80% of students reported being concerned about ‘getting any type of job once I graduate.’”
Despite the confidence in his decision, Reddy still hasn’t written college completely out of his future, “So I plan on going back to school before my credits expire, which is six years from the time I took my last class. Just because I don’t want to lose out on all that fucking money that I laid out already. I don’t foresee myself using that degree though.”
Sabine Saint-Cyr had some advice for withdrawn students, “just remember why you started college. The goal is to always learn something. That’s why you’re investing in yourself, college is an investment, the biggest investment because you want to educate yourself, and you don’t have to do it, but you choose to be there. So if you already started your investments, make sure you get your return on your investment, and graduate to say in the future, I did this degree, I started my commitment, and I finished my commitment.”
Neither Stewart nor Reddy met with any advisors or counselors before deciding to leave their universities, and so far, neither regret it.