When Miguel Pimentel Davila was a first-year student at California State University East Bay, his average day went a little something like this:
He woke up at 7 a.m., went to class at 8 a.m. and left campus at 4 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., he started his restaurant shift as a janitor and dishwasher. When he got home at midnight, he studied until 2 a.m. before going to bed at 2:30. The next morning, he’d get up and do it all over again.
“It was really, really challenging my first year,” says Pimental Davila. “I didn’t have enough time to study and do my homework.”
Pimentel Davila couldn’t sustain the routine. His GPA dipped to 1.9, putting him on academic probation. His parents told him to quit his job, and each took on two jobs themselves. During his last year of school, he used a patchwork of scholarships to pay off his tuition.
For undocumented students, Pimentel Davila’s story isn’t uncommon. Undocumented students — including those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status — can’t receive federal financial aid because they are not U.S. citizens. So, they have to scrape together the funds for college themselves.
This puts them at a distinct disadvantage. Over half of all undergraduates — 55 percent — receive some form of federal financial aid to pay for college, according to the latest National Postsecondary Aid study.
And it’s easy to see why. On average, undergraduates pay $17,237 a year for tuition, room and board at public institutions and $44,551 a year at private nonprofits, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
