The hidden struggles of Latino college students pursuing their dreams

This blog is part of a series that centers around a recent national survey conducted by UnidosUS, shedding light on the barriers faced by Latino college students and recent graduates. With insights from 3,000 students nationwide, the survey uncovered the challenges and aspirations shaping their postsecondary experiences. This series gives a human voice to the survey data.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Stefeni Sarabia, age 20, wakes up at 7:00 a.m. in her older sister’s apartment at Florida International University campus housing in the far-western reaches of Miami-Dade County, a metropolis where 50% of residents are “cost burdened” by the skyrocketing cost of living. At 7:50 a.m., she’s out on the street waiting for an hour-long bus ride to take her to her own classes downtown at Miami-Dade College. After two classes and about an hour of studies, she’s back waiting for the bus to take her west again, arriving at 5:10 p.m. and then rushing to her part-time job at a nearby Dollar Tree where she works until 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. When she arrives home, she studies until 2:00 a.m. 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she works and takes online classes, and on the weekend works 7-8-hour shifts. In total, she is in class or studying about 36 hours a week, working 25 hours a week and commuting 6 hours a week. Some of the meager $900 she earns every month goes towards necessary living expenses for her and her sister. Some of it gets sent home to help the family back in Tijuana, Mexico. 

“It’s a lot to manage,” said Sarabia, who explained “sometimes I don’t even get to eat before work. Sometimes I think I’m killing myself.” 

It’s a lonely experience but a common one for so many Latino students right now in the United States. 

A recent survey from UnidosUS showed that 80% of Latinos work while in college, and of those students: 26% of them had a full-time job, 49% had a part-time job and 5% had both a full-time and a part-time job. These scenarios can put a strain on their studies and their ability to focus. In fact, the UnidosUS survey showed that 73% of Latino respondents had seriously considered leaving school temporarily or dropping out during their college career and an equal number cited the fear of student loan debt.  

Respondents’ concerns about paying for college correspond with the results of UnidosUS’s 2024 Latino Banking and Financial Health Survey, which found that over two-thirds of Latinos with student loan debt are facing difficulties in securing necessities like housing, food and health care. This earlier survey found that 48% of Latinos with student loans have $15,000 or more in outstanding debt, with 53% of Latinos having gone into deferment or forbearance. Furthermore, 64% of Latino borrowers cited their student debt impacted their mental and physical health.

“For today’s Latino postsecondary students, the reality is that to afford a college degree, simultaneously working is a necessary part of the equation,” said UnidosUS Higher Education Policy Analyst Magin Sanchez. 

It’s not unusual for students to work in college, but how much they work and how much that work actually provides for their financial well-being are complex. According to a 2018 study from Georgetown University’s Center for Education and the Workforce, working low-income students had lower grade point averages and higher dropout rates than those of their classmates with a better economic outlook. While most experts recommend that full-time college students work less than 15 hours per week, the reality is that many low-income students at the time of the study were working between 15 and 35 hours per week, and that was the case even before post-pandemic inflation which has shot up the cost of living. 

Notably, the study noted students from higher-income families were more likely to work in fields related to their professional interests and in roles that offer better pay. In fact, 14% of students from high-income families had jobs in STEM, business and health care compared to just 6% of low-income students. 

For students interested in entering the teaching field, the Biden Administration earlier this year asked institutions of higher education to earmark 15% of the more than $1 billion in funds from the Federal Work Study Program for employing college students at K-12 public schools where they would take on leadership roles as mentors, tutors and coaches. 

Still, while work-study jobs may provide more flexible schedules to accommodate students, the majority of work-study positions are service or clerical on-campus roles that may have nothing to do with students’ future careers. At the same time, it’s quite common for hands-on internship programs to compensate with low pay or college credit instead of wages. In fact, data show women, Black, Latino, and first-generation students are underrepresented in paid internship programs.

Pell Grants are still the biggest solution 

Students need sufficient financial aid to minimize work hours and stay focused on the classes required to graduate and secure better career opportunities. One of the best ways to do this is to increase funding for Pell Grants, which provide up to $7,395 to students who come from household incomes of less than $30,000. These grants do not need to be paid back, but they are also a drop in the bucket at a time of skyrocketing tuition and cost of living expenses. In June, a group of Democrats including Sen. Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), and Reps. Mark Pocan (Wisc.) and Bobby Scott (Va.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, sought to do just that by reintroducing some 2021 legislation under a new bill titled the Pell Grant Preservation & Expansion Act of 2024. If passed, the bill would have nearly doubled the current maximum Pell Grant amount of $7,395 to $14,000 over the next five years. However, it never made it through committee in either chamber. 

The proposal also wouldn’t have expanded Pell Grants to all qualifying students, regardless of immigration status. Currently, undocumented students are not able to access federal financial aid. Only some states allow these students to access state financial aid, leaving an estimated 408,000 undocumented college students nationwide with even fewer options to fund their degree or certification. 

Balancing Dreams and Challenges

There are so many costs associated with attending college. Even though Sarabia got a financial aid package that fully covered her tuition at Miami-Dade College, her sister pays the rent through graduate student loans, and Sarabia compensates by paying a larger portion of their $600 monthly grocery bill. 

Sarabia’s dream is to make a career out of social media marketing, not an unrealistic goal in a marketing-focused metropolis like Miami, if she can afford to stick with it. But under her current circumstances, she’s skipping meals, skimping on sleep, foregoing health insurance and struggling to fully embrace the college experience. 

Sarabia would love to take some much-needed downtime to socialize with friends on a short weekend excursion. For example, Miami-Dade County boasts 17 miles of pristine public beaches, all free to the public, if she can schedule the time and transportation for yet another hour-long commute. Scenarios like these give Sarabia the sense that she is so close but so far from attaining a decent quality of life, and there are days when she just buckles under the pressure. 

“Sometimes I wake up and feel like I can’t anymore. There’s a lot on my plate,” she said. “I’m 20 years old. I want to live.”