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I was blocked from the American Dream

I'm my mother's American Dream, born and raised in Fairfax. So why was I denied in-state tuition?

Date published: 7/13/2008

FAIRFAX

That was easier said than done.

My going to college was never a question. It was expected, and in my mother's mind and my mind, it was a certainty. Education could not have been more stressed in my home; my mother was the drive that helped me succeed in high school and the reason I was determined to strive for nothing but success in college. I carried with me her struggles of a difficult life in Colombia, where many times she walked miles with no shoes to attend a small school in a far-off town. My mother knew education was the key to a success that would take me to heights that she never had the opportunity of reaching.

As a senior in high school, I had applied to various colleges. Although the idea of going far off on my own was appealing, I was in no financial position to attend an expensive, out-of-state school, so I looked to more affordable state schools.

In the spring of 2006, I was euphoric after finding out I was accepted to George Mason University. I wanted to live on campus and experience the full range of college life; however, because I would be paying for school on my own, I knew it was a wiser financial decision to live at home and try to get involved in extracurricular activities instead.

After registering for classes, I glanced at the final cost of tuition and was confused to see that I was being charged more than $9,000--three times as much as what I expected. Stunned, I figured it was a mistake. It made no sense that I was being charged over $9,000 to commute to a school less than nine miles away in a state in which I'd been born and raised.

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Date published: 7/13/2008

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