WASHINGTON – Emi Glass had one thing on her mind when she was applying to college: cost.
Footing the bill for a degree was never a foregone conclusion for her, growing up in a single-parent household in Kettering, Ohio. In between shifts at the local Dairy Queen, she poured hundreds of hours into applications for a wide range of schools and scholarships. She worried about where she would go, and more importantly, if she’d be able to pay for it.
Those worries vanished when she was accepted to Yale University. The Ivy League school in Connecticut offers some of the most generous financial aid in the country to lower-income students. Between federal grants, outside scholarships and financial aid directly from Yale, going to college suddenly seemed affordable.
“I’m living out a dream that once felt unattainable for me,” said Glass, now 21, standing outside the U.S. Capitol on June 12.
She came to Washington with a group of other college students, many from similar financial circumstances, to bring attention to the financial aid implications of President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” for low-income students.
