One of the most important factors when I was applying to college was whether or not a college had full financial aid. Fearful of having to pay too much — since my family and I are low-income — I applied to QuestBridge’s National College Match, and I got into Williams. Luckily, I was relieved of paying anything because of the College’s all-grant financial aid program. But there were still some unclear out-of-pocket costs that remained unknown to me until I actually arrived on campus. Specifically, there are no funds for electronics, which makes it extremely difficult to perform effectively at the College.
It was not until I arrived on campus that I first looked at the College’s Computer Program, which states that the College does not provide grant funding for electronics. To receive funds, one must take out a financial loan or search for other available scholarships. This becomes a problem for me as a QuestBridge scholar who is on a full-ride scholarship, as I expected the College’s “full ride” to include a laptop or some form of technology to keep up with my classes. Access to technology is critically important for students, as most of the course work at the College is online, especially because all professors use GLOW. Per the College, “All academic courses (and many other campus programs) have GLOW spaces.” Functioning technology is functionally required for a stress-free time at the College, especially during times such as the finals exam season.
There is not really an “all-grant” program if I have to take out a financial loan just to do my homework. For instance, my laptop (which I bought myself) was damaged recently, so I wanted to repair it, but I did not have the funds to do so. I met with my financial advisor to see what my options were, and I was told they consisted of either applying for outside scholarships or taking out a federal loan. This gave me a heavy feeling of worry and stress, as I was not in the position to take out a financial loan.
The College does provide laptop loans, which is a system of renting a laptop for free. There is no problem with signing up for a loan — the process is simple and accessible — but there is no guarantee that a laptop will be available when you need it, and receiving a new laptop each time is hectic. I say it is hectic because I have to log in and out of my account with all my progress and work, and that becomes time-consuming when you have to do it multiple times in a single week.
Additionally, the loan periods are not dependable. Students can only take out a two-week loan twice, but they have unlimited access to three-day loans. After requesting a two-week loan one too many times, I was told in an email that the two-week laptop loan is “meant to be temporary placeholders for students whose laptops are broken and in need of repair or replacement, or for projects in which their own laptops cannot run the necessary software.” This means that students are basically forced to take out a loan to fix their laptops or to repeatedly use the three-day loan period, and most students on financial aid would probably choose the latter. The heavy use of the three-day loan period then leads to a lack of available laptops. In fact, I am writing this on a loaned laptop that is due tomorrow and hoping that I will be able to borrow a laptop through finals.
Despite Williams being a prestigious institution — the number one-ranked liberal arts college in the U.S. — some of our peer institutions are doing better in day-to-day financial support than us. For example, in fall 2022, Bowdoin College launched its “Digital Excellence Commitment,” which provides every student with a MacBook Pro, iPad mini, and Apple Pencil. With the initiative, Bowdoin said that it hopes to “advance learning, inspire innovative teaching, and create digital equity across the student body,” regardless of family income. In other words, every student at Bowdoin, regardless of whether they receive financial aid or not, is provided with technology — free of extra costs. This technology also comes with free repairs and replacements throughout their entire time at Bowdoin. Students are even able to keep their devices after they graduate for a $1 fee.
As a low-income student, I see Bowdoin’s guarantee of technology as very inspiring and equitable. Simply not having the trouble of paying for a laptop or its replacements or repairs is something that I wish we had at Williams. The College could implement a similar program to Bowdoin, making adjustments to the electronic devices, such as the brand, to fit within the College’s budget. If the College is unwilling to enact such a program, it should at least make their laptop loans more accessible, such as loaning a laptop for a whole semester or year. Even my public school district provides many students (over 160,000 of them) with a free electronic device for the school year. Before I got my laptop for college (which was a big purchase), I used a Chromebook provided by my high school for the entire school year. If institutions far less prestigious are able to provide free access to electronic devices to students, I do not know why the College could not.
As we look at other institutions — whether private or public, prestigious or not — and their commitment to technology, the College needs to take stronger measures to make access to technology more equitable.
Luis Leon Zambada ’27 is from Los Angeles, Calif.
