Marginalized students struggle the most to pay tuition, with just a couple reasons being lower household income and trouble finding scholarships. Because of this, students are choosing to take on student loan debt, or to not go to school at all. This is a huge issue, and it’s been going on for way too long.

The content below explains the problems that minoritized students deal with when it comes to paying for college, and how we’ve made it our goal to help! 

According to a 2018 US Census, the average Caucasian household earns $65,902 per household. Of this, African American families earn only 63%, Native American families earn 68%, and Hispanic or Latino families earn 78%. Why does this income gap exist? The sad truth is that there are new forms of systematic discrimination. For example, minoritized people have to deal with discrimination at work, mortgage discrimination, and have far less access to savings from taxes, as explained by the Center of American Progress. 

This income gap is exactly why student loan debt is burdening marginalized students in such a disproportionate way. According to Forbes, students of the African Diaspora have the highest rate of student loan debt, borrowing 16.7% more than Caucasian students; and Indigenous students are not far behind, borrowing 15.4% more. Why can’t these students get scholarships and grants to cover tuition, instead of taking out student loans? Scholarship search can be extremely time-consuming, confusing, and discouraging. This is why it’s so important to make scholarship applications easier and more accessible for students! 

The opportunity to go to school is key to breaking the cycle of income inequality. By being able to pay tuition, youth can increase the representation of their group in certain jobs, and this can help future generations become financially secure. This isn’t just education, it’s a movement, and it could change the world! 

Our founder, Charles Milton, created Bursity because as a person of colour, he felt the struggle of paying for college. Bursity was made as a helping hand for students that need it, and we want to do our part to lower hurdles to higher learning.

We’re working on creating a platform with over $400 million in awards, where marginalized students can get access to these scholarships and through our site, for absolutely free. If you’d like to get your hands on these incredible funding opportunities, sign up now and you’ll be notified when we launch!