#classconfessions

Brown and RISD students are incredibly notorious among Providence service workers for being poor tippers despite being disproportionately wealthy so here’s a handy guide: at restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and eateries, always tip 20% or more. If the bill is under $10, tip at least $1 for every item purchased. If you aren’t willing to tip then don’t go to the establishment in the first place! Service workers rely on tips to make a living so don’t waste their time.

Brown was my absolute dream school, but sometimes I regret coming here now. Coming from my high school, I was not prepared for the rigor here and I've only felt smaller around my high-achieving peers. I'm constantly getting B's in my concentration and I know that B's are not that bad, but when you realize that almost more than half the class gets A's, it just makes me feel more like an imposter. As a low income student, I just fear I'm going to fail and not be able to take care of my family.

I am from a low-income family and am about to take on two jobs to support myself during my time at Brown. I am not resentful of my wealthier peers, however, and see their backgrounds as simply being different from my own. I acknowledge their privilege and my own privileges. Still, I do not feel guilty for being poor, it just means I have to work harder to go as far as my wealthy peers. Honestly, I'm just grateful to be here, period.

I'm graduating with a PhD this year. As a poverty-class person and the first in my family ever to get a doctorate, I know my family will show up at graduation dressed all wrong and being all loud and way too excited for the monied snobby white folks. I don't care. I want them to. I'm here because I earned it. I'm smart, not rich, and I don't care who knows.

Does anyone else find it ironic that so many of the "socially conscious" advocates here at Brown are the very same students who immediately transformed from privileged suburbanites into starving artists the moment they stepped onto College Hill? I love and appreciate so many of you, but PLEASE stop appropriating/romanticizing poverty just because you feel guilty about your own privilege.

Is anyone else worried about getting water this fall? When it comes to water I would normally fill-up one or two reusable water bottles at the Blue Room or Jos each time I walked by, but I doubt that we'll be able to use those this fall. At the same time, it's expensive to buy water bottles constantly from a store and get them back to a dorm, especially without a car. Are there any recommendations for good water filter pitchers because that's the only solution I can think of right now

Brown '24 here. I'm distraught at the idea of staying home until January. I live with abusive mother, and I had been depending on college to get away from her. I also have lived past a suicide attempt that I never told anyone about. I can't see a therapist because my mother distrusts them. I was depending on being able to see one in Providence. I needed Brown to finally be able to heal and move on. I've already been holding on for so long. I don't know how I can hold on for six more months.

Due to the pandemic, I am stuck in Europe. I can't go to work and honestly have used all my savings. I contacted brown and decided to take a loan (to pay rent, but my ticket back to LA, and literally just to be able to survive meanwhile I get back home). Brown said that I will not be having access to that loan until mid-September which is irritating and obviously not helping at all because I need it now. I am so mad and hopeless. Does anyone one any private lenders/institutions that could help?