Support Martin's Path towards a Bachelor's Degree

I am Martin Guerra, a former student of mathematics at Bergen Community College (BCC). A few years ago, my family and I moved to the U.S to look for an opportunity to grow, is in this interest that I started my education at Bergen Community College to pursue an Associate's Degree in mathematics, despite several complications that we had along the way in this two and half years that I have spent at BCC, with the support of my family we have managed to pay for my education. Thanks to their support, in these years I have manage to accomplish many objectives such as achieving the Presidency of BCC mathematics club, being awarded the most promising student award by the tutoring center at BCC, being selected to participate doing summer research at the STEM center, maintaining a great GPA, being part of the honors society (Phi Theta Kappa), and working part time as a Kumon Instructor to be able to support myself with expenses my family was not able to cover. With this background, I have been able to successfully complete the start of a journey towards obtaining a bachelor’s degree in pure mathematics.

In pursuit of this goal, transferring to a four-year institution is essential, for this reason, near the completion of my two-year degree at BCC I applied to different universities as a transfer student. After applying and waiting several months for their responses, I got good news, I was accepted by Rutgers New-Brunswick, and months later, I was accepted by New York University (NYU) into the College of Arts and Sciences. When it comes to NYU, the overall acceptance rate for the College of Arts and Sciences was 4% during 2023, and the general transfer acceptance rate hovers at around 24% (this varies depending on the school). As a mathematics student at BCC, I have always been fascinated by higher level mathematics, I have always had passion towards understanding and collaborating in work in advance mathematics.

Unfortunately, after speaking about financial aid opportunities with both schools, given my status and that I am transfer student, I encountered a barrier, there are no financial aid options for which I am eligible. This represents a major hurdle to completing my education, as previously we were barely able to cover tuition at BCC, and prices and cost of attending a four-year institution are much higher than we had expected. For these reasons, I am seeking help to cover my expenses for the next two years of my education. My main goal is to be able to attend to New York University, however, accepting their offer represented $500 of a non-refundable fee. If we are able to cover the costs of attending NYU before the due date, the funds will be used to cover tuition, books and supplies, and other associated costs of attending NYU, else it will be destinated to cover the costs of attending Rutgers New-Brunswick.