The New York Times Magazine - USA (2020-09-13)

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MetroCards, help with paperwork and a sense

of community.

And then, a few months later, they arrive at

CUNY and are suddenly expected to survive

more or less on their own, even though they’re

still part of the city’s public education system.

The math, when you think about it, is a little

crazy: The city and state together spend about

$27,000 a year per student educating the city’s

17-year-old public high school seniors, and only

about $12,000 a year per student educating its

18-year-old public college freshmen. The starting

salary for a New York City high school teacher

with a master’s degree is $65,000 a year, plus ben-

efi ts. Most classes at CUNY are taught by adjunct

faculty who earn an average of $4,600 per course.

Raj Bala Chaudhary got into all the CUNY

schools she applied to. Smith and Gettysburg

wait-listed her, but she was admitted to the two

SUNYs, with good fi nancial-aid packages. The

best off er was from SUNY Polytechnic, where

she would have to pay only about $1,000 a year.

That price tag was of central importance to Raj

Bala, who had grown especially anxious about

money since the onset of Covid-19.

For most of high school, Raj Bala lived with her

mother on weekends and with her father during

the week. The pandemic, unexpectedly, brought

her parents together again. They decided it was too

risky for Raj Bala to keep shuttling between homes,

so her father moved back into her mother’s apart-

ment, and the whole family quarantined together

— her grandmother, her parents, an uncle, three

older brothers and her older sister’s two young

children. Raj Bala was happy to have everyone

under one roof, but in every other way, the spring

was very hard. Neither of her parents could work;

money ran out, and then food started to run out as

well. ‘‘It got to the point where I would be making

breakfast, and I’d have to ration out the food,’’ Raj

Bala told me. ‘‘My brothers used to eat a lot, and

instead of giving them two or three eggs, I’d have

to give them one, and one piece of toast. They were

still hungry, and we were running out of stuff .’’

Raj Bala searched online for food pantries, and

she found one not far away. It seemed dangerous

to make the trip at the height of the pandemic,

but more dangerous not to. When she and her

mother arrived at the site at 5 the next morning,

all bundled up and masked against the cold and

the virus, there was already a line around the

block. But they waited and received a full bag of

groceries, and everyone at home was able to eat

normal portions again. The food pantry became

a weekly ritual and a lifeline for her family.

Meanwhile, Raj Bala was hearing from col-

leges, and she was consulting frequently with

Joshua Khan and with Susana Lara, her bridge

coach. They all agreed that SUNY Poly was the

best fi t and the best deal. Raj Bala had never been

to Utica, but the pictures of the campus on the

school’s website looked nice, and she could major

in computer engineering there. There was just

the small matter of persuading her mother.

Raj Bala was dreading the conversation, and

she kept putting it off , but one day in late April,

she fi nally decided she had to do it. Her older sis-

ter, the Navy veteran, off ered to drive down from

Connecticut for the night to lend her moral sup-

port. On the phone that afternoon, Khan helped

her draw up a list of notes to consult, in case her

argument faltered.

But none of it helped much. Raj Bala made her

case to her mother in her grandmother’s room,

while her sister waited outside the closed door.

She showed her mother the fi nancial-aid off er

and explained about the college’s robotics pro-

gram, but her mother was adamant: no dorms

for my daughter.

58

Fill the grid with digits so as not to repeat a digit in any row or column, and so that the digits within each heavily outlined

box will produce the target number shown, by using addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, as indicated in the box.

A 5x5 grid will use the digits 1–5. A 7x7 grid will use 1–7.

KENKEN

Answers to puzzles of 9.6.20

SPELLING BEE

Unseemly (3 points). Also: Enemy, messy, mummy,

seemly, senselessly, slyly, slyness, smelly, sullenly, sully,

sunny, uselessly, yells, yeses (or yesses), yesmen,

yules, yummy. If you found other legitimate dictionary

words in the beehive, feel free to include them in

your score.

Answers to puzzle on Page 64

COULD YOU REPEAT THAT NUMBER?

STRAP TOMBS ROPES I AN

IRINA ORION EXERT RBI

LOFTS MANGA V I RGO E L L

ON E S E L F G E R I DA L AN E S

YOUONL Y L I VE TWI C E

ODS S P R E E S B AS I E E CO

VEE I DED A I L OLDSAWS

UNS E EN WI Z L AUR E L

LITTLEBROWNANDCOMPANY

AREAS LICIT EWOKS

ROTS ONO HE P AS I S

SPASM BUI LT CL INT

TINKERTOEVERSTOCHANCE

OM E A R A S N L A U S T I N

INERTIA LIE CAMP ATT

OD E S T I EG TOBOOT X E S

I NTERCONT I NENTAL

GENOA I RT REG KEROUAC

RTESOFIAABASESUNRA

ITS EULER MAMIE ASIAN

NAS DREDD PRE S S L E TB E

KENKEN

THREE OF A KIND YIN-YANG

1. Arbor, armor, ardor

2. Plank, plane, plans

3. Basic, basil, basin

4. Packet, pocket, picket

5. Drench, French,

trench 6. Retort, report,

resort 7. Bonkers, bankers,

bunkers 8. Consent,

convent, content

SPLIT DECISIONS

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DISTR T EXT SION