According to the Affording Urban page on the school’s website, 70% of the student body pays the annual tuition of $61,998, while 30% receives financial assistance. Whether students receive financial assistance or not can impact their social experiences at Urban.
Financial Aid and Socioeconomic Status (FASES) is a closed affinity space for Urban students receiving financial assistance. “Being on a lot of financial aid at an expensive private school can be very alienating,” said Simone Maurillo ’25, co-leader of FASES. “Having people with that same aspect of [their] identity is really important.”
Maurillo talked about the pressure of being on financial aid in situations when wealthier peers are spending money. While many students who receive financial assistance notice these wealth differences, their peers paying full tuition may not understand the stress. “[There is an] extra level of stress and thinking [about] the complication of finances,” said Maurillo. While some students eat on Haight Street regularly, many students receiving financial assistance use their school-provided $10 at Flik. “For students who are not on financial assistance, going out to buy food on their parent’s credit card doesn’t get a second thought, while my experience is much different,” FASES member Lucy Sylvester ’26 said. “I have found myself trying to pretend to be as free, money-wise, as they are.”
FASES member Karime Chavarria Rosales ’28, says that Urban supports her to have a similar experience to her peers. “Urban does a really good job of not making financial situations such a big difference between people,” she said.
Receiving financial assistance doesn’t necessarily negatively affect a student’s experience. FASES member Ari Torres ’26 said, “I can still have fun. … I haven’t made being on financial assistance a barrier for myself.”
However, conversations about financial situations between students who come from different socioeconomic backgrounds can be difficult. “Money is a tense topic in an environment like Urban, where you have people on different ends of the spectrum,” Maurillo said.
The large range of socio-economic statuses at Urban can feel isolating for students receiving financial assistance. “I moved from public to private school. … I felt self-conscious about my family’s financial situation because I’d never been exposed to such contrasting wealth,” Maurillo said.
Some students who do not receive financial assistance welcome more empathy from their peers. Maurillo said,“[They should] try to put [themselves] in someone else’s shoes and try to understand someone’s situation and why it might be more complicated [than their own].”
