Sitting in the De Anza quad on a sunny day Jose Alvarez, 21 a mechanical engineering major waiting for his biology class is scrolling through social media.

“The hardest part of college is the amount of money you need to pay, while having to work to pay it off while going to school in my opinion.” the 21-year-old said. 

“I definitely feel that college admission overall affects diversity at De Anza  because the price for classes isn’t cheap and can be an issue, it’s harder for minority students to  have a chance.”

Alavrez said he  is someone who, like many, has struggled to keep up with payments in the past. 

At the lunch table with her friends at the De Anza cafeteria a student named Stephanie Nguyen hangs out.

“I know many others who come from families where it’s hard to work through college because their family backgrounds are low-income.”  Stephanie Nguyen 19 , a psychology major said.

“College is expensive and I feel like that’s what scares many away, unfortunately for minorities it’s harder to be able to afford going to school.” Nguyen said. 

According to a Gallup poll, conducted in April, 2019  Up to 40% of low-income high school students who are admitted to college don't attend, and of those who do enroll, only 14% graduate with the college dropout rate is highest among minority students.

“Being a black person in college, I feel like diversity is a very important thing to have, diversity is what makes things more interesting and I feel de anza has a good amount of diversity with asians, hispanics, and white people but there aren’t many black people here at De Anza.” said Natnnan Muhammad, 19 , Buisness major said. 

Natnnan Muhmmad is an Ethiopian student who migrated here when he was 12-years-old.

“It’s really a shame there aren’t more black people here at De Anza, but I know it’s also getting more expensive to live in the area, and lots of black people are moving away too.” 

“There definitely is inclusion here at De Anza being that the majority of the school is asian.”,  David Sanchez ,24 a business major said. 

Sitting in the library studying for a midterm Sanchez said  “ many of the asian students here are foreign and they have money from their families, and you can tell that when you see the types of cars they drive to school it’s pretty ridiculous” , Sanchez said. 

Sitting outside the cafeteria with his girlfriend Andrew Nowinski, 24, Psychology major  says how he has dropped out in the past due to the price of college.

“Yeah having to pay off classes is a bummer, plus I just didn’t even know what I wanted to do yet, so I just stopped going.” Nowinski said. 

Nowinski goes on to say “I mostly see asian or white people at this school, and some hispanics and black people at this school.” 

Nowinski said he is used to being in schools where the students are diverse in the past. 

“I think it’s hard for minorities in college too because a lot of times students are the first in their families to go to college, as opposed to white students so they probably don’t have as much support to help themselves.” Nowinski said.