Illustration by Reine Defranco/The Gazelle

New York City, U.S.A — I am one of — currently — 87 people who lol’d at this piece from a certain Facebook Confessions post:

“NYUAD Brochure: “We will create the global leaders of tomorrow.” In reality - Student 1: 'I confuse privilege for entitlement and I demand whatever I want because I have a voice.' In reality - Student 1: 'Eurgh, 70,000+ dollars worth of scholarship is not enough for me, I'm worth more than this... right?'”

It drips with irony, but truer words about the NYU Abu Dhabi student body have never been written. Even more ironic is the fact that many if not all of us struggle with detecting this particular entitlement complex.

On the one hand, following the illustrious promises that came along with an equally illustrious dinner at the Emirates Palace during Candidate Weekend, we were given the impression that the university is financed well enough to support us in whatever endeavors we wish to pursue.

On the other hand, the Career Development Center and Office of Global Education seem to be fairly indifferent to summer internships which could very well catapult some rising seniors into guaranteed employment after graduation. There is an inevitable disconnect, I find, between how NYUAD markets itself and how students believe NYUAD markets itself. This disconnect is especially highlighted by what is infamously dubbed as budget cuts, which is simply a cynical way of perceiving the administration’s attempts to allocate its resources more fairly and efficiently.

That being said, generous as the scholarships are, 70,000+ USD does not a successful student make. In contrast, intelligent as a student may be, a 3.9 GPA does not warrant additional funding for an internship. After my conversation with Stacie Mitchell from the CDC, I realized that students who wish to get access to NYUAD’s financial resources need to actively and convincingly work for it.

If we were to take summer funding applications as a reflection of this discrepancy, some internships submitted before the deadline were rejected because the student failed to make a convincing case for why the opportunity is needed for their career path. Strong applications for internships submitted after the deadline were downright rejected with no consideration, simply because they were slightly late.

It is a controversial statement, but I believe that if the university has both finances and the means to provide these kinds of opportunities, then the bodies responsible to allocate these resources need to do so efficiently and in consideration of students who wish to gain access to them. I believe that shunning applications submitted after the deadline is absolutely ludicrous.

For example, the CDC needs to consider an internship with IBM or the United Nations more carefully than one with a random startup. Opportunities should be evaluated by the quality of the internship, rather than by how quickly a student was able to gain a job offer. The CDC this semester failed to consider the fact that particularly enticing and worthy internships were posted a mere two weeks before the deadline. I believe that applications for these internships should be given consideration.

Granted, the initial deadline of March 15 as assigned by the Office of Global Education was pushed to April 1 by the CDC for visa purposes, the way in which this deadline is applied is what motivates me to make my previous statements. If additional grants are determined by how well students work for the opportunity, then bureaucracy for the sake of convenience should not get in the way of considering a student’s future. Conversely, a rejection from a professional department whose job it is to make these decisions does not entitle a student to accuse the department of callousness and the university of mismarketing itself, or of being a victim of budget cuts That being said, much like NYUAD is a young institution trying to determine the optimal policies to implement, the CDC is an equally young department which indeed tries to be as fair as possible, and takes student feedback into consideration as well as we would like.

With that in mind, it is ironic that one of the reasons the CDC is so adamant about the deadline is because they received many complaints last year about funding being granted to those who applied after the deadline. The Catch-22 of this entitlement complex is that in complaining about the fairness of one policy last year, we complain about the unfairness of a different policy the following year.

This leads me to conclude that I remain conflicted in discerning between when I truly believe I am entitled to something and when I am complaining out of self-pity. I would guesstimate it to be at a ratio of one to four. I am thankful for the time and transparency that Stacie has given me with regard to the CDC’s adherence to the deadline. However, I am also irked that my application is not given the light of day following months of networking, emails and interviews to secure the internship for my dream job because of a deadline, which is inconsiderate of the circumstances of acquiring the internship, the need for funding and the tremendous benefits from the opportunity.

Pity party aside, I do believe that I have the sympathy of other students in a similar position. NYUAD still offers unparalleled opportunities which, much like the real world, you need to actively work for. Perhaps the entitlement complex stems from NYUAD’s dual attempts to prepare us for the real world by reducing the luxury of attending it while still maintaining a degree of spoilage by offering us free Starbucks between classes. A balance between the two is a difficult thing to achieve, but I think we need to navigate this balance much like the university is trying to, if we ever hope to reach a sustainable measure of a five-star education. At the end of the day, life will very rarely give you full scholarships, let alone 5,000 USD to make a sweet deal diabetically sweeter.