College was supposed to be my ticket to financial security.

My parents were the first ones in their family to go to college. My grandpa said to my mum: "You need to go to college, so you don't have to depend on a man for money." This same mentality was passed on to me as well.

I had enough money to last until next month - US$1,625 (S$2,300) to be exact, until the coronavirus ruined my finances. My mum works in human resources. My dad is a project manager for a mattress company. I worked part time at the university's most popular dining hall and lived in a cramped house with three other students.

I don't have a car. I walked or biked a mile to attend class. I have student debt and started paying the accrued interest in February.

I was making it work until the coronavirus outbreak shut down my college town. At first, spring break was extended by two weeks with the assumption that campus would open again late last month, but a few hours after that e-mail, all 26 colleges in the University System of Georgia cancelled in-person classes and closed integral parts of campus.

University of Georgia (UGA) professors are remodelling their courses and revising their syllabuses for online learning. Students were advised to not return to the campus in Athens from their vacations or home towns. Our May graduation ceremony was cancelled without any hope of rescheduling it for a future date.

The dining hall I worked at remained open. UGA allowed to-go meals for those still living in their dorms without a place to go.

Student workers who didn't leave for the break could call in and ask to work their usual shifts, but on many occasions, the staff wouldn't answer the phone.

So far, an athletics trainer and honours-year student have tested positive for the coronavirus. They were last on campus on March 6.

As of late last month, one person has died in the Athens hospital.

Some students are asking for the semester to end with a pass-fail grading scale. This would help those without access to Wi-Fi or a distraction-free environment.

I didn't even have a personal laptop to use until a few weeks ago. It broke last November and I couldn't afford to fix it until recently.

What if I had to do intensive schoolwork on a lagging smartphone? For the past three years, I have relied on the libraries and other on-campus resources such as inter-library loans and the bus system in order to complete my coursework.

Now, the university is refunding us around US$128 for services that we may need for a semester online.

After three years as an undergrad, I will graduate next month. I had applied to two highly selective creative writing programmes with the ambitious hopes of acceptance. Brown University sent me an e-mail to check the portal, and Iowa Writers Workshop sent me a letter. Both were rejections.

I pivoted my plans. I thought I could find another restaurant job in Athens or hopefully an internship during the summer until I could apply to grad school again.

Those odds are no longer in my favour. Many restaurants in town have closed indefinitely or offer only takeout options. They are not hiring any time soon.

Not all college students are gallivanting across the white sand beaches of Florida without a care in the world. This pandemic affects young people, too. Our future depends on the efforts of the national and state governments.

Coronavirus testing is extremely limited in Georgia. For its 10.52 million residents, only 100 to 200 state tests are available each day.

Last month, Athens-Clarke County unanimously passed an ordinance that enforces social distancing and a "shelter in place" rule, eliminating non-essential travel and large gatherings.

More than 60 per cent of the city's population - the homeless, the elderly, as well as those with pre-existing conditions - are susceptible to Covid-19.

Local grocery stores had already limited their hours and lacked essential food items such as beans, rice and paper goods, showcasing barren shelves.

I had a panic attack, looking at items marked "out of stock" on the Instacart app and watching peers post photos online. I asked my mum if I could come home.

We drove through the empty Atlanta highway, away from my struggling college town. Now, I am back in Suwanee with dwindling savings, still having to pay rent until the end of my lease in July. I won't have an income to pay it.

For college students like me, the current solutions are: File for unemployment; find a job at Kroger or Aldi at the detriment of your physical health; call your potentially toxic parents; tax refund; personal loan; sell your belongings.

These options are not good enough. College was supposed to give us hope for our financial future, not place us back in our parents' houses without jobs.

Mortgage and rent payments must be suspended, so that further debt and illness can be avoided, especially for restaurant servers, broke college students and those in the working class who cannot afford to escape financial crises.

NYTIMES

• Sydney Goins is a senior English major at the University of Georgia.