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Speaker 1: Welcome to Hout of Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,

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Speaker 1: and today we're talking scholarships to graduate debt free with

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Speaker 1: Joscelyn Pearson. Yeah, so, how.

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Speaker 2: Would you like a paid for college? Pay for college

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Speaker 2: that you didn't actually pay for? It sounds like an

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Speaker 2: absurd pipe dream, but our guest today she did it herself.

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Speaker 2: In fact, she would actually receive a cash check each

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Speaker 2: semester for any additional expenses that she might have incurred

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Speaker 2: as well. Also, she had six months in Spain paid

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Speaker 2: for as well. So we're talking to a professional here.

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Speaker 2: We're joined by Joscelyn Pearson. She's the founder of the

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Speaker 2: Scholarship System, which is an online resource that offers training

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Speaker 2: sessions and online courses to teach folks how to find,

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Speaker 2: how to apply for and then win these valuable scholarships

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Speaker 2: that can allow you to certainly to graduate debt free.

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Speaker 2: And in fact, the Scholarship System has helped families secure

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Speaker 2: over thirteen million dollars in scholarships, which is a ton

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Speaker 2: of money. We're going to explain how it is that

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Speaker 2: listeners out there can do the same. Joscelyn's going to

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Speaker 2: share all of our secrets with us today, jil Jocelyn,

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Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us today.

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Speaker 1: On the podcast.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

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Speaker 1: Oh of course, Shawson, We're super excited to first question

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Speaker 1: we have to ask you. We ask everyone who comes on,

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Speaker 1: is what do you like to suplore? John? What's your

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Speaker 1: craft beer equivalent? Matt and I were spending potentially too much,

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Speaker 1: some would say on craft beer. What's that in your

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Speaker 1: life that people would look and be like, whoa, you

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Speaker 1: spent a lot of money, But hey, guess what, you're

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Speaker 1: still being smart. You're investing in saving for the future.

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Speaker 3: Oh man. Okay. So we lived in the Caribbean for

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Speaker 3: five years and we still live. We live in Charleston,

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Speaker 3: South Carolina, so still coastal where beach people. My splurge

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Speaker 3: is quality bathing suits. And I know that sounds ridiculous,

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Speaker 3: but they really make such a difference. And I just

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Speaker 3: got a cheap one for our daughter and she sat

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Speaker 3: on the side of the pool and immediately saw like

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Speaker 3: the picks and stuff, and I was like, see, this

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Speaker 3: is this is why.

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Speaker 1: Wait, so you said your daughter, how old is she?

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Speaker 3: She's two and a half.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so this is a baby's bathing suit and you're

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Speaker 2: about to get her on the expensive bathingsuit train as well.

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Speaker 3: You know what I saw actually a name brand for

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Speaker 3: a baby and it was one hundred dollars and I

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Speaker 3: was like, Okay, I cannot do this because she's going

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Speaker 3: to grow out of it in like a month, like

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Speaker 3: at least for me, hopefully I won't grow out of it.

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Speaker 3: So but they last forever when they're quality. So that's

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Speaker 3: my sporte.

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Speaker 2: You say that in Joel and I there's this. I

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Speaker 2: want to say it's probably an Amazon brand.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm pretty sure it's is it? Mamjic, Mamjoel?

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Speaker 1: That's it? And I've had mine, which is a great

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Speaker 1: brand name. It's like some Chinese brand exactly.

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Speaker 2: For like five years now, not too long ago. Came

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Speaker 2: back from the beach. I'm still rocking that bathing suit

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Speaker 2: every other day. But we also might not beat you

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Speaker 2: up as much as josson. We probably don't put it

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Speaker 2: through the wear and tear. If I lived at the beach,

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Speaker 2: I would maybe I'd have one hundred dollars yus.

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Speaker 1: I think you would, because we're about pality goods that

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Speaker 1: last longer for sure, true.

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Speaker 3: So I look at it as an investment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 2: Don't trick yourself into thinking that it's not gonna that's

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Speaker 2: gonna go up in value. But Jocelyn, thank you for

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Speaker 2: sharing that. But we would love to hear your debt

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Speaker 2: free higher education story because from what I understand, uh,

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Speaker 2: you weren't an A plus student necessarily, but you still

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Speaker 2: graduated with zero debt when it comes to student lens.

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Speaker 2: How did you go about doing that? Can you sort

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Speaker 2: of share your history, share your story with us?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely? Yeah, it was funny. Actually I didn't even care

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Speaker 3: really about my background or anything for getting into college

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Speaker 3: or anything, probably until junior year. So for those that

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Speaker 3: have students that are not even really thinking about it

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Speaker 3: years ahead, I guess that should be some good news.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, my SAT score was below average. Grades were good,

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Speaker 3: but I wasn't necessarily competitive, and you know, I was

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Speaker 3: in a few things that I was passionate about, but

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Speaker 3: that was about it. And then I had part time jobs.

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Speaker 3: I was not saving the world. I didn't have a

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Speaker 3: million hours of community service or anything like that, and

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Speaker 3: I for sure was no athlete. But what happened was

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Speaker 3: a friend's mom said to me She said, if you

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Speaker 3: can make applying to scholarships.

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Speaker 4: Your job, you can get paid for four years. And

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Speaker 4: I thought, well, that sounds awesome. I'll do one year

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Speaker 4: of work for four years of pay. Not quite how

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Speaker 4: it worked out, but it got me started. And the

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Speaker 4: thing was, at first I thought.

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Speaker 3: I was doing the right thing, but I was finding

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Speaker 3: the quick scholarships, you know, the ones that I could

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Speaker 3: just knock out while watching Gray's Anatomy, and I thought

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Speaker 3: that I would that would just cover college and a year.

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Speaker 3: Junior year kind of goes by. I don't win a penny,

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Speaker 3: and my inbox is just flooded with spam at this point,

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Speaker 3: and then I finally find a local one. It was

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Speaker 3: only five hundred dollars, but I won it, and so

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Speaker 3: then I started thinking, Okay, so these I did not win.

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Speaker 3: This one I did, and I started kind of tweaking

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Speaker 3: what to do. And by senior year I started seeing

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Speaker 3: the money roll in. But I wasn't one of those

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Speaker 3: kids where I got ten million dollars in offers from universities.

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Speaker 3: My university only offered I think it was like four

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Speaker 3: thousand a year or something like that. And so I

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Speaker 3: actually did it by getting all of these smaller dollar

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Speaker 3: scholarships that added up to a free ride. So by

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Speaker 3: the end of senior year, I had enough to cover

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Speaker 3: freshman year, and some of them renewed, so then freshman

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Speaker 3: year in college, I got a little bit more to

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Speaker 3: cover whatever the gap was for sophomore and I did

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Speaker 3: that each year, including study abroad. I even applied for

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Speaker 3: some extra money for that and got it, so I

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Speaker 3: got extra money for living in Spain. And so I

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Speaker 3: like to call this kind of the average kid's way

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Speaker 3: of paying for college. And so those incremental small dollar

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Speaker 3: wins along with other strategies, you know, ways to save

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Speaker 3: money here, cut costs there, negotiate with the college. So

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Speaker 3: it's a combination. But scholarships that was the bulk of it.

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Speaker 3: But it was really these small ones that added up

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Speaker 3: to a free ride plus some So you guys said

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Speaker 3: that earlier, But I literally received an over check every

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Speaker 3: semester to cover other expenses, which was great. And I

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Speaker 3: did do a part time job anyway, I'm just a

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Speaker 3: busy body. And then because of that, I was able

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Speaker 3: to save money. So actually, when I graduated college, I

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Speaker 3: had a down payment for a house and closed on

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Speaker 3: my first property two months out of college.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so over achiever status.

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Speaker 3: Justly, it really set us, like it set me up

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Speaker 3: for a very different future because I didn't have to

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Speaker 3: dig myself out of a hole, right so yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 3: and I was able to put money away rather than

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Speaker 3: having to put it all towards debt payments or towards

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Speaker 3: trying to survive in college.

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Speaker 1: So the job that you got, instead of using that

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Speaker 1: to help pay for some of the cost of college,

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Speaker 1: the scholarship money's covering that, so you can start banking

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Speaker 1: that stuff and setting yourself for a fantastic financial future.

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Speaker 1: By the time you graduate, like you're ready to begin

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Speaker 1: full fledged adulthood, buying a home. And let's be honest, too,

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Speaker 1: that's about the only time in life you're going to

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Speaker 1: find someone else to cover the bill for you to

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Speaker 1: take a trip abroad, right, Like, can you talk to

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Speaker 1: us like about how that I'm guessing no one's offering

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Speaker 1: to pay for your trip to Spain these days, Josin.

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Speaker 3: You know what, I always joked that my best paid

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Speaker 3: time in my life was when I was in college.

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Speaker 3: Like the hourly rate was probably one hundred and two

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Speaker 3: hundred dollars an hour, something like that no, no one's

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Speaker 3: begging to send me to Spain right now, but do

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Speaker 3: you know what it's and actually through the scholarship system.

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Speaker 3: So we've now been doing this for a decade, which

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Speaker 3: is unbelievable. We're releasing a new addition of the book

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Speaker 3: just it. We're really celebrating this, which is crazy. But

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Speaker 3: we've been giving out scholarships, so we're actually on the

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Speaker 3: other side of it. But you see, you see the why. Right.

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Speaker 3: Of course they weren't thinking let's just let this girl

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Speaker 3: go have fun in Spain. But it's more we're investing

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Speaker 3: in the future, and we know by giving this money

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Speaker 3: to this student, hopefully they're going to do something with

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Speaker 3: it and it'll come full circle, right then maybe they'll

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Speaker 3: contribute to a scholarship, or maybe they'll hire an intern,

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Speaker 3: or maybe they'll let someone shadow them. So it really

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Speaker 3: has this kind of full circle view of why people

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Speaker 3: are giving the money. And actually that helps applicants because

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Speaker 3: when you keep that in mind and you're trying to

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Speaker 3: sell yourself to them, that is actually something to keep

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Speaker 3: in the back of your mind of what are they

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Speaker 3: looking for?

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Speaker 2: You mentioned applying for some different scholarships while you're sitting

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Speaker 2: on the couch watching TV crazy anatomy.

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Speaker 1: That's like the equivalent of the Bear these days for people.

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Speaker 1: So it's like fifteen years ago the Bay. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying.

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Speaker 2: You're looking at over a decade ago, which kind of

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Speaker 2: hammers own my point, like it's got to be easier

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Speaker 2: to find some of these different scholarships these days, as

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Speaker 2: opposed to like, I know, there was the internet you

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Speaker 2: ten fifteen years ago, but talk to me about that.

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Speaker 2: Just the difference in some of the technology and the

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Speaker 2: availability and how easily accessible I guess it is to

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Speaker 2: find different scholarships these days.

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Speaker 3: Ooh yeah, that's actually I don't think I've ever had

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Speaker 3: anyone ask me that. That's a great question, because especially

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Speaker 3: with AI, it's changing things, of course, and actually in

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Speaker 3: this book Revision, we just did a whole chapter on

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Speaker 3: AI for that reason. But the one thing that actually

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Speaker 3: technology has made it a little bit more difficult is

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Speaker 3: because people learned, oh well, if I add a scholarship

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Speaker 3: to my website, it helps my seo, or oh let

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Speaker 3: me put a scholarship out there just so that people

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Speaker 3: market for us. So we're going to put it as

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Speaker 3: a drawing. So you have to get as many shares

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Speaker 3: and likes as possible in order for your entry to

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Speaker 3: be considered. That's something that we have to really point

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Speaker 3: out to students. If it's based on luck like that,

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Speaker 3: that's not we're worth our time. We don't want it

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Speaker 3: to be based on luck. That's one of our first

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Speaker 3: signs of okay this is And that's what I was doing.

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Speaker 3: I was doing what I call sweepstake or drawing scholarships.

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Speaker 3: That's why I was able to do them while I

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Speaker 3: was watching TV because I didn't have to focus. I

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Speaker 3: didn't have to write a well thought out essay, I

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Speaker 3: didn't have to collect transcripts, recommendation letters, the works. And

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Speaker 3: sure they were faster upfront, but long term, I had

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Speaker 3: submitted maybe thirty of those and didn't receive a penny.

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Speaker 3: But then I put a couple hours into a solid

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Speaker 3: essay and I finally won five hundred dollars. So those

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Speaker 3: sweep steak ones have definitely picked up with technology because

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Speaker 3: it's so much easier to reach people through social media

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Speaker 3: and people can put stuff out on sites, so you

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Speaker 3: have to be leary, and there's also a lot of

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Speaker 3: good intentions behind some sites where they say, okay, just

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Speaker 3: submit one applic and then you can just send it

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Speaker 3: to all these different scholarships. But let's think about every

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Speaker 3: other teenager applying to scholarships. It's probably the ones they're

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Speaker 3: going to apply to as well, right, It's exactly although

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Speaker 3: it actually in the end is not because they're not.

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Speaker 3: The chances of winning are so slim because there's so

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Speaker 3: many submissions. So actually we do more work upfront and

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Speaker 3: do it kind of a little bit of an old

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Speaker 3: school way. We call it the scholarship systems Google method,

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Speaker 3: where we use Google to find the ones that are

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Speaker 3: not on these new search engines and in these AI

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Speaker 3: created softwares, so that we're only competing against the pool

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Speaker 3: that was willing to do the work, and so we

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Speaker 3: find scholarships. Actually one specifically, we've had our students win

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Speaker 3: it every year for the last few years because they

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Speaker 3: get so few applications. And I like to think our

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Speaker 3: members always submit better quality applications as well, but said

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Speaker 3: they really only get a few apps and so the

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Speaker 3: competition is just way less than these where you can

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Speaker 3: just oh, submit one application to one hundred different scholarships.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, technologies. It's changing things, but I'm finding actually

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Speaker 3: the the original strategy is actually an advantage at this point.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, mean that makes sense because, like you said, folks

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Speaker 2: are I mean, basically what you're saying, folks are unwilling

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Speaker 2: to do the legwork they're they're they're unwilling to do.

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Speaker 1: They want the easy button.

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Speaker 2: They want to go to the site that propagates and

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Speaker 2: sends their application to.

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Speaker 1: All these other sites. It's so easy. It's easy to

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Speaker 1: get the crab apple off the bottom tree. But if

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Speaker 1: you get at the ladder and you get the one

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Speaker 1: on the like, it's just it's at the juice impeach

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Speaker 1: like that's a little a little higher up. Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: Matten knows from experience. He's got a little peach tree

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Speaker 1: and sting. Let's let's talk about specifically student loans. O,

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Speaker 1: So I want to talk I have so many more

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Speaker 1: questions we do on scholarship specifically, but I feel like

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Speaker 1: maybe from a broad perspective, part of the goal of

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Speaker 1: getting scholars is to avoid student loans. And we all

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Speaker 1: know what's going on with student loan debt in this country.

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Speaker 1: The headline number the number of Americans millions and millions

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Speaker 1: and millions of Americans just inundated with student loan debt,

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Speaker 1: having a hard time, especially if they don't graduate paying

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Speaker 1: off that student loan debt. You want to make student

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Speaker 1: loans completely abnormal? Why is that your mission? Jocelyn?

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Speaker 3: Okay, So, if you guys don't mind, I would love

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Speaker 3: to read you something because this actually just came in

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Speaker 3: right before we hopped on this recording and all that'd

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Speaker 3: be awesome to So a woman one of our moms posted,

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Speaker 3: she said, I just want to thank you for this

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Speaker 3: program for providing a plan to get a debt free degree.

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Speaker 3: When freshman year was paid for, I thought, Okay, this

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Speaker 3: won't be so bad if we have to borrow a

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Speaker 3: little in the future. Well, second year was done with

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Speaker 3: scholarships and a payment plan that she could handle on

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Speaker 3: her own with a campus job at the gym. Well,

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Speaker 3: now we are heading into final year, not even a

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Speaker 3: payment plan will be needed. This works, Stick to it.

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Speaker 3: It's so worth it. Find your niche and remember small

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Speaker 3: scholarships add up and cover the costs. This is the

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Speaker 3: best thing I've ever done, and I literally have goosebumps reading.

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Speaker 3: So we like screenshot these and every Monday we celebrate them,

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Speaker 3: and that is why we do what we do. I mean,

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Speaker 3: it is to see this. And we've had students where

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Speaker 3: they're like, I never thought I could go to this school.

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Speaker 3: I never thought that this would even be in my future.

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Speaker 3: I have had students where they didn't think they could

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Speaker 3: go to college because they just thought, well, I have

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Speaker 3: to cover it myself or you know. And their parents

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Speaker 3: find this and they're like, Okay, we can't pay for college,

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Speaker 3: but we could pay for this. Why don't we make

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Speaker 3: this our effort and they get a whole new future.

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Speaker 3: So for me, that is what keeps us going. People sharing.

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Speaker 3: We literally have wins every week that we celebrate. But

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Speaker 3: that said, as far as avoiding student loan debt, I

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Speaker 3: have seen the consequences. So during the eight nine crisis,

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Speaker 3: my father lost his job and along with so many people, right,

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Speaker 3: and that was really eye opening to me to see

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Speaker 3: them struggle and panic and not sure you know, where

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Speaker 3: was money going to come in and all this stuff.

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Speaker 3: And then on top of that, actually that year we

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Speaker 3: also watched Financial Peace University and Dave Ramsey was talking

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Speaker 3: about the debt, snowball and all this stuff, and it

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Speaker 3: just scared me so badly from debt, and that moment

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Speaker 3: on I said, I never I don't ever want to

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Speaker 3: be in debt. I don't want to be in a

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Speaker 3: situation where if the economy crashes, I have no control

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Speaker 3: over my situation in that moment, especially if these debt payments,

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Speaker 3: you know, they're not going to stop asking for their money.

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Speaker 3: And so I just became really really debt averse, very

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Speaker 3: dead averse at a young age. And a part of

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Speaker 3: it was growing up through that crash, you know, and

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Speaker 3: so that started it. And then having all the opportunities

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Speaker 3: that I've had because of not having it, and then

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Speaker 3: seeing friends that are you know, now a decade out

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Speaker 3: of college and still paying on debt and trying to

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Speaker 3: start families, and just it. Every experience that I see

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Speaker 3: with them and versus are us gives me even more

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Speaker 3: of a passion to help people avoid the student loan debt.

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Speaker 3: So there's a lot that goes into it, But the

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Speaker 3: initial the initial thing was actually I had a real

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Speaker 3: deep fear of ever being in debt. I've never paid

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Speaker 3: interest outside of a mortgage.

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Speaker 1: A personal aversion to it early on. Yeah, we've also

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Speaker 1: just normalize it and it doesn't need to be normal.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and we talk about that. Actually, we call our

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Speaker 3: families hashtag rebel families, and we say you have to

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Speaker 3: rebel against the norm, because they say the norm is

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Speaker 3: white picket fence. Borrow the money. Everyone just does it,

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Speaker 3: you know, student loan bills, they're just part of the

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Speaker 3: par for the course, and we say no. And that's

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Speaker 3: why so whenever people have their wins, they say, you know,

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Speaker 3: we're a hashtag rebel family. We've done it. And I

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Speaker 3: love it because I'm like, yeah, we want to be rebels.

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Speaker 3: We want a different outcome than the norm, and that

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Speaker 3: means we have to be a little rebellious.

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Speaker 1: The normal family doesn't sleep as well at night either,

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Speaker 1: by the way. Yeah, well so, and that when that

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Speaker 1: you shared, something that.

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Speaker 2: Stood out to me was the fact that her daughter

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Speaker 2: maybe has a job at the campus gym.

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Speaker 1: That's something that you mentioned as well, that you have

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Speaker 1: a job.

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Speaker 2: How much of it do you think has to do

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Speaker 2: with the fact that so many parents and so many

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Speaker 2: students are maybe unwilling to even consider that because in

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Speaker 2: their minds, that's not a part of what their college

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Speaker 2: experience should involve.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I feel like that there's.

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Speaker 2: Almost like and I hate even using this term because

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Speaker 2: it feels so overused. But there is like.

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Speaker 1: An entitlement that a lot of students who are enrolled.

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Speaker 2: At universities that they're looking for a certain kind of experience.

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Speaker 2: How much of that do you think comes into play?

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Speaker 3: I do think that's part of it. I think that's

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Speaker 3: also what we're trying to grab when we said hashtag

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Speaker 3: rebel families like.

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Speaker 2: We are going. It's a nice.

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Speaker 3: Way to say you're going to do things differently, including

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Speaker 3: maximizing college. I do think that's part of it. And

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Speaker 3: sometimes I feel like I actually have to give parents

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Speaker 3: permission to say no or to create boundaries with their student.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes parents they think, well I didn't get this experience,

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Speaker 3: and so I want my kid to And so they

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Speaker 3: take money out of their retirement accounts or say, oh,

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Speaker 3: don't worry about getting a part time job. I'll send

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Speaker 3: you this monthly budget. And we tell them you can

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Speaker 3: borrow for college, you cannot borrow for retirement. Please do

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Speaker 3: not put yourself in a financial situation that you cannot

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Speaker 3: undo because of a college experience. Right, And so this

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Speaker 3: is something that we stress with parents, and that includes

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Speaker 3: pushing our children to have a part time job which

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Speaker 3: we share actually is to tally if it's twenty hours

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Speaker 3: or less, they tend to do better, They tend to

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Speaker 3: have better GPAs they get involved. It forces some structure

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Speaker 3: for students. So actually, I would almost say the experience

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Speaker 3: ends up better by having a little part time job.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, there is some much more skin in the game.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but there is something to say about the type

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Speaker 3: of families we work with, and they're the ones that

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Speaker 3: want to get their elbows a little dirty, you know.

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Speaker 3: So we haven't had an issue, we haven't had too

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Speaker 3: much pushback with that. But I do think that the

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Speaker 3: families that probably see this in like, oh, we can't

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Speaker 3: do this, they might have a little bit more of that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, scrappiness is undervalued. You talk about the three

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Speaker 1: different kinds of fits that you're looking for when you're

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Speaker 1: talking to a student who wants to go to college, personal, academic,

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Speaker 1: and financial, and you basically say to check out the

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Speaker 1: financial fit first, because hey, if the other two are great,

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Speaker 1: but the financial fit isn't great, it's probably still not

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Speaker 1: a great school for you to end up at. And

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Speaker 1: we're not just talking about the sticker price. And Matt

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Speaker 1: and I We've talked to Ron Lieber from New York

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Speaker 1: Times about this. He written a lot about specifically the

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Speaker 1: sticker price of college versus what people actually pay. It

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Speaker 1: still just feels so opaque. So how do people figure

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Speaker 1: out whether or not the school they want to go to,

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Speaker 1: or let's say, instead of just the school their top

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Speaker 1: five schools, how do they figure out which ones are

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Speaker 1: a good financial fit or not.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we have a whole hour long lesson on that,

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Speaker 3: but I'm going to try to break it down. I mean,

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Speaker 3: the first thing is actually a lot of if we're

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Speaker 3: going to push the easy button, a lot of schools

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Speaker 3: have net price calculators on their website and it'll ask

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Speaker 3: about the student's information background, GPA, SADACT scores, and it'll

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Speaker 3: run it against money that they have, and so it'll say, okay,

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Speaker 3: your net price at this school is X, and like

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Speaker 3: you just said, it's very rarely the actual price what

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Speaker 3: we teach. So when you're focusing on financial fit first,

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Speaker 3: the reason that we want to do those because sometimes

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Speaker 3: you can uncover schools that you had no idea could

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Speaker 3: be affordable. For example, one of our students got to

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Speaker 3: go to Duke and graduated debt free. She's now it's

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Speaker 3: been four years, graduated completely debt free. They were not

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Speaker 3: even going to consider this school.

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Speaker 1: Yeh, I'm pretty sure that's not a cheap one. I

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Speaker 1: have heard of that school.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Respect when you're talking about affordable schools.

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Speaker 3: Exactly right. People think that they have to go to

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Speaker 3: a less than college whatever they define that as, in

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Speaker 3: order to find a financial fit. Sometimes it's not the case.

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Speaker 3: So in this case, or in a lot of universities cases,

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Speaker 3: what there is is something called cost of attendance. This

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Speaker 3: is what the total bill should be. This is supposed

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Speaker 3: to include all their fees and stuff, so beyond just tuition.

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Speaker 3: Then you have a number from FAFSA. It used to

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Speaker 3: be called Expected Family Contribution EFC. Now it's SAI Student

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Speaker 3: Aid Index. That's a whole other conversation, but it basically

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Speaker 3: says what your family can pay. When you subtract the

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Speaker 3: total cost, minds what your family can pay, it leaves

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Speaker 3: you a number, and this is your gap. Some schools

434
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:03,560
Speaker 3: have a comit mint to meeting that gap. They say, okay,

435
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:06,280
Speaker 3: we will cover one hundred percent of it. Some of

436
00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:08,199
Speaker 3: them even say we will make sure that it's one

437
00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:10,320
Speaker 3: hundred percent covered without any debt.

438
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:11,840
Speaker 1: Wow, it's like a guarantee.

439
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:14,320
Speaker 3: Yes, And of course these are going to be more

440
00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:16,719
Speaker 3: competitive schools to get into. You've got to get in

441
00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:20,879
Speaker 3: because that's a great deal. So the reason they do

442
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:22,520
Speaker 3: that is they really want to make sure they're getting

443
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 3: the top of the student pool and money's not an issue.

444
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:30,679
Speaker 3: So that's why they're doing this. So say a student

445
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:33,640
Speaker 3: gets a low number from fafs of right, and they

446
00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 3: apply to a school that's sixty thousand a year, but

447
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 3: their FATS is only five thousand a year. That means

448
00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:42,439
Speaker 3: that that school has to guarantee them the other fifty

449
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:45,800
Speaker 3: five thousand dollars. Well, we just took a sixty thousand

450
00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:48,600
Speaker 3: dollars school and made it cheaper than the community college.

451
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:53,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, so incredible. Yes, I know how to speak of

452
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:55,720
Speaker 1: a factor by the way, our grades and extracurriculars in

453
00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:58,239
Speaker 1: this because you mentioned at the top of the of

454
00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:01,200
Speaker 1: this interview, Hey, I wasn't some a plus student killer

455
00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:05,160
Speaker 1: SAT score, her grades, her grades were good, she wasn't

456
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:07,679
Speaker 1: a good SAT taking. Yeah okay, but you also weren't

457
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:09,600
Speaker 1: like eighteen clubs all that kind of stuff like that.

458
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:13,919
Speaker 1: You're abnormally active in that way. So how much of

459
00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:15,800
Speaker 1: a factor. I mean, obviously, going to Duke, you gotta

460
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:18,040
Speaker 1: have pretty good grades I think solid SAT score. But

461
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:20,560
Speaker 1: then how much does that factor into what people are

462
00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:22,280
Speaker 1: able to qualify for financial aid wise?

463
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:25,080
Speaker 3: So it depends on your family's background. So if you

464
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 3: have financial need, then there's that side of it. If

465
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,600
Speaker 3: you are competitive, then we would go to the merit

466
00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:33,399
Speaker 3: side of it. So actually this is where we kind

467
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:35,920
Speaker 3: of figure out where does a student fall in. Are

468
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,439
Speaker 3: they able to compete on that level, then okay, we

469
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:41,120
Speaker 3: can go after the ones that have grades. But this

470
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:44,160
Speaker 3: is another piece that goes into your original question about

471
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:46,080
Speaker 3: find where do we find schools that offer us money

472
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:47,600
Speaker 3: or how do we find out what our price is?

473
00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:51,720
Speaker 3: Say our student is a good student, but they're not

474
00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:55,879
Speaker 3: Harvard good, which would have been for sure me, then

475
00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,359
Speaker 3: maybe we look at a school where their average is

476
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:03,120
Speaker 3: their average SATs or average acts are a little bit lower.

477
00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:05,800
Speaker 3: So you can see, that's all public data that we

478
00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:09,400
Speaker 3: can pull where we can actually look up these averages

479
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:10,840
Speaker 3: and if we can find out if we're in the

480
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:15,399
Speaker 3: top twentieth percentile of that school's average, then the chances

481
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:18,480
Speaker 3: of us getting money are higher. So This is where

482
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:22,520
Speaker 3: literally the same number from FAFSA can mean five different

483
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:26,639
Speaker 3: offers at five different schools, completely different paintings, same with

484
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,120
Speaker 3: our same grades can mean completely different things at five

485
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:34,160
Speaker 3: different schools depending on their poll. So this is where

486
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:36,560
Speaker 3: it gets crazy, and this is why it's such a

487
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:39,440
Speaker 3: big market. Really, why there's so many people in this

488
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:42,640
Speaker 3: space now. Really it comes down to if we can

489
00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:46,760
Speaker 3: cast our net wide and go to those net price calculators,

490
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,320
Speaker 3: put in our data see if we can be eligible

491
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:53,199
Speaker 3: either financial aid, merit or both, and find out what

492
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:56,240
Speaker 3: our price is, then we can look at, okay, do

493
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:58,360
Speaker 3: they have our major? And then we can look at well,

494
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,440
Speaker 3: maybe I will love this school. That's where we're uncovering

495
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:06,119
Speaker 3: schools that we didn't even realize are amazing and we

496
00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 3: don't have to borrow a ton of debt.

497
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:08,320
Speaker 1: I love it.

498
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:11,040
Speaker 2: I feel like you're taking the moneyball approach to figuring

499
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:13,239
Speaker 2: out which college that some of these students should go to,

500
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:14,800
Speaker 2: Billy Bean of Higher Education.

501
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,880
Speaker 1: That's Jocelyn. Well, you mentioned FAFSA.

502
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 2: We're actually going to touch on that and just how

503
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 2: does that students and families out there can go about

504
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,119
Speaker 2: finding I mean, you touched on it. A little bit,

505
00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 2: but we really want to dive into that how students

506
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:27,760
Speaker 2: can find these different scholarships.

507
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:29,679
Speaker 1: Will get to all that and more right after the break.

508
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 1: We're back from the break, still talking with Jocelyn Pearson

509
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:44,400
Speaker 1: about gain scholarships, graduating debt free, and it's beyond scholarships.

510
00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:48,560
Speaker 1: We've talked about specifically ways that you can find to

511
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 1: get the school to pony up and pay for a

512
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:53,640
Speaker 1: big portion of your education. Joscelyn, we want to talk

513
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 1: a lot more about scholarships in just a second, but

514
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,600
Speaker 1: we were just covering the FAFSA and the FAFSA obviously

515
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:03,639
Speaker 1: man fell flat on its face this year, and I

516
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 1: can't image even imagine what it was like as a

517
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:08,640
Speaker 1: parent or a student filling out the FATA and then

518
00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 1: seeing all these schools basically had to say, Okay, we

519
00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:14,320
Speaker 1: have to come up with our own system this year

520
00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:16,560
Speaker 1: to figure out financial aid. Right. How big of a

521
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,600
Speaker 1: whiff was that and how has that impacted students in

522
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: their quest to find money to help pay for school.

523
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:24,199
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was well, we were all preparing for it.

524
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:29,439
Speaker 3: Everyone in the space of college and higher ed was

525
00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:32,480
Speaker 3: just holding their breath, just waiting because we knew it

526
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 3: was going to be a disaster. And also, I don't

527
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 3: know if you knew this, but they launched it on

528
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:38,119
Speaker 3: I think it was like New Year's Eve. I was like,

529
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:40,840
Speaker 3: can you please let these people enjoy their holiday?

530
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 1: And not really they should have done it on Christmas Day.

531
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 1: I think that would have been better, right, maybe yeah,

532
00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 1: maybe Christmas Eve?

533
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 2: So you were staying up until midnight exactly, no other

534
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:50,119
Speaker 2: important things to do.

535
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness. We were telling all our families just

536
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 3: ignore it for a couple of weeks because it's going

537
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 3: to be a mess. And it was. But that said,

538
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:02,400
Speaker 3: it definitely delayed, delayed the financial aid packages at places.

539
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:06,199
Speaker 3: People couldn't make decisions like they wanted to. But I

540
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:10,720
Speaker 3: actually think it worked out for some families because they

541
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:12,920
Speaker 3: had no clue what was going to happen, so they

542
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:17,360
Speaker 3: hit the scholarships harder. So we have had some huge

543
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 3: wins over the last six months seven months. Families just

544
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 3: had time and space to and actually motivation. I think

545
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 3: that's the bigger thing. That makes sense to get money

546
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:33,400
Speaker 3: from other sources because they had no clue what they

547
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,439
Speaker 3: were looking at. So I feel like there has just

548
00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 3: been a huge energy and it could also just be

549
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:41,719
Speaker 3: we're getting so good at what we do. I don't know,

550
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:44,560
Speaker 3: but something this year the energy behind the money that

551
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:48,639
Speaker 3: these families are applying for and bringing in. But I

552
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:52,119
Speaker 3: feel like part of it really lit a fire under

553
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 3: some of these families to find ways to pay the

554
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 3: bill because they just didn't know what that financial situation

555
00:27:58,000 --> 00:27:58,919
Speaker 3: was going to look like.

556
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:01,640
Speaker 2: Makes sense, There's a lot of uncertainty there, Jocelyn. Let's

557
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:05,560
Speaker 2: talk about private scholarships, like I'm thinking of maybe the

558
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:08,760
Speaker 2: ones that have somebody's name associated with it. Maybe there's

559
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,360
Speaker 2: so and so memorial scholarship, Yeah, or like I think

560
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:13,760
Speaker 2: you maybe even mentioned the first one you received was

561
00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 2: like a local one there for you. But where should

562
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 2: folks look right Like, we're not talking about the different

563
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 2: packages at a university that a university is going to

564
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 2: to dole out in order to attract a student or

565
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,399
Speaker 2: an applicant, or talking about some of these additional ways

566
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 2: that you can fund your college. How should folks go

567
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:31,520
Speaker 2: about finding those different scholarships?

568
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:34,840
Speaker 3: Absolutely so, this is my bread and butter. This is

569
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,639
Speaker 3: the stuff that I love because, like I said, my

570
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 3: university only gave me so much. I had to find

571
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:44,360
Speaker 3: it from these private sources, and a lot of students do. Especially.

572
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:47,360
Speaker 3: We've had some students where they say, I want to

573
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 3: go to the school. I don't care about financial fit.

574
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 3: This is a school. And it's like, okay, then you

575
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,600
Speaker 3: have to find this money from outside sources. And the

576
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 3: beautiful thing about this is they can be money can

577
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:04,320
Speaker 3: be offered from anyone. There are Elks clubs, rotary clubs, ptas, ptsays.

578
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:09,720
Speaker 3: I've seen construction companies, grocery stores, credit unions, banks, doctor's offices,

579
00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 3: lawyer's offices, you name it. There are people funding scholarships,

580
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 3: which is awesome. And I've even had students ask their employer, hey,

581
00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:20,920
Speaker 3: do you offer scholarship and the employers like, hm, I

582
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 3: never thought about that, Maybe I will, and they do

583
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 3: and the student gets money.

584
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:28,360
Speaker 1: The first one to see that scholarship. I love that.

585
00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:32,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, they literally created a scholarship. I've had a student

586
00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 3: go to their department at their at their college and said, hey,

587
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,600
Speaker 3: do you guys do any kind of outside scholarships besides

588
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:42,240
Speaker 3: part of the admissions, And they're like, if you build

589
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 3: this spreadsheet, we'll give you some money. And they just

590
00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:46,760
Speaker 3: created this thousand dollars scholarship for this.

591
00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,560
Speaker 1: Kid, also just being a little bit of a squeaky wheel, right.

592
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, right, So but as far as finding them, Okay,

593
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 3: this is going to sound so super super simple, but

594
00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:01,520
Speaker 3: people overlook this. Okay, this is our Google method. We're

595
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 3: going to go to Google and we are literally going

596
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:07,120
Speaker 3: to search very specifically. Say, for example, we want to

597
00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 3: become an engineer, I would search engineering Association scholarships. Now

598
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:16,360
Speaker 3: why association, Because what I'm going to look for is

599
00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:19,960
Speaker 3: I'm actually going to find websites of the providers of

600
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 3: the scholarships. So your first results will be Fastweb, dot com,

601
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 3: scholarships dot com, these big search engines that we talked

602
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 3: about earlier. You can go to those. Save those for last, though.

603
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 3: What I want to do is keep scrolling down to

604
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 3: Engineers of America dot org or something like that, and

605
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 3: then you'll see in the UURL it probably says slash scholarship.

606
00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 3: When I click on that, it takes me directly to

607
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 3: a scholarship. Most likely it's legitimate because it's an association organization.

608
00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 3: I already know, Hey, I want to be an engineer. Okay,

609
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:55,840
Speaker 3: so I'm right there. I've probably met their criteria in

610
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:58,480
Speaker 3: many ways. Now I just need to look at deadline.

611
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:02,040
Speaker 3: Did it happen yet? Well, if you're following our tips,

612
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 3: then you're ahead of the game and you're doing this

613
00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 3: ahead of the time. If not, maybe you missed the deadline,

614
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 3: but you can apply next year. Okay, let's save it

615
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:11,320
Speaker 3: with a reminder for next year. So we're gonna do

616
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 3: this search and I open up you know, five to

617
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,960
Speaker 3: ten results from this search, and I just slowly work

618
00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 3: my way through them. And what I'm doing is I'm

619
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 3: finding scholarships that are not on those search engines, that

620
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 3: are less competitive because of that, but also are legitimate.

621
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 3: I know that I can trust them. We had a

622
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 3: student actually get a trip out to Hawaii because he

623
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 3: won one this exact way. It was an engineering scholarship.

624
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:39,520
Speaker 3: So that's one of the big searches.

625
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:41,720
Speaker 1: Is are you saying that basically, because everyone goes to

626
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 1: fast Web and Skali, anything is posted there is going

627
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,600
Speaker 1: to be inundated with applicants, and because of that, you

628
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 1: gotta find you gotta go to the second page of Google,

629
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 1: which is where no one ever goes.

630
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 3: Pretty much, Yeah, pretty much. I mean I don't want

631
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 3: to go black and white like and just say don't

632
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 3: use those but we have a lot inside that we

633
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 3: update every single semester. But we always tell them that

634
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 3: just use those last first. Do these searches. We have

635
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 3: a whole list of different phrases that you can brainstorm.

636
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:13,840
Speaker 3: Do all those Google searches, find what you find, and

637
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 3: then you can go to those search engines. So they're

638
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:20,240
Speaker 3: not all junk on there. It's just that you're not

639
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,360
Speaker 3: going to find the ones that we are finding it

640
00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:22,760
Speaker 3: as well.

641
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:26,080
Speaker 2: Okay, so you're multiple times you said that they're likely

642
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 2: going to be legitimate because they're associated with an association, right,

643
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 2: like some sort of group.

644
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:33,720
Speaker 1: But talk about that, right.

645
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:35,479
Speaker 2: Because I think there's a chance that some folks might

646
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:38,440
Speaker 2: find themselves and they're like, oh, they're saying they got

647
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:40,680
Speaker 2: there's a five thousand dollars scholarship here as long as

648
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 2: I provide them with my social security.

649
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, what are some of the red.

650
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 2: Flags I guess folks should look out for when they're

651
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,040
Speaker 2: looking for some of this free money on the internet.

652
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:51,960
Speaker 3: Yes, and I can give you a few more searches.

653
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:56,120
Speaker 3: We can come back to that beyond association. But regardless

654
00:32:56,160 --> 00:33:00,720
Speaker 3: of any scholarship, never ever ever give a social security

655
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 3: The only exception to this okay, and I please take

656
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 3: this everyone. Note this is only if we've already won

657
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:13,120
Speaker 3: the money, and that is your student ID. I know

658
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 3: that sounds so crazy that universities would use a social

659
00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 3: as a student ID, but they some do nowadays. I

660
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:21,840
Speaker 3: like to think they're getting smarter and they now give

661
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:25,920
Speaker 3: students a random number instead. But unless it is to

662
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 3: literally send your student account number, and that is what

663
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 3: it is, never ever social. You should not pay to

664
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 3: apply for scholarship. Okay. This is different than paying, say

665
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 3: for the scholarship system that is an educational based course

666
00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:43,280
Speaker 3: teaching you how to do this. It's also different than

667
00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 3: joining a club that you get benefits from other than

668
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 3: just applying for their scholarship. But if it literally says,

669
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 3: hey pay fifty dollars to apply for this scholarship, there

670
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,120
Speaker 3: was always one that came up. It was on Italian

671
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 3: something related to Italian citizenship. No, we don't pay to

672
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:05,160
Speaker 3: apply to a scholarship. Okay, there has to be some

673
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 3: other perk to joining that organization. So no social Security number.

674
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:12,759
Speaker 3: We don't want to pay to play. And if it's

675
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:17,239
Speaker 3: if we here enter to win or weekly drawing, monthly drawing,

676
00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 3: any kind of wording around sweepstakes that is based on

677
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:22,840
Speaker 3: luck that's out of our control. Those are not the

678
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 3: ones we want to focus on. And then as far

679
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,359
Speaker 3: as what they say, also a trigger word where it's

680
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 3: a red flag is easy. So if they say oh, no,

681
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:36,360
Speaker 3: essay scholarship or easy scholarship right there, you know that

682
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:39,760
Speaker 3: it's probably more a sweepstake based one. So those are

683
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:42,719
Speaker 3: our kind of red flags where we say, okay, these

684
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 3: are not the ones we want to focus on. We

685
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:45,600
Speaker 3: want to go another way.

686
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:48,799
Speaker 1: So Johnson, I'm kind of lazy. I would love like, hey,

687
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:51,920
Speaker 1: two hours, get the ten thousand dollars scholarship, call it

688
00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:54,279
Speaker 1: a day boom. How nice? I mean, that would be

689
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:56,360
Speaker 1: so nice, right if the world worked like that and

690
00:34:56,400 --> 00:34:59,440
Speaker 1: one scholarship was going to do you. But you've kind

691
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 1: of hinted at the a few times. But a bunch

692
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:04,560
Speaker 1: of smaller scholarships is really what's going to get you

693
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:08,760
Speaker 1: across the finish line. So yeah, I don't know. Micro

694
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:12,560
Speaker 1: scholarships are worth the effort, yes, And how small can

695
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:14,640
Speaker 1: these scholarships get? How many do we need to be

696
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 1: applying to I mean, what's it look like? And how

697
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: much effort do they require?

698
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:21,279
Speaker 3: Before, if you don't mind. The other scholarship is actually

699
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:23,960
Speaker 3: local community foundations that you can search, so just like

700
00:35:24,239 --> 00:35:27,719
Speaker 3: if you're in Orlando, it'd be Orlando Foundation Scholarship. And

701
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:30,319
Speaker 3: this actually ties into what you're asking here, because a

702
00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:35,239
Speaker 3: lot of times foundations, local foundations will have dozens of scholarships,

703
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:40,120
Speaker 3: anywhere from five hundred to one thousand to two thousand dollars.

704
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:43,120
Speaker 3: And what's great about that is actually if you get

705
00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 3: those as a senior in high school, a lot of

706
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:49,239
Speaker 3: times you can reapply as a college student. So it's

707
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:54,680
Speaker 3: not necessarily automatically renewable, but as an alumni excuse me,

708
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:56,480
Speaker 3: as an alumni, you get access to it, so you

709
00:35:56,480 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 3: can keep on applying. But since you are a previous

710
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:02,680
Speaker 3: and your chances of winning get higher and higher because

711
00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:04,959
Speaker 3: they know, okay, you're still doing it, you're doing great,

712
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 3: We're going to keep giving you money. So that's an

713
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:12,320
Speaker 3: example where one organization, the scholarship might be five hundred dollars,

714
00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:15,560
Speaker 3: but maybe it turns into more money in the future years.

715
00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 3: I had one like that where each year they gave

716
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:18,799
Speaker 3: me a little bit more, a little bit more in.

717
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:21,600
Speaker 1: The fact that yeah, it's five hundred bucks but times four, like, yeah,

718
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 1: it's a lot of money up.

719
00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:27,440
Speaker 3: Yeah. I would say my biggest win was four thousand

720
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:31,120
Speaker 3: a year. So anywhere from five hundred to four thousand

721
00:36:31,160 --> 00:36:36,000
Speaker 3: dollars per school year was the range that I was

722
00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:36,839
Speaker 3: really working in.

723
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:37,719
Speaker 1: Very nice.

724
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,400
Speaker 2: Okay, so you mentioned you kind of circle back around

725
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 2: when it came to like the Google method. You mentioned

726
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:46,600
Speaker 2: the association was searching for like whatever town that you're

727
00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 2: living in, like searching so like you said, Orlando, so

728
00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:52,840
Speaker 2: Orlando Foundation scholarship. That's one of the other tactics. Are

729
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:54,880
Speaker 2: there any other keywords that folks should be looking for

730
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,520
Speaker 2: as they're trying to get really practical and sort of

731
00:36:57,600 --> 00:36:59,080
Speaker 2: nitty gritty with their Google searches.

732
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:01,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, And some people with that, they'll say, oh, well,

733
00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:03,440
Speaker 3: we live in a small town. You can go to

734
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:05,799
Speaker 3: nearby towns and a lot of times it'll be a

735
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 3: county or region. So we can kind of cast them

736
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:11,319
Speaker 3: at a little wider I just used I don't know

737
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:16,320
Speaker 3: where our lamp came from, but another search could actually.

738
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:20,400
Speaker 3: So you've got let's see, we've got major associations. We

739
00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 3: have the community foundations, and then another one is actually

740
00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:28,040
Speaker 3: passions and this is hilarious. So we had one student

741
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:31,840
Speaker 3: who loved horses, and I literally googled scholarships for horse

742
00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:38,840
Speaker 3: lovers but again simple but not easy. We scrolled down

743
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 3: and we found it was like young horse Riders dot

744
00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:44,600
Speaker 3: org or something like that, and I'm like, okay, this

745
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:49,239
Speaker 3: clearly is aligned and slash Scholarships was the url we

746
00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:51,080
Speaker 3: clicked on there and there were six that she could

747
00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:57,000
Speaker 3: apply for. That's awesome, I know, so even passions that

748
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:01,279
Speaker 3: could be another one. Scholarships for public speakers, or scholarships

749
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:05,520
Speaker 3: for students, for students who video game. You can get

750
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:09,919
Speaker 3: so creative with this. I mean, and you know I will.

751
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:13,080
Speaker 3: I'm gonna throw in an AI tip here. Okay, we

752
00:38:13,120 --> 00:38:17,160
Speaker 3: are actually going through our scholarship winners right now. We're

753
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 3: choosing them today. Some of them have used AI to

754
00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:23,719
Speaker 3: write essays. Of course we check that and they are

755
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:27,760
Speaker 3: disqualified immediately. But a way that we can use AI

756
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:30,719
Speaker 3: is actually we can even ask AI, hey, can you

757
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:34,319
Speaker 3: find me a list of scholarships for horse lovers? And

758
00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:37,400
Speaker 3: that I have tested. You have to be careful, you

759
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 3: have to, you know, use our discretion that we're teaching. Okay,

760
00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:44,920
Speaker 3: doesn't say easy sweepstakes drawings. You know, we have to

761
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:48,359
Speaker 3: know to spot the scams, but at least it can

762
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:50,759
Speaker 3: give us a quick list and we can go to

763
00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:53,400
Speaker 3: each website and see what we come up with. The

764
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:55,319
Speaker 3: one thing I did find was I was trying to

765
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:58,480
Speaker 3: get it. I said I wanted like twenty, and it

766
00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 3: only had eleven, and it just started to repeat the

767
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 3: same list for twelve through twenty, And had I not

768
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:07,440
Speaker 3: paid attention, I would have thought I actually had twenty.

769
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:10,839
Speaker 3: It didn't even say like, oh, so there's limitations here,

770
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:12,799
Speaker 3: but this could actually be a fun way that we

771
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:16,200
Speaker 3: can use this exact Google method, but we can actually

772
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,200
Speaker 3: use chat GPT for example, and give them a prompt

773
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:19,759
Speaker 3: to do the same.

774
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:23,120
Speaker 1: So you mentioned that for folks applying for your scholarship,

775
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:26,760
Speaker 1: sorry you used chat GPT, You're out. You don't qualify

776
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:30,400
Speaker 1: for this for the scholarship anymore. Lots of scholarships require

777
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:34,280
Speaker 1: a written essay. Is that the case for most of

778
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:36,600
Speaker 1: the folks who are doing the deciding, Like, oh, hey,

779
00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:39,640
Speaker 1: you used some sort of artificial intelligence to write this,

780
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:42,959
Speaker 1: You're not under consideration anymore. Do you have any tips

781
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:44,920
Speaker 1: on that front? And then like, I don't know what

782
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:47,680
Speaker 1: makes people stand out? As a scholarship applicant in general.

783
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know what we spoke of, like the

784
00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:52,920
Speaker 3: red flags of what we don't want to see on

785
00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:57,840
Speaker 3: scholarships to apply, But the green flags are those essays.

786
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:00,920
Speaker 3: If they are taking the time to read submissions and

787
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,000
Speaker 3: they're asking you questions, what do you want to be

788
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 3: and why? What are your future goals and plans? Why

789
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 3: this college? Why do you need money? Those are things

790
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:12,239
Speaker 3: that we can improve. That's where we can compete and

791
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:15,960
Speaker 3: make ourselves more competitive. We can always tell a better story,

792
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:19,760
Speaker 3: we can sell ourselves better. So that's actually these essays

793
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:24,360
Speaker 3: while they are work's there. That's a good thing. The

794
00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:27,600
Speaker 3: problem with AI is it's not personal. It doesn't know

795
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:32,200
Speaker 3: you your personal story. And writing a scholarship essay is

796
00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:35,759
Speaker 3: different than writing a research paper. A research paper, you

797
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:40,239
Speaker 3: can make it just factual and you can follow the

798
00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 3: stereotypical intro main points closing, but a scholarship essay requires

799
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:48,880
Speaker 3: more creativity. You want it memorable, you want it to

800
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 3: tell a story. You want the judge to get a

801
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:54,279
Speaker 3: feel of who the student is. Because going back to

802
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:56,839
Speaker 3: the beginning, when I said why are people giving these

803
00:40:56,880 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 3: money this money, it's because they want to invest in

804
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:01,399
Speaker 3: someone that they know is going to take this money

805
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:04,040
Speaker 3: and do something with it, maybe they create a scholarship

806
00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:07,920
Speaker 3: or something in the future. These essays are what show

807
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:12,279
Speaker 3: scholarship committees that and if we're using AI, that's just

808
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:14,719
Speaker 3: not going to be in the essay. You might get

809
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 3: a professional sounding essay, it won't be personal, it won't

810
00:41:18,640 --> 00:41:22,640
Speaker 3: be memorable. So do I think other committees are doing

811
00:41:22,680 --> 00:41:24,960
Speaker 3: the same as us where they're throwing them out. Absolutely.

812
00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:27,600
Speaker 3: What we do is we wait until we choose a winner,

813
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:29,959
Speaker 3: and we run it through quickly and we make sure

814
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:32,520
Speaker 3: that they're not But I will tell you what, in

815
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:35,359
Speaker 3: the last couple weeks, we've had multiple where our team

816
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:38,719
Speaker 3: we are proofreading and we've said, this sounds like it

817
00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:42,000
Speaker 3: might be AI, went and ran it, and sure enough

818
00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:46,040
Speaker 3: it was. So there's even like a tone to it

819
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:49,680
Speaker 3: where and we see a lot of essays, So maybe

820
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:52,000
Speaker 3: that's why we can pick it out so well. But

821
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:56,360
Speaker 3: you can tell I've told our parents this because we

822
00:41:56,400 --> 00:41:58,920
Speaker 3: speak to parents more so, and then they're kind of

823
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:02,920
Speaker 3: funneling this to their are students. But the parents and guardians,

824
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:05,160
Speaker 3: we've said, you need to find out and make sure

825
00:42:05,160 --> 00:42:07,520
Speaker 3: that your student's not using AI for this.

826
00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:11,279
Speaker 1: It feels like the easy button, but ultimately it's you're

827
00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:14,080
Speaker 1: signing up for a plan for more rejection. And the

828
00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:18,040
Speaker 1: whole key here is to get these scholarships, get the money,

829
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:20,880
Speaker 1: graduate from college debt free. On that note, we have

830
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:22,799
Speaker 1: a few more questions we want to get to with you.

831
00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:24,839
Speaker 1: Jocelyn will get to those right after this.

832
00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 2: All right, we are back from the break and again

833
00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:39,080
Speaker 2: talking with Jocelyn Pearson of the Scholarship System. And Jocelyn,

834
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:41,440
Speaker 2: there are a lot of listeners that we have who

835
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:45,359
Speaker 2: I'm guessing they've got younger kids, right, which means they're

836
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:47,799
Speaker 2: not sending their kids off to college anytime soon.

837
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:50,439
Speaker 1: Say, we're in that boat. Yeah, our kids are getting

838
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:50,919
Speaker 1: in sixth grade.

839
00:42:50,920 --> 00:42:53,200
Speaker 2: We're not really thinking about scholarships closer though, Yeah, we're

840
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:56,480
Speaker 2: not thinking about scholarships. You are thinking about, I don't know, values,

841
00:42:56,640 --> 00:43:00,200
Speaker 2: maybe saving some money, sending some money aside. But do

842
00:43:00,239 --> 00:43:04,000
Speaker 2: you think families should start preparing now, like as you

843
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:06,839
Speaker 2: start thinking through these different scholarships, how to find them,

844
00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:10,360
Speaker 2: even if their kids are babies, even if they're in diapers.

845
00:43:11,320 --> 00:43:15,400
Speaker 3: We've had families ask us my child is you know,

846
00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:17,520
Speaker 3: ten years old. Is it too early to join the

847
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:20,840
Speaker 3: scholarship system Sadly I would say yes. I'd say okay,

848
00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:24,360
Speaker 3: they were a little too early. Honestly, if I could,

849
00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:27,719
Speaker 3: I would say, sophomore year, junior year, no later in

850
00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:31,120
Speaker 3: high school. We need to hit this hard, don't you know?

851
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:32,919
Speaker 3: Wait until senior year. That's so.

852
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:33,960
Speaker 1: So that's the sweet spot.

853
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:36,759
Speaker 3: That's the sweet spot. Really, junior year, that's when we

854
00:43:36,800 --> 00:43:40,760
Speaker 3: can submit applications. We can win money. We've got experience

855
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,160
Speaker 3: under our belts to write essays, and it gives us

856
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:46,480
Speaker 3: time to get the materials ready and then it makes

857
00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:50,919
Speaker 3: senior year so much easier. But that said, I got

858
00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:52,759
Speaker 3: more and more money every single year while I was

859
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:56,040
Speaker 3: in college. So it also we've had families where they

860
00:43:56,040 --> 00:43:58,560
Speaker 3: didn't find us until they're student graduating from high school,

861
00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:00,839
Speaker 3: then found us and they said, oh no, wait a minute,

862
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:03,960
Speaker 3: but you're saying we can still apply. Yes. And the

863
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:07,239
Speaker 3: one family specifically that I'm thinking of, by the end

864
00:44:07,239 --> 00:44:10,160
Speaker 3: of her freshman year she had over fifteen thousand dollars

865
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:13,280
Speaker 3: and she didn't even start until literally the week after

866
00:44:13,280 --> 00:44:14,640
Speaker 3: she graduated from high school.

867
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:15,520
Speaker 1: Wow.

868
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:18,359
Speaker 3: So it's never too late. But that said, we do

869
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:20,800
Speaker 3: want to start early. If we can, it just increases

870
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:24,760
Speaker 3: our time and our chances. As far as the younger children,

871
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 3: what can we be doing? I love you. What you

872
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:31,600
Speaker 3: just mentioned values? Okay, that's something we talk a lot

873
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:35,280
Speaker 3: about in our essay writing method. How can you choose

874
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:40,160
Speaker 3: what are your values? What stories? What experiences in your

875
00:44:40,239 --> 00:44:43,239
Speaker 3: life have given you those or align with those? And

876
00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:45,800
Speaker 3: how are you going to take that into your future?

877
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:52,280
Speaker 3: Because that is an amazing story. Usually, so as a parent,

878
00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:55,719
Speaker 3: we can think of, well, how can we help our children?

879
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:59,520
Speaker 3: Are our children that are relying on us for experiences?

880
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,279
Speaker 3: How can we help them figure out their values? Or

881
00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:05,040
Speaker 3: how can we help them have experiences that they can

882
00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:09,680
Speaker 3: talk about. So if our child is playing video games

883
00:45:09,719 --> 00:45:11,920
Speaker 3: all day, what are they going to be able to

884
00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:16,120
Speaker 3: write about? Not much unless maybe they're super competitive and

885
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:18,879
Speaker 3: actually very high up in a league and we've now

886
00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:21,640
Speaker 3: taken trips around it, and okay, that's a different story.

887
00:45:21,719 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 3: That's the exception. But when we're thinking about this, what

888
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:27,319
Speaker 3: can we do ahead of the game, it's can we

889
00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:30,120
Speaker 3: get them to shadow someone for a day? Can we

890
00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:35,240
Speaker 3: get them to take one of their passions? One example,

891
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:41,080
Speaker 3: one boy loved magic tricks and after this same discussion,

892
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:44,000
Speaker 3: they found out that he could go to Ronald McDonald

893
00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:47,319
Speaker 3: house and do magic tricks for the children and the

894
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:51,640
Speaker 3: families there, and that was a volunteer opportunity. He didn't care,

895
00:45:51,719 --> 00:45:54,320
Speaker 3: he was just doing magic tricks, but he was bringing

896
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:57,799
Speaker 3: all this joy. And then what an awesome story to

897
00:45:57,880 --> 00:45:59,520
Speaker 3: talk about.

898
00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,640
Speaker 2: A unique essay right there, right like his ability to

899
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:04,640
Speaker 2: tap into that like you're not going to get that

900
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:05,920
Speaker 2: with chigbt.

901
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:12,600
Speaker 3: I do exactly exactly, and or even having these discussions

902
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:15,400
Speaker 3: with them of well, what do you think you value most?

903
00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:18,399
Speaker 3: And one thing with parents is try to let them

904
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:21,080
Speaker 3: come up with it. We tend to pigeonhole our children

905
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,640
Speaker 3: and define them. And as someone who was told I

906
00:46:24,719 --> 00:46:27,399
Speaker 3: was never athletic my entire life, and then I got

907
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:29,319
Speaker 3: into sports in my twenties and I was like, wait

908
00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:33,919
Speaker 3: a minute, I'm not that terrible. I can tell you that.

909
00:46:34,040 --> 00:46:38,760
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes our families kind of have us defined incorrectly.

910
00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:43,440
Speaker 3: So what I prefer is you can actually google values

911
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:48,600
Speaker 3: list and just have your your child go through it

912
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:52,800
Speaker 3: and choose their top ten and then narrow down to

913
00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:57,359
Speaker 3: five and then narrow down to three. And that can

914
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:01,600
Speaker 3: give them the freedom to and it might be actually

915
00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:04,319
Speaker 3: a really awesome learning experience for a parent, like WHOA,

916
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:07,960
Speaker 3: I didn't care. I didn't know you cared about community service.

917
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:11,000
Speaker 3: Why don't we go and volunteer at this place? So

918
00:47:11,360 --> 00:47:13,279
Speaker 3: that can be some fun ways that we can start

919
00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:15,600
Speaker 3: building up our student and just giving them stuff that

920
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 3: they can talk about in the essays long term. And

921
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:21,080
Speaker 3: if you noticed, one of the things I did not

922
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:24,200
Speaker 3: say was get your student involved in a million things.

923
00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:27,719
Speaker 3: That is actually the opposite of what we teach. We

924
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:30,760
Speaker 3: say it is better to be deeper involved, deeply involved

925
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:33,920
Speaker 3: in a few things, rather than surface level involved in

926
00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:36,720
Speaker 3: a million things. We don't need our kids and everything

927
00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:40,240
Speaker 3: under the sun. But if they've got something they're passionate about,

928
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 3: along with a few a couple other things, maybe a

929
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:46,400
Speaker 3: part time job and maybe they babysit, or maybe they

930
00:47:46,400 --> 00:47:48,520
Speaker 3: help an elderly neighbor, you know a few things that

931
00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:52,160
Speaker 3: they can speak to that can be gold if we

932
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:54,719
Speaker 3: have it to find in something we can really sell.

933
00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:57,080
Speaker 1: That sounds like a relief for parents and kids alike,

934
00:47:57,160 --> 00:47:59,480
Speaker 1: because you know, over commitment is a real problem in

935
00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:03,440
Speaker 1: our culture these days. Okay, when you ask a personal

936
00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:06,759
Speaker 1: finance expert Jocelyn about saving for college, there's usually just

937
00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 1: like this complete knee jerk five twenty nine plan suggestion. Unfortunately,

938
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:13,759
Speaker 1: five twenty nine plans have gotten better more flexible in

939
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:17,319
Speaker 1: recent years, and that money can be transitioned into roth

940
00:48:17,360 --> 00:48:18,920
Speaker 1: Higer eight dollars for your kid at some point in

941
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:21,719
Speaker 1: the future. But in your opinion, do you think that

942
00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:25,400
Speaker 1: you know the fact that people can use scholarships to

943
00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:27,919
Speaker 1: pay for college, that it's much more accessible than people

944
00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:30,480
Speaker 1: have been led to believe. Should that cause parents to

945
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:34,680
Speaker 1: reduce potentially what they are planning on contributing to five

946
00:48:34,719 --> 00:48:37,560
Speaker 1: twenty nine plans and maybe just kind of lessen that

947
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:39,239
Speaker 1: burden on their minds of what they need to be

948
00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:43,000
Speaker 1: socking away for their kids, you know, higher education future.

949
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:48,000
Speaker 3: No, because you can actually there is an exception to

950
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:51,920
Speaker 3: five twenty nine plan rules. So I love that now

951
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:54,040
Speaker 3: it could be rolled into a retirement account, so really

952
00:48:54,040 --> 00:48:56,279
Speaker 3: there's no risk at all. If we can give that

953
00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:59,640
Speaker 3: money and put it into it, why not. But that said,

954
00:48:59,719 --> 00:49:02,760
Speaker 3: there is also an exception where if a student gets scholarships,

955
00:49:03,080 --> 00:49:05,080
Speaker 3: you can actually take that money out without that ten

956
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:08,320
Speaker 3: percent penalty. You have to and check with your CPA,

957
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:11,560
Speaker 3: make sure you know I'm not a CPA, but you do,

958
00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:14,400
Speaker 3: I think, have to pay the gains tax on it,

959
00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:16,880
Speaker 3: but you do not have to pay the penalty of

960
00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:21,800
Speaker 3: using the money on a non college related expense. So actually,

961
00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:25,040
Speaker 3: by getting scholarships, you can free up five twenty nine money.

962
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:28,000
Speaker 3: So I would never we actually tell families, you know,

963
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:31,040
Speaker 3: if you are even right up to the timeline of

964
00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:34,520
Speaker 3: going to school, if you're putting away money, why not,

965
00:49:34,800 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 3: And especially if you're living in a place where you

966
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:39,359
Speaker 3: can get a tax deduction for it, If you're in

967
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:42,839
Speaker 3: a state that incentivizes the five twenty nine plans, we're

968
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:45,560
Speaker 3: all about them. And I'm not sure if you guys

969
00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:49,320
Speaker 3: have heard of the grandparent loophole. But now the FACA

970
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:52,320
Speaker 3: does not ask about grandparent owned five twenty nine plans,

971
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:55,560
Speaker 3: so this is actually an advantage. If it's in a

972
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:58,840
Speaker 3: grandparent's name, it won't count against the student when applying

973
00:49:58,880 --> 00:50:04,000
Speaker 3: for financial aid, so that also is a plus, and

974
00:50:04,080 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 3: so putting money into that is even better. So either way,

975
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:10,600
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say put the brakes on it, but also

976
00:50:10,719 --> 00:50:13,239
Speaker 3: not a reason not to do scholarships. In fact, scholarships

977
00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:16,640
Speaker 3: can make a five nine plan even more flexible.

978
00:50:16,640 --> 00:50:17,640
Speaker 1: I love it. Very cool.

979
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:19,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, and that's something that you can start doing.

980
00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:22,040
Speaker 2: You don't have to wait until their junior year. You

981
00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:24,959
Speaker 2: can start doing that when in fact they're two years old.

982
00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:26,840
Speaker 1: And make sure that you are also.

983
00:50:26,600 --> 00:50:28,680
Speaker 2: Putting some money in that fight twenty nine account, Jocelyn,

984
00:50:28,719 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 2: not just scouraging on the fancy bathing suit for your daughter.

985
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:35,440
Speaker 1: But this has been incredibly casing. Jocelyn's doing both.

986
00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:39,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's a both and you sound like

987
00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:41,760
Speaker 2: the kind of person both and kind of but Jocelyn,

988
00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:44,640
Speaker 2: this has been awesome. I just love the insights and

989
00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:47,400
Speaker 2: the tips that you're able to discuss.

990
00:50:47,040 --> 00:50:47,520
Speaker 1: With us today.

991
00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 2: Where can folks learn more about the scholarship system as

992
00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:53,040
Speaker 2: well as the ten year anniversary of the book chair

993
00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:55,799
Speaker 2: where listeners can learn more about both of those.

994
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:58,640
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm so excited to release the second edition of

995
00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:01,359
Speaker 3: this book. It is just so much better than I

996
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:04,319
Speaker 3: ever could even imagined. So to learn more about that,

997
00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:07,520
Speaker 3: specifically the scholarship system dot com slash book of VIP.

998
00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:10,920
Speaker 3: So we'll give a little bit of a freebie if

999
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:13,160
Speaker 3: they go there, and then they'll get kind of the

1000
00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:16,000
Speaker 3: first sneak peek access to the book. When that comes

1001
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:18,800
Speaker 3: out but just the Scholarship System dot com. We've got

1002
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:22,520
Speaker 3: so many free resources out there for families, YouTube videos,

1003
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:25,719
Speaker 3: We're on Instagram, social media. But also if you go

1004
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:27,680
Speaker 3: to the Scholarship System dot com, we have a free

1005
00:51:27,680 --> 00:51:31,520
Speaker 3: webinar and it's one hour long. I recommend parents, guardians

1006
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:35,080
Speaker 3: sitting there with your students and watching it, and it

1007
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:38,520
Speaker 3: just gives you the foundation of scholarships for free, and

1008
00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:40,520
Speaker 3: it can give you kind of an idea of is

1009
00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:43,480
Speaker 3: this something we can do? And I hope that after

1010
00:51:43,760 --> 00:51:45,880
Speaker 3: listening to this the answers.

1011
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:48,200
Speaker 1: Yes, awesome, Jocelyn, this is great. Thank you so much

1012
00:51:48,239 --> 00:51:49,560
Speaker 1: for taking the time to join us today.

1013
00:51:49,640 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me.

1014
00:51:50,560 --> 00:51:52,840
Speaker 1: I loved it all right, man, that was such a

1015
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:56,320
Speaker 1: good conversation. It was Jocelyn. I love learning new stuff,

1016
00:51:56,360 --> 00:51:58,000
Speaker 1: and I feel like I learned something. Yeah, Like I mean,

1017
00:51:58,000 --> 00:51:59,120
Speaker 1: we've talked about.

1018
00:51:58,920 --> 00:52:02,040
Speaker 2: Going to step free degrees and ways to pay less

1019
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:05,280
Speaker 2: for college, and this isn't this isn't uncharted.

1020
00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:07,239
Speaker 1: Territory, I guess for us. But I love how it is.

1021
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:10,160
Speaker 2: That Jocelyn and the Scholarship System specifically how they're going

1022
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:10,560
Speaker 2: about it.

1023
00:52:10,600 --> 00:52:12,319
Speaker 1: She's the pro. She did it for herself. She's not

1024
00:52:12,400 --> 00:52:14,719
Speaker 1: doing it for like hundreds of other people has done

1025
00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:16,799
Speaker 1: for over the past decades. So yeah, what was your

1026
00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:18,399
Speaker 1: big takeaway from this conversation, dude?

1027
00:52:18,440 --> 00:52:21,960
Speaker 2: I was really digging her Google method and specifically searching

1028
00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:25,879
Speaker 2: some of those terms. Right, So, whatever your your major

1029
00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:28,040
Speaker 2: is going to be. Her example was engineering, but just

1030
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:32,800
Speaker 2: Google in that instance, engineering association scholarships or focus on

1031
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:36,719
Speaker 2: your your community, they're locally or passions the example that

1032
00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:40,839
Speaker 2: she gave when it came to horse lovers or Young

1033
00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:44,759
Speaker 2: Horse Writers of America or whatever it might be. But

1034
00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:47,080
Speaker 2: it just takes going out there finding some of these

1035
00:52:47,800 --> 00:52:51,000
Speaker 2: obscure scholarships that you have a better chance of getting

1036
00:52:51,239 --> 00:52:55,160
Speaker 2: and avoiding the one specifically that make it sound too easy,

1037
00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:57,040
Speaker 2: where it's a little too good to be true, the

1038
00:52:57,080 --> 00:52:59,920
Speaker 2: sweepstakes versions this is right like where it's a lot

1039
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:02,960
Speaker 2: those aren't gonna be the ones that pay out most likely.

1040
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:05,200
Speaker 2: And just with a little bit of information, with the

1041
00:53:05,239 --> 00:53:06,960
Speaker 2: tips that she was able to provide, I think a

1042
00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:09,240
Speaker 2: lot of folks are going to be able to apply

1043
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:12,160
Speaker 2: for and then win a bunch of these different scholarships.

1044
00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:14,800
Speaker 2: The practical advice and tips that she was able to

1045
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:17,040
Speaker 2: give there, I was really digging. Well, you're touching on here,

1046
00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:18,759
Speaker 2: and she didn't use this specific term, but it made

1047
00:53:18,760 --> 00:53:22,160
Speaker 2: me think of elbow grease, and like it is that willingness.

1048
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:24,440
Speaker 2: It's the same thing in real estate, to be able

1049
00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:26,759
Speaker 2: to get your hands dirty, to see past that's what

1050
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:29,160
Speaker 2: you gotta do, maybe the ugly facade. It sounds really

1051
00:53:29,239 --> 00:53:31,200
Speaker 2: nice to be able to apply for fifteen scholarships in

1052
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:33,919
Speaker 2: rapid succession while you're watching your favorite show, but that's

1053
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:35,919
Speaker 2: not going to give you the highest ROI it makes

1054
00:53:35,920 --> 00:53:37,200
Speaker 2: you feel better in the moment because you're like, I

1055
00:53:37,239 --> 00:53:39,719
Speaker 2: apply for fifteen scholarships. Look what I just accomplished. But

1056
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:41,680
Speaker 2: if it doesn't lead to any dollars.

1057
00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:43,839
Speaker 1: Then it was wasted to just wasted your time, Yeah,

1058
00:53:44,120 --> 00:53:45,840
Speaker 1: even if it was relatively little effort. So if you

1059
00:53:45,880 --> 00:53:48,400
Speaker 1: actually want the system to pay off, like that's my

1060
00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:51,080
Speaker 1: big takeaway is to use that elbow grease, some effort

1061
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:55,200
Speaker 1: and some time and look past maybe that low hanging fruit,

1062
00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:58,720
Speaker 1: get the ladder out, get the better stuff. And it's amazing,

1063
00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:01,399
Speaker 1: I think, especially when you think about what a high

1064
00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:05,000
Speaker 1: school graduate or a junior or senior in high school, Matt,

1065
00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:07,560
Speaker 1: what are they able to make hourly wage? Wise, not much,

1066
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:09,799
Speaker 1: not a ton. I mean this could pay off from

1067
00:54:09,800 --> 00:54:13,840
Speaker 1: an hourly rate perspective, especially those scholarships that are potentially

1068
00:54:13,840 --> 00:54:16,800
Speaker 1: going to renew year after year after year. So I

1069
00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:19,359
Speaker 1: love this. I think there's a ton of wisdom here.

1070
00:54:19,600 --> 00:54:21,640
Speaker 1: And yeah, how nice to graduate and be able to

1071
00:54:21,680 --> 00:54:24,480
Speaker 1: buy a home instead of having the student loan debt

1072
00:54:24,520 --> 00:54:27,640
Speaker 1: hanging over your head for the next fifteen twenty years. Absolutely,

1073
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:30,640
Speaker 1: but all right the beer. Did we mention it at

1074
00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:33,000
Speaker 1: the beginning of the episode? We didn't, Okay, well.

1075
00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:36,160
Speaker 2: We enjoyed an M forty three ipa. This is by

1076
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:39,080
Speaker 2: New Orthodox and not just any old M forty three.

1077
00:54:39,080 --> 00:54:42,480
Speaker 2: This is the M forty three Tart Strawberry, which is

1078
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:44,719
Speaker 2: I know it's one of your favorites. I love this, Vivie,

1079
00:54:44,840 --> 00:54:46,759
Speaker 2: you kick it off. Not everyone agrees with me on

1080
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:48,680
Speaker 2: this one, like your wife. My wife does not agree.

1081
00:54:48,719 --> 00:54:51,680
Speaker 2: She likes regular in forty three. A lot does not

1082
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:54,560
Speaker 2: like the tart strawberry. To me, this is like a

1083
00:54:54,719 --> 00:54:57,799
Speaker 2: money beer. I love it because the IPA, but it's

1084
00:54:57,800 --> 00:54:58,480
Speaker 2: also like a.

1085
00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:00,759
Speaker 1: Little bit of free yeah, a little bit of that

1086
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:02,680
Speaker 1: fruit action going on at the same time. I think

1087
00:55:02,719 --> 00:55:04,920
Speaker 1: this is a perfectly constructed beer, and it's also one

1088
00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:07,879
Speaker 1: of those flavors you don't get that profile very often

1089
00:55:07,840 --> 00:55:09,560
Speaker 1: in beer, so I dig it.

1090
00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:12,440
Speaker 2: I think I could handle maybe a strawberry sour. I

1091
00:55:12,480 --> 00:55:15,359
Speaker 2: am with Emily because I am actually not a huge

1092
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:17,480
Speaker 2: fan of this beer. It's got this, it's got this

1093
00:55:17,560 --> 00:55:19,520
Speaker 2: weird It's funny that it's his tart because what it

1094
00:55:19,560 --> 00:55:21,400
Speaker 2: reminds me of is like a sweet tart, or like

1095
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:23,439
Speaker 2: what's the candy that comes in a long clear role

1096
00:55:23,480 --> 00:55:24,840
Speaker 2: with like their tiny little.

1097
00:55:24,640 --> 00:55:27,880
Speaker 1: Discs sweethearts, pez not pears, spreeze.

1098
00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:29,839
Speaker 2: Maybe that's it, Okay, you know I'm talking about there's

1099
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:31,560
Speaker 2: like twelve or fifteen of them in there, and they're

1100
00:55:31,560 --> 00:55:34,040
Speaker 2: all stacked up and they got different fruit flavor. This

1101
00:55:34,120 --> 00:55:35,520
Speaker 2: kind of reminds me of that. It's kind of got

1102
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:40,600
Speaker 2: this dry, chalky sweetness that doesn't quite taste legit in

1103
00:55:40,640 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 2: my opinion, which is why I think if it was

1104
00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:46,800
Speaker 2: a sour to me, that seems a little more authentic

1105
00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:50,719
Speaker 2: or it's not terrible, it's just yeah, it's also not

1106
00:55:50,760 --> 00:55:51,200
Speaker 2: my favorite.

1107
00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:52,160
Speaker 1: It's regular.

1108
00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:54,399
Speaker 2: I'm forty three, or if you're looking, if you're looking

1109
00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:56,560
Speaker 2: to step it up, I'm pretty sure we've had Boss

1110
00:55:56,560 --> 00:55:58,320
Speaker 2: tweed on the show before.

1111
00:55:58,120 --> 00:55:59,560
Speaker 1: But that might be the best beer they make. Those

1112
00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:01,719
Speaker 1: are fun Life nominal, so good. Yeah yeah, this free

1113
00:56:01,800 --> 00:56:02,439
Speaker 1: makes awesome stuff.

1114
00:56:02,440 --> 00:56:04,200
Speaker 2: Don't be turned off by the tart strawberry if that's

1115
00:56:04,200 --> 00:56:07,480
Speaker 2: not your thing. New Orthodox still makes some awesome stuff

1116
00:56:07,520 --> 00:56:07,920
Speaker 2: for sure.

1117
00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:10,160
Speaker 1: And you know, best friends can agree to disagree and

1118
00:56:10,160 --> 00:56:12,239
Speaker 1: we can disagree. Yeah, all right, that's gonna do it

1119
00:56:12,239 --> 00:56:14,239
Speaker 1: for this one. We'll put links in the show notes

1120
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:16,640
Speaker 1: to some of the things that Jason mentioned, including that

1121
00:56:16,760 --> 00:56:19,359
Speaker 1: free webinar. So oh yeah, you can find that up

1122
00:56:19,360 --> 00:56:22,080
Speaker 1: on our website at howtomoney dot com. That's right, buddy,

1123
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:25,200
Speaker 1: So until next time, best friends Out, Best Friends Out.