Strategies to Help Pay for College with Kara Walker

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar da

0:00:00.2 S1: Hello and welcome to confuse to college ready. We are super excited to be able to spend time today interviewing Carol walker, you’re going to learn more about her when our interview gets started, but the great thing that care is going to talk about are ways to save you money, ways that you can find different scholarships, be able to have your financial aid search and journey look into ways to make that easier, she is a wealth of information, we are super, super excited to hear from her. As a reminder, we would love for you to leave us a review on the podcast and share the podcast with your friends, if that is something that has been helpful, as you share, that helps other people be able to connect with us, and then we also have our free guide on how to start or expand your college search, and we would absolutely love for you to download that, hope that that will be helpful, and then we’re going to be emailing the people who sign up for that as well. It’s not spam. I promise we’re not going to send you tons of emails, but I will be sending some updates about our course that’s going to be in our coaching program, that’s going to be opening up soon, to be able to help give you that individualized attention and that individualized support that you need as you navigate the college search at a very affordable price tag and…

0:01:27.1 S1: Cannot wait, I am really looking forward to that. We’ve been putting in a lot of time and effort, but without further ado, let’s hear our interview with Kara Walker. Alright, so today we are going to be interviewing at Carol Walker, and we are so lucky and blessed to have her on our podcast today is a little bit of background crawler graduated from college debt-free and is now on a quest to help other students do the same with her podcast, Money and mental peace, and her upcoming course, the debt-free college blueprint. She is a 20-something Christian Perdue amateur snowboarder and recovering over-achiever. Kara enjoys goal setting, budgeting and laminate debt-free lifestyle and wants to help you do the same. Cara, thank you so much for joining us today. I have been looking forward to this for a while.

0:02:18.4 S2: Thank you for having me. Yeah, literally, when somebody else tagged me in your comment or something, and we saw the similar similarities in our niche, I was like, This might be a long-term business relationship, Coley agree, we have some amazing things that we can each offer. And so for those of you listening, Karan, I have a coach in common, and that we are in a group together, so we are super, super excited to be able to learn from her, so.

0:02:50.4 S1: Kara, tell me… Tell us just a little bit about yourself, how you became interested in scholarships, graduating, debt-free, all of those pieces. Yeah, so I think you already told about myself.

0:03:05.4 S2: But that’s basically me as gist and… Yes, recovering over-achiever. Which means I haven’t quite achieved it yet. But.

0:03:14.1 S1: That’s a heating to do.

0:03:15.5 S2: Yes. I definitely was one of those out there, just wanting to have graduate with honors, all the things, and learning that honestly, if I had maybe gotten less good, a little bit worse grades in college and just had a little better mental health, I would have been totally fine too, so that’s why my podcast is called money in mental piece, but again, this is to those overachievers, I’m not saying get Ds all the time. Yes, but I did, I graduated that free was two degrees, and I say two, but as associate bachelor, so don’t think I’m at my master’s I at degrees with honors still, but then it took me longer and hopefully the content I have could help people do it within whatever time frame they want to… Honestly, how I became interested, I did Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University when I was 16. In school, actually, I was homeschooled for high school, so that was one of my math elective realms, and I was just hooked, I was like, you can confidently and legally and ethically steward your money, well, compound interest and become a millionaire. That doesn’t have to be the end goal of life, but it’s so doable, I just basically was amazed at compound interest, but compound interest works both ways and significantly raises the amount of debt when people don’t pay it off, and I had learned the first step is debt free college, and I just got on that bandwagon like crazy, my parents are pretty good with money, but they’re not fanatical, like I am.

0:04:56.3 S2: Okay, okay, so that is how I got on and I basically view it a marriage, not married, but I didn’t want to just prepare for the wedding, I wanted to prepare for the marriage, so I didn’t want to just do college, I wanted to prep for life after college that… Yeah, things… And there was the whole process of trying to figure out what to do is my life, but I admit most of the time I was in college, I still hadn’t finalized the major, that’s why I got a minor or… I’m sorry. And associates, and then I took a gap year to do work, I worked with the National Park Service, an internship, got an education award money from that too, just… I’m trying to say there are different opportunities that can make it unconventional, so I had the mindset that I was not… Not getting a divorce. I was just from the beginning, so I wasn’t getting loans, that was just my choice, ’cause I would have to keep day dreaming what will that get me after college, and I sometimes feel awkward mentioning money, but it’s a Money Podcast. So I graduated from college at free with about 10000 in the bank because I didn’t need to use all my cash.

0:06:06.1 S1: Wow, that’s amazing. And money, it is such a huge piece of the puzzle as you are looking at the different things that you are… The different criteria in a school to figure out, Okay, when I get my financial aid package and it says that I only owe X amount, how much of that says loans already, that these loans are already included, and then that’s an automatic depth that I am taking on.

0:06:36.3 S2: Yeah. Oh, I got so much on that, I don’t know if we want to jump into that yet, but basically, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, if you get a financial aid letter, you’re like, You qualified for these scholarships, these loans, that’s fine, but there’s many deeper layers of scholarships that you have to apply for or go find or… That’s literally the tip of the iceberg, but a lot of people only stay at that level.

0:06:57.1 S1: Yeah, so what you’re saying is that beyond just those college scholarships that you can get, that there are a lot more deeper ways to dive in and have some additional money awarded to definitely pay for college. That’s huge, and a lot of people, I would bet don’t know that I would think that’s a pretty big misconception, is that all we’re going to get is what the college offers and… That’s it. Yeah.

0:07:22.5 S2: Yeah, exactly, exactly that. If I’ve learned anything going through college is you have to be your own ambassador, your own advocate, and you have to politely bug people not to be rude, but literally you don’t hear back, you email again them again the next week, and it’s polite, it’s… Thank you for bearing with my questions, but it’s consistent because there’s so many people they’re dealing with at one point, when I was at university for your university, one of the advisors transferred and got a new job and there was one for a small period of time. There was one college advisor, she’s like, I get 200 emails a day, she’s like, So I can’t even do it, so you just won’t even hear back from me. I’m not saying they’re all like that. But you have to… You can’t just do tip of the iceberg, they’re just going to tell you the tip of the iceberg stuff. Yeah.

0:08:13.7 S1: That’s all my stuff I did.

0:08:15.3 S2: And I didn’t just graduate debt-free with scholarships, I had some cash that they got from internships and savings, graduation party money, scholarships, grants, and testing out of classes, which is a huge part of my story, and other story that a lot of people don’t know. So that’s kind of my little package.

0:08:34.6 S1: Red. Okay, so would you say testing out, was that a P-testing or dual enrollment classes while you were still in high school, or did you also do clap testing at Cali, did a lot of club test.

0:08:45.4 S2: So you’re right. AP dual enrollment and Middle College are great, and if anyone doesn’t know middle colleges, you’re not just doing rolling, you’re actually going to high school at the community college, and a lot of your high school classes, you’re taking college classes and that’s counting for both to… Etcetera, but I didn’t do any of that. I tested out of classes, so basically, I used my graduation party money for pretty much all of my Associate’s degree, and that means that it can stretch, so I tested out in my first year of club tests and I just am DST the next year, which used to be only for military, but now civilians can take them if they pay, and I did those the first couple of years, and I did half of my Associate’s Degree in 600, so that was like a 15-16 credits because they’re each only… Usually a test is like 100 bucks, now you only get the credits if you pass, but why not pay 100 in that 2000… Absolutely.

0:09:53.4 S1: That’s huge. Yeah.

0:09:55.1 S2: So there’s two levels to paying for college debt-free, there’s definitely getting money, but the first one that people don’t know is lowering the expenses, and I’m hoping I can tell you something new ’cause it’s so much fun to talk to an advisor, so… Have you ever heard of modern states?

0:10:12.3 S1: I have not.

0:10:13.4 S2: Okay, they have study programs and they will do Bashar reimbursements for people taking plates so you can get your first year or two of college for free, if you can see a ethanol…

0:10:26.3 S1: Tel. Amazing. Yeah.

0:10:28.1 S2: So that’s how you start doing college here.

0:10:31.9 S1: This is just… It’s huge, all of these things where I think most people don’t even realize what the options are or the opportunities… I had a conversation the other day with someone, and she said, Oh, my son, you know, he’s finishing his… He is finishing up schooling and we only have x amount of dollars left until he’s done, but the amount that they have to pay and the amount that they are having to… That it’s not great, it’s not scholarships, it’s not anything. It’s mind-blowing and it is incredibly, incredibly expensive, and that just is for his bachelors, let alone all of these other pieces, so it’s really an intense amount of stress and trying to figure out all of those pieces, so what age do you… Should people start looking into saving and looking into money, is it too late if a student is waiting until their senior year.

0:11:41.7 S2: It’s not too late at all… No. So there’s two answers to this. You can start as early as you want, if you’re talking about saving money, it depends on if you mean like parents save you money, they can start when your kids are young and a 529 plan, but if we’re talking about high school and such… I mean, there are even scholarships out there for middle school, and depending on how your middle school student is, if they’re very academically inclined, they could have just been studying American history, maybe have them look through the study guide on modern states for American history and see how they do on it and be like, Oh, I’m just going to take them to say lutes, maybe they get college credit, but you don’t have to do it that early messages… Open opportunities as early as you want.

0:12:24.5 S1: That’s amazing. And so a student in middle school can take a clip test while they’re in middle school, right after they’ve studied that content.

0:12:31.6 S2: My answer is yes, but to be honest, I haven’t looked up if there’s an age range… I guess I’ve always assumed that because I never saw an age range, but I guess you would have to look as of right now, since… And maybe college detention changed since last year. Honestly, the price could have changed since last year, that’s when I mentioned modern states ’cause of pain, but yeah, as soon as you can… And I talked to a lot of homeschoolers too, is a website called homeschooling for college credit. So anyone listening, I’ll repeat it, homeschooling for college credit. And this lady is actually a college advisor who works at Excelsior College, which accepts almost unlimited transferred amount of credits, you could just stay at home and transfer to… Wow. Thomas Edison State university accepts almost unlimited to… I can give you these links later if you…

0:13:27.6 S1: I am, yeah, as we are talking, I am writing this down to be able to include it in the show notes, these are amazing. Amazing resources. Yeah, thank you. Or You’re welcome or something, I don’t think you are with you.

0:13:42.6 S2: So basically, this lady on homeschool for college credit, she lists different types of tests Club are in there, but there are other kinds, and she lists them in order of excellent transferability to good, to limited. So that means these aren’t always going to go to every school, I looked at a handful of schools I was interested in, and I tested out of classes that I knew would at least go to most of those, so I didn’t do this whole crazy… Completely test out of a degree super fast, but I do have a friend who was homeschooled and he basically just studied for high school and studied for the club tests and did it like crazy, and he graduated with his bachelors when he was like 19, ’cause he answered everything, I think he went to Thomas Edison. He just did all this transferring and he was self-motivated, so it can depend on the kid or if the students listening, however much you want to do it, and if you’re just a senior starting or even like I was figuring it out as a senior and then first year of college. Now, I did have the flexibility. I told myself, if it takes longer to get through, that’s okay, because I’m going to be debt-free, but you gotta have that decision with yourself, like I graduated, and the month after graduation, I started a business and started saving for retirement, but it took me longer, so I think it’s worth it, but you gotta figure out, if you take less or more time to figure things out, will you keep your momentum…

0:15:12.8 S2: That’s the student’s choice.

0:15:14.5 S1: Yeah, that’s a good point. That is a very individual decision about what you want to do, I think sometimes people… Some students that I talk with, they discuss how they want the experience… I want to go to a four-year college, I want to live on campus, I want to be able to do X, Y, and Z. And I think that’s probably a pretty important part to, in what you’re discussing, of taking more time, looking at the potential of those transfer credits and clip exams and all of those different pieces, and.

0:15:49.2 S2: Even if someone’s going to live on campus a lot of degrees nowadays, they’re four year degrees, but a lot of people aren’t finishing them, even if they’re required to do student teaching or an internship at times is longer than four years if somebody wants… They could go and live on campus and in the summers, you could take a couple of clot tests and know you’re going to graduate on time. It’s your choice.

0:16:12.9 S1: Yeah. Oh, that’s such a good point. So what ages do you typically work with and are you focused more on students or parents or a combination?

0:16:27.7 S2: It has been a combination because I work with quite a few high school students, and then those are in college, it’s really been a variety, so the business I started after college was finding scholarships for students, and I could guarantee researching and finding thousands of dollars for them between 10 to 30000 in opera, but then they have to do the applying because that would be illegal for me to do…

0:16:54.8 S1: Yes, those ethical boundaries. Yeah.

0:16:58.4 S2: So I can find stuff for them, so we… In that realm, it’s been… Honestly, I cannot say one or the other in a variety men, women and high school and college students on their own doing this, however, I wanted to streamline this and help more people in a different reach than one-on-one. So I started my podcast and I do focus the niche on Christian college girls simply because, as you know, our quote suggests talking to who we were a few years ago, or in your case, you have all this career experience, so while that is my focus, and there are times I specifically talk more so to girls, to women of pretty much any of the financial advice is for anybody.

0:17:45.1 S1: Okay, that is amazing. So what is… As you’re working with families, what would you say is your ultimate goal?

0:17:53.7 S2: Sure. Thus far, the ultimate goal is usually just… Usually to help them get started, it’s usually they’re like, I’m stressed, and my word I like to use for what I want people to get to is relief, I want them to feel relief there are scholarships out there, there’s a possibility out there. As I have developed and tried to grow this business connected with podcasting, and I’m working on creating a course that will walk someone through this more accountability. The goal now is debt-free college, I would love to see it to completion, as so far, it’s mostly been a snapshot in someone’s life to help them find scholarships. The goal I would love to see is Debre College. However, if any moment along the way that they are find themselves, I hope that there can be a little bit of help and relief.

0:18:52.9 S1: That is such an important word, relief, that is one that I hear very often about the sense of overwhelm, in the sense of stress and how do we manage this? And we’re never going to be able to afford it. So I love that word, I… How can any of the people who are listening, how can they connect with you, what are the best ways for them to find out, Are you still doing individual coaching or are you moving straight into that course…

0:19:19.8 S2: I’m still doing some of that research coaching, and I will be moving into course mainly, but I’m hoping to have some offshoots of if someone’s going through the course and they need an unstuck session basically, and a focus on their exact situation, so I might show them how to find scholarships, or be teaching them how to fish instead of giving them a fish, but they might run into snags that only are applicable to their school, that is really weird, and so they can hire me for that, so I’m kind of streamlining over into this stuff, but I’ll still have the opportunities for… It’s almost like I want it to be the podcast, the course, and then branches of like if they need extra coaching or they still want to hire me to find them scholarships, I can do that because that’ll… Take out time.

0:20:13.7 S1: Is amazing. Yeah, yeah, that’s great. Yeah, so how can the people listening… How can they connect with you? A website, social media.

0:20:23.1 S2: I just love to save podcast, I do have a Facebook group that I just link in every description on the podcast, so you can find it there, I will throw it out there, it’s the Christian College grow community on Facebook. But it’s just the podcast, it’s all free stuff, there’s other things like I go into renting or getting cheap textbooks, did you know you can get paid to take notes if you’re a note taker for disability student… Wow, we can sit in class and you’re already there in class and you get paid… It’s usually minimum wage, but who cares? It’s gas money, Astaire at the gym. And when I didn’t have to check anyone in or out, I just worked out, and I got paid to work out, just there’s hacks, there’s other ways to gain money and do this un-conventionally…

0:21:13.2 S1: I love that. Maximizing your time and everything that you’re doing, I would imagine that as far as room and board for those that are staying on campus… That there are opportunities as well.

0:21:25.2 S2: Definitely, yeah, I mean, off the top of my head, someone becoming an RA and getting free room and board or other scholarships that apply… I will admit I did not do that, I commuted, so I don’t have all the hacks of that, but I have some, and I have people that I know I’ve done it, and if there’s more interest in that, I can interview people on the show who have gotten great. Room and board opportunities.

0:21:47.7 S1: Yeah, that would be great. Oh, I love this care. Thank you so much for sharing everything. So again, Carr’s podcast is money and mental peace, and she has her upcoming course, the debt-free college blueprint, so please make sure that you check her out, subscribe, because it sounds like they’re going to continue to be some amazing, amazing sessions and episodes to give you information about saving money. So Cara, thank you again for being here. Thanks so much. Alright, and again, thank you, Kara, for taking the time to talk with us this week, it was absolutely fabulous, and I hope that you all enjoyed that as much as I did. Care is a wealth of information, she has some fabulous hints, tips and tricks for you all. Again, just another reminder, we would love if you would leave us a review, you can also find us on social media, confused to ready. We are in the process of updating regularly, and we should have regular updates for you on that social media, the other thing that we have is our Facebook group that confused, a college ready. And then we also have our free download that we would love for you to check out so that you can start or expand your college search and see what those next steps are going to be for you, and you can download that at www confused ready Com.

0:23:21.0 S1: Take care.

pibus leo.