MSU Extension 4-H Adulting 101

Hi, everyone. Welcome to our Adulting 101 program. Today's topic is the Ins and Outs of Paying for Post-secondary Ed. With me today, we have Beth Martinez, and she is one of our Extension educators from MSU, who will be presenting. We also have Jinnifer Ortquist, who will be managing the chat as well as the Q&A. If you have any questions at all during the session, please use either, and we will answer those questions. Then we also have Juliana here as our ASL interpreter. So we're super excited that you decided to join us today. I'm sure there's going to be lots of resources and good tips on how to pay for your Post-secondary Ed. Welcome. And I'm going to turn it over to Beth. All right, Kathy, thank you. So we're coming to you from all over the state of Michigan. I'm in southeast in Wayne County, Kathy's in Macomb. Jinnifer's on the west side of the state. But we bring it to you here via Zoom so that we can have as many people as possible to join us. We've been doing these classes now for a few years, these Adulting 101 classes. And this one was on request. So hopefully, we have some good information for you. So please all questions are welcome. Keep them topical. Jinnifer will be monitoring, and if it's just something you want to know, that's fine, if it's something that will be applicable to everybody, then we'll answer them out loud. So let's dive in here. We start every one of our workshops with our And Justice for All poster, that MSU is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer and that our Extension programs are open to all without regard to and I'm not going to read every item on the list because it's the very long, beautiful list. We try very hard to be open to everybody and anybody and accommodate all. We also recognize that we occupy ancestral traditional contemporary lands of the Anishinaabeg and I think I probably did not say that correctly. On the Confederacy of Ojibwa, Odawa, and Potawatomi Peoples. We have been here since the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw. Our mission is to help people improve their lives through an educational process that applies knowledge to critical issues, needs and opportunities. Today's topic, student loans, whether or not you are not just student loans, but going and how we're going to pay for it, whether we want to go or not, what opportunities are available to us. Tonight, we're going to be respectful, inclusive, supportive, open minded, engaged, brave and ourselves. So we're going to talk about why is this important? Different funding options. Sometimes understanding some of the language and terminology, different types of post secondary education, the costs because it's not free usually, applying for student loans and then a little bit of summary and reflection. That's our agenda for this evening. Investing time, energy and money, and any type of post secondary education is a big deal. When I say post-secondary, it's anything after high school. It's the K through 12 is standard. If you go that route, get a high school diploma, but anything after high school is considered post-secondary. We want to think about we don't want to waste money and create a big debt. College is for a lot of people, but it's probably not for everybody. The costs keep going up. Like so many things, cost of post-secondary keeps going up. But education pays. It'll pay down the road. It may not be immediate, but it will pay. Let's look at what I mean by that. Jinnifer is going to put this link. It's the most recent one, the trends in higher education series. They put it out every couple of years. There's not a more recent one, the probably will be next year, but it talks about how education can pay for itself in the long run. So individuals with higher levels of education. I'm going to read this quote, earn more, pay more in taxes that goes back into our economy and are more likely than others to be employed. That's paying for itself. College enrollment rates are rising, but there are gaps in enrollment rates across demographic groups. That's always a challenge that MSU Extension tries is to be inclusive, including everybody, but there's still work to be done. Since 1989, employment rate for female high school graduates has exceeded males. Now, I will tell you I went to school before then, but it wasn't as common for females to go to college after high school. It has become a lot more and a lot more prevalent and speaking as a female, someone who identifies, I'm pretty happy about that. In 2021, and this is the most recent stats I could find, median earnings of a bachelor's degree, four year traditional degree, with no advanced, anything after that, were $29,000 per year higher than those of high school graduates. That's not bad. That'll spend, the unemployment rate for individuals age 25 and older with at least a bachelor's degree has been about half of the unemployment rate for somebody with just a high school diploma. So we can see how there's definitely a difference. So median earnings increase with your level of education. Now, there is some top off. It's not just a straight upward. There's variation depending on what field you go into. But generally, as your education goes up, most of the time, your income goes up with it. So I put together this chart just to illustrate post high school, ages 35 to 44, earning greater than $100,000 a year. That's pretty nice income. Without a high school diploma, only 4%. With a high school diploma, it goes up to 7%. With a bachelor's degree, for year, 35%. An advanced degree a master's or a PhD or some professional degree, doctor lawyer, 49% are earning greater than $100,000. You can see for this, it is absolutely an upward trajectory. It pays. Now, that is absolutely not the only way to get there, but it shows that it could be an easier way sometimes. What are funding options? How do we pay for this? There are different terminology. So grants, and I'm going to define all of these, work study, loans, scholarships, and then some other options. Let's talk about each of these. Thinking about who's paying for college, could be the student. Is it coming out of your pocket, or your income, are you taking out loans? You have parents or family who are helping with long term savings accounts, those are called 529 often. Maybe an inheritance, savings bonds, treasury bonds, regular savings account. Some employers will help with further education. We work for MSU. If we wanted to go on to school, take more degrees, they would pay for part of our college. I worked for other employers in the past who would pay for part of my postgrad. Absolutely look and asks. The goal is that you're supplementing loans with savings, cost savings to not borrow more than you need. The rule of thumb is not to borrow more than you're going to earn in your first year working in your field. There's all sorts of studies out there for average incomes in the first year in many, many different fields. So as you're thinking about how you're paying for it, take a look at the field you want to go into or think you want to go into, see what the salary is going to be and use that as a guideline. What is a grant? Grant is the finest kind. It is financial assistance, sometimes based on need , usually does not have to be repaid. So you get it towards a post secondary education, and it goes right to your tuition, maybe room and board. You don't have to pay it back. That's the finest kind. Now, work study is a combination. It's needs based, so income based. Students work usually on campus sometimes off, and it's part of their whole financial aid package, and we'll talk more about that, how that might work. These are just two ways. Scholarships are a type of financial assistance. They are often merit based. It could be grade point, it could be the field you're going into based on achievements, extracurriculars, sports would fall into that, membership in different groups, and sometimes need. Then there's loans, money borrowed for educational that has to be paid back. Any combination can help pay for secondary education. It doesn't have to be just one all or one. It can be a combination of grant, scholarship, work study, and loans. Do we do what we need to do to achieve our goal? Other options. I get a gift from family and friends. I have friends who gifted they saved. They were very good savers, and they paid for their kids college, but then their kids had to pay them back. They didn't need to take out loans. It was a gift upfront, but then it had to be repaid. Sometimes being part of an organization that pays for education just as the military or ROTC or National Guard. If you put in so much time, they'll pay for your education, some businesses. Savings or something called a 529 plan, and Jinnifer is going to put the link for Michigan saves in. 529 plan is a long term savings plan. Oftentimes, parents, grandparents will start them when a child is very young. And contribute to them so that when it's time for them to go to school, there's money there. To pay for their education, and it pays for more than just tuition. It used to be very, very strict and just tuition base, but now it can pay for room and board, can pay for transportation, for housing, for food, can pay for a computer. They broadened what you can use it for to make it more attractive for people to save in that plan. Michigan has one, it's a pretty good one, but pretty much every state in the country has one. If you look up 529 in your state, I noticed we had somebody here from Chicago. They definitely have one. You can use them not just in your state. Again, they've expanded them. Make sure you read the rules in the fine print, but they're a great way to save. Income from a job or employment, or become an entrepreneur, start your own business, and then use the profits to pay for an education. So we've thrown out the term post-secondary. What does that mean? After high school. But there's more than one kind. Community College or junior college. They're used interchangeably. They mean the same thing. It's usually in the surrounding community. I'm in Wayne County, there's Wayne County Community College. The county north of me Oakland County Community College. Many I know that there is there's one in the Lansing area, Lansing Community College because a couple of my nephews went there. They're usually two years, sometimes four years. They're public and community or county based. Tuition is usually much less expensive than a traditional. Four year school. It's sometimes a good place to get started, get your foot in the door, see if this is what you want to do before we go both feed in and invest everything. So then four year college or university, offer bachelor's degrees. So just offer four year degrees, but most offer four year and then post graduates. So grad school, doctoral programs, medical school, veterinarian school, law just to name a couple of professional schools. They're usually made up of different colleges within the university. And so we're, of course, with MSU, or with the Extension part of it, but we have a College of Education. We have a College of Agriculture. Natural resources. We have a med school, a vet school, a dental school. There's a lot of colleges within the university. They could be state universities like we are, but they could also be private four year colleges. They offer some of the same degrees, but sometimes the cost will be different. Then there's trade school. Maybe traditional college is not for you. I was working with some young men yesterday, and I think I had five of them and three of them wanted to go to trade school, which is really cool. Trade school is post-secondary, but it's to train students for a specific job in a skilled trade. So if you want to be an electrician, Then you might go to a school or become an apprentice, which is the next one to learn how to be an electrician or to be a plumber, or it's called HVAC, which is air conditioning. They have or some technical machinist. They have specialized schools that teach you to do that. Then what they do after they've trained you is they help you find a position, for the most part. That's not guaranteed, but for the most part, they'll help you find somewhere. Um, and then there's apprenticeships which work sort of hand in hand sometimes with the trade schools that to train future workforce. And MSU has an apprenticeship resources. Then I'll show you in just a minute. But so I know an electrician. Started as an apprentice. We had somebody who used to work in our 4-H department a couple of years ago, who decided that he wanted to do something different. He wanted to work more with his hands. And so he joined the International Electricians Union and became an apprentice and is quite happy because it worked better for him. It was just a better fit for him. And just because we're 18, doesn't mean we know exactly what we want to do. We might try some things out, see what's a good fit for us. MSU and Jinnifer will put this in has it's called apprenticeship 101, and it has a lot of resources to find apprenticeships that may suit your interests or your needs. If that's the path that you're looking at, check it out. So programs to help us pay, right? For the Michigan folks, and I know we have a lot of you on here. There's two new community college programs that just came online this year. And one of them is called the Michigan Guarantee. You have to complete a FAFSA, and we'll show you what that is. It's a federal form for student assistance. You have to have lived in Michigan since July of the previous year. Must be either a US citizen, a permanent resident or approved refugee. It's pretty broad, Right?Aand graduate from a Michigan high school. Then you can go to a two year community College, tuition free. Now, there's another one called Michigan Reconnect. This is for a little bit older, 21, that's not a lot older. Lived in Michigan for at least a year, have a high school diploma or a GED. And I had GEDs general equivalent. We, I'm going to mess it up. It is a test you take to get a high school diploma. I'm sorry. I can't define those terms. So if you, you know, in high school, and then you may, for some reason, didn't finish, but you just want to get the test to get that diploma. You could take your GED. Sometimes you have to take a class, sometimes you can just take the test, and then you have the equivalent of a high school diploma. Works the same way. You can't have completed another college degree to take the Michigan Reconnect. But you can apply online. And we will send out these resources to everybody who's here today. Um So these are really cool. These are brand new programs, and they're helping open doors to folks who want to go on to college, but paying for it was a real challenge. So what does it cost? So Tuition for the 23-24 college year, started last September through May. Tuition for in state public was $11,260 for a state or public. For a private college, it was $41,540. It's a big bump. For a two year, if you are in district, it was $3990. You can see the change in how much it's going to cost you. But there's trade offs, too. Going to a big name school, going to a smaller private, starting at a two year, there's pros and cons for both for all of them. So then we have to buy textbooks, and a lot of textbooks are shifting to online, but you still have to pay for them. The average, depending on what your major is $1240-1460. So if you're in the sciences or engineering, they tend to be a little bit more expensive? And then how are we going to get around? Right? Do we need a car? Do we have insurance? a bike ?campus parking pass? I know when my oldest went to school, she went out of state, and she didn't have a car for the first couple years. But then the last year, we had a car, we had insurance. We had a parking pass. So it sort changed our out of pocket. Where are you living? Are you staying at home? Are we paying rent? Are we living on campus? Are we living in an apartment off campus? Are you staying year round all 12 months or just for the school year. These are things that you need to know and think about before you get into your housing or rental agreement. Because if you're going to go to school, say, September through May and then go home until the next September. But your lease where you were living is for all 12 months, then you have to pay those months whether you're staying there or not. If you're living in the dorms, when do the dorms close? Do we have somewhere to stay? Are we going home, relatives, friends? So think about. Those are definitely the things to think about. Now, you're going to need a computer or a laptop, right? How fancy it is depends on your major. We're going into the arts. We may need a Super Mac. I'm not really an I person, so I can, but you might need graphic designing, different requirements. Maybe you just need your basic laptop. Then we got to eat. We have to eat. Are we making our own food? Are we living in the dorms? Is there a meal plan? All of these are it's not just tuition. Everyone thinks, that's what the tuition is, but there's a lot more that goes into paying for college. So if you would take a minute, what other expenses do you think you might have to cover other than the list? I just mentioned. What did we leave off? You can put it in the chat and then maybe Jinnifer will share it with me. Take a minute. So here's my list. What did I leave off? All right. Some good things coming in child care, maybe social activities or recreation, medical care. Social activities. Students need social activities. Absolutely. Maybe sports attendance or whether you play or attend the sports games. Someone made a really good point. What if you don't live on campus, but you're going to commute, so you're going to travel to and from, so maybe some fuel costs. Quite a few people are thinking about medical expenses as well. So a real good array of different things. Study abroad. Oh, that's a good one, too. If your department doesn't cover that, you're right. You may have to foot some of those travel costs. Excellent. Great ideas, everybody. I'm glad you guys are thinking outside the box. So now I will have to revise my slide and add to it for the next time. But thank you. Those are really great ideas. All right, so let's talk about financial aid, right? How we're going to pay for it. So financial aid is exclusive to students attending post secondary education in the United States. So the study abroad is an awesome idea. But financial aid doesn't necessarily cover that. That's sort of an add on. For all financial aid, you're going to fill out the infamous FAFSA form. Free Application For Student Aid. It's a link. It's a form completed by current and perspective. Students annually United States, and it determines your eligibility for student financial aid. And so you fill it out the first time usually when you're starting, and then you have to renew it every year you're in school. It gets easier after the first year, but it's going to help determine if we're getting work study, if we're getting grants, what student loans we may or may not be eligible for. This is where it starts. There are different kind of loans. There are federal and private. Federal student loans are issued by the government through the Department of Education. There are protections and options for repayment. And payments can be deferred until you're done with school. Now they don't have to be. You can always pay more while you're in school, but a lot of people choose to wait until they're done. You have a six month window once you're not going full time. Whether or not you graduated. So if you stop going, you still have six months, but then the repayment will start. But there are a lot of different programs to repay. This is not our focus this evening, but it's definitely something to think about. Now, if you get a private loan, private financial institutions, banks, credit unions, some online, usually repayment starts upon the issue of the money. And it's credit based. If you're 18 and don't have a lot of credit history and you really can't because you can't really start having credit until you're 18, it's going to be a little harder to get these to obtain them. They're also your interest rate is driven by your credit and your credit score. Now, some of them are deferred payments and can be a line of credit, but understand that interest starts accruing right away, and you don't have the same protections as you do with a federal student loan. And so we have to do a budget or spending plan, how much does it cost? And it's going to be different from person to person, from college or university, public, private. So what are your options? We talked about savings, work study, loans, any combination of those. So once you've applied and gotten in and filled out your FAFSA, Your school is going to give you an invoice or a bill of expected costs. Read it carefully because it will assume that you're living on campus. Now somebody said, what if you're commuting? Okay? That's a little bit of a red flag there. The invoice is going to assume that you're going full time, that you're living on campus, that you're in the dorms, that you're paying for a food plan. So they have to give you what's called a net price calculator, and it's really important and here's why. They're giving it to you. Im using MSU. MSU is going to say, well, here's your tuition for a full time, here's your room and board, and here's your food plan, and here there are other fees that go with it, and I'll have a bottom line there. If you're applying for loans through the FAFSA program and hit that button for that full amount, even if you don't need the whole amount, you've borrowed more than you need, and that can get really expensive. Now, if we make a mistake and borrow more than we need, we do have the option to pay back the part we didn't need. We have the option not to borrow in the future to put that aside and use it. But what happens is at the end of every semester, the unused part comes to the student, and that's a really attractive check. I will tell you when my son was in undergrad, I didn't know this. It was about ten, 12 years ago. I didn't realize. He said he was handling it. I got this mom. I'm going to handle this. I'm an adult. I'm doing this on my own. I never saw that bottom line. He wasn't living on campus. He wasn't eating on campus, but we borrowed like he was. We borrowed more than we needed. Juliana froze. I'm wondering if there she goes, she's back. So we borrowed more than we needed. Now, the school he was at did give him those checks back, but we'd already borrowed that. Our total borrowed was more than we needed. Really, think about what you need. And then ask for what you need because they might give you more than you need. I don't want people to borrow more money than they have to. Then the other thing is that we recognize that people have different financial practices across cultures. There may be cultures that don't allow you to pay or earn interest. You 'may, usually through a religious organization, tithe, which is giving a percentage of your income, and so that cuts down on what you have available. And then remittances. If you are here, but you're sending money back to friends or family members. It changes how you manage your money. And so we just want to be cognizant and aware that people do things differently. So, again, I can't emphasize this enough. Borrow what you need, right? Don't do it just because you can. Because you'll end up paying a lot more over the long run and be in debt more than you needed to be. Choices. So when we're filling out the FAFSA, if you have all you need, it's not that tricky, but gather everything together. So you have to set up a FAFSA ID, and you'll use that every time Jinnifer will give you this link, know your Social Security number. If you have a driver's license, you'll need that proof of income, tax returns, record of any income. So if you have a W2 or a paystub, how much you have in checking and savings accounts. And so if you are a dependent, both you and your parents will be filling this out. So it's not just you, it's you and your parents because you are dependent students. Let's talk about, let me move this over to the side here. So scenarios here. George has skills. He's going to get an award from a local business to become an electrician. Is this a grant, a work study, a loan, a scholarship, or another option. Put your response in the chat for me. What have his skills done for him? We have three people saying a scholarship. One is saying a private scholarship. Someone thinks a grant. I can tell this one it stumped, everyone, just to smidge Beth. Because the responses are a little bit slower than I expected. It started with the trickiest one. So it's a grant, right? They are receiving an award. They are granting him money that he doesn't have to pay back. So that one was a little bit tricky. So whoever got grant, you know, good for you. I think I'm going to say your name right.Naomi? They got it right. Okay. Excellent. Excellent. All right. So Katherine is receiving federal pL funding from the government and will not have to repay it. Grant, work study, loan, scholarship, other. All right. A lot more confident and quick response. Is a lot of people said grants. Yep . Yep. Pell grants are usually need based. Based on income, family income, but you don't have to pay them back. And so it's an excellent way to continue your education. All right, we have Raymond here. He's a student working in the college bookstore, a job funded with federal student aid. Wages from his job go towards paying his college expenses. Grant, work study, loan, scholarship, or other. We're coming in a rapid fire. A lot of folks think it's a work study situation, Beth. Got it. All right. All right, we're on a roll here. We're on a roll. We had a slow start, but we're moving. All right, got another one. Wilson Family is a long time customer at a local bank. And when the children were young, their parents started a savings plan at the bank to help fund their post secondary education. Grant, work study, loan, scholarship, or other option. I think a couple of people said 529 plan or other. A lot of folks think it's some other options. Well, 529 is other, it's savings. So Excellent. Excellent. So it's more than one. So they're not borrowing, they're not doing grants, but they started early. They were able to, and so they've got that savings to pay for their kids to go to post-secondary. Excellent. All right. So Greg's starting a small business to help pay for additional education. Is this a grant, a work study, a loan, a scholarship, or an other option? Greg has a side hussle. Seeing other entrepreneur. We had one person thought that it might be other, mostly others. And then, which I would think the entrepreneur is spot out also. An entrepreneur, someone has got a side hule to help pay for their tuition, so they don't have to borrow as much, but they can still their goal of post-secondary. So excellent. Excellent. We got. All right. So think about who we've got here of everybody here, how you're going to pay for it. Remember it doesn't have to be an all or nothing. It can be any combination. My son had a pell loan and a student loan. My daughter had a scholarship, and then she had a small student loan. That's just two combinations. My niece had a private loan. Because she forgot to apply for her FAFSA, she needed tuition, so we had to help her get a private loan that she was going to pay back. But they all still got to go to school. Any combination, maybe you have some savings that you put towards it, and then you maybe borrow or you work or a side hustle. Again, what's your goal? Your goal is post-secondary. Whatever that looks like, community college, trade, four year, grad school. What do you need to do? To achieve your goal. The path is going to be probably not straight, and that's okay. We've talked about four different kinds and the different costs involved with them. And you guys gave me a great list. So I'm going to be adding on to this workshop when we're done. So, Some people will have to pay for their own medical that they won't be covered under parents. And so there's always the affordable care act that can help you get very, very reasonable insurance. Those are really great points. I thank you for that. Think about what you've learned. What you're going to do with this information. And hoping I didn't give anybody anxiety because talking about money can always be hard. That's true. There was one good question in the chat box. It was actually Q&A Beth I wanted to bring to light. The question was, Do credit unions offer scholarships? Now, what I have seen with some local credit unions Excuse me in the Grand Rapids area is that there's often essay opportunities, where it's more of a competitive situation where you submit an essay and then who's ever lucky enough to be the winner, that might receive some funding. I also want to make sure that Beth can speak to that too. Also, another question, Do most scholarships come from universities or going through local scholarships? I would say it's a combination. Absolutely. Because, you know, some scholarships are academic, some are ability, for example, in sports. It just depends. And I mentioned in the chat pot, a group in a small town, and we're really fortunate to have some major employers who would offer 1,000 or $2,000 scholarships, which would help for books. They were one time one and done. But if you could get a couple of those, at least your freshman year that helped. There was one other question to that I didn't want to miss. A real good question. Do you know whether or not a college student has to be going to college full time in order to stand parents health insurance plan? Now, Beth, my recollection was it was up to age 26. Do you know if that's changed? It has not changed. That's part of the Affordable Care Act that you do not have to be in school at all, part time or full time to stay on your parents' insurance until you are age 26. And so that's a nice umbrella, you know, while we're, getting our feet started, wet, getting going. So it's not a full time or a part time. It's just an age thing for one of a better word. So one good question. I don't know the answer to this. Do you know of apps that consolidate s scholarship sources? I don't know that. I have heard some local friends share that they were able to find state and federal grants, but they had to do a lot of research on their own on the website. On different websites, just really doing some Internet searches, so I'm not aware of an app that consolidates all that unless. Beth? I don't think there's an app. I mean, there's scholarships.com. But a lot of those like hundreds of people apply like Coca Cola has been giving out scholarships for years. They're not just for people who are in Georgia because that's where Coca Cola is based, but I have yet to find a Michigan person who ever got one of those, although anybody from anywhere in the US is welcome to apply for them. So start, you know, One of the let me see if I can find it. These are good questions. Michigan student aid michigan.gov is one place to start. Again, we'll share these with there is a tuition incentive program for students who are Medicaid eligible. Of the Education Pays site through College Board, whoever brought up credit unions, yes, I know there's a local one near me too that every year gives out $500 for local. You can find some through the FAFSA through application, studentaid.gov and Michigansaves.gov. But try the Michigan site and see what's out there. Then when you know where you want to go, They probably have some specific scholarships, too. So I mentioned Lansing Community College. Two of my nephews went there, and they had community college scholarships. And so one of my nephews had done really well in high school, and he was able to get free tuition before the new Michigan program came out. And so, ask your school. They always have scholarships. They always have programs. They're going to work with you to help you pay for it because they want you to succeed. The one question is, what is the best way to gain an academic scholarship? I would say two things. One, it doesn't hurt to look at some of the school eligibility requirements that you're thinking about attending on their website in regards to academic scholarships. But if you are still in high school or even reaching out to financial aid offices, inquiring what guidance they may be able to provide as well. Because some of it will depend upon where you're going. A lot of it is GPA merit based. But I'm always cautious about giving a general answer because sometimes it does depend on the situation. Well, and I will say that when we showed cost differentials, private colleges cost a great deal more. But what most of them have done is they do have scholarship programs to try to level the playing field so that the scholarships they have make it comparable to go to the private schools, versus the public universities, because otherwise, not many people would be able to go to the private colleges and they want a mix of folks from all over the place. And so those are sometimes their achievement base, sometimes they're merit based, sometimes they are GPA based or some combination of that. But every year, I think it's the US World Report comes out with a whole list of colleges. I used to be a book. I think now most of it is probably online, and it breaks down colleges. It breaks down programs that they have and don't have, majors they have, the costs, and then you start doing your research and narrow down based on what is important to you, and then start looking at what they can do for you. So, MSU has some really wonderfully great programs. And when I mentioned nephews, I have a lot of nephews and nieces, and all of them have done it very differently. So I had On nephew who went to Eastern Michigan. I know the competition. He he said, How can I come here for free? They're like, Well, we do have 100% scholarship, but he's like, No, that's one I want to work towards. And to his credit, he did earn it, and he didn't graduate with a whole lot of student debt. Another thing is on campus, if you're staying on campus, if you become a resident assistant, that helps pay for your room and board, and so that's less money that you would need. Just trying to pull ideas out of the back of my mind. There's a lot of different ways to do it. Maybe it takes you a little bit longer. Maybe we don't take a full load, but we still achieve our goal. So any other questions? You guys have kept us on our toes this evening. I was another good one too. I'm trying to definitely make sure we're honoring all the different comments. Two people put in some suggestions for resources they have found that have allowed them to research scholarships. I've never heard of them before. We can't endorse products or services. But again, if you're following the chat pot, there have been some suggestions that have been made. The one question that I wanted to honor is, is there anything special for low paying careers like the ministry? Students that choose to go into a low paying career would never be able to pay back loans. And I hear the frustration and concern there. I'm always again, cautious about words like always and never. We have a great webinar that's free on "Make the spending plan work for you" that helps folks look at how to balance income and expenses and pay down debt. But I would say that some of the income based repayment plans and some of the loan forgiveness programs. If you do work for an organization like a nonprofit that is a qualifying location, you may be able to have some of your loans forgiven. That's always something to research. But again, it can be difficult when you do choose to go into nonprofit. I can say most of my career has been a nonprofit. But I would also say that money management can help with paying back bills. Then there was one other question Beth that I wanted your 2 cents too. Does any of your advice differ for online college? Do you want to speak to that? A good question. That's a really good question. I think that it's going to be how you operate better. Some people need to be in that classroom, Puts in the seat listening to the instructor. Some others do better doing it at their own pace and still achieve the same goal. I'm going to use one more relative as an example. My son is currently enrolled in a college, four year accredited. And it's all online because that works for him. He works full time. He doesn't have the time to go to traditional school right now. He takes online classes. As long as he turns his assignments in by the due date, he doesn't have to be anywhere at a specific time specific place. If you're working and going to school, that might be an ideal situation for you. What works for you? We don't all go just straight to a four year school or a trade school. There's a lot more options than there used to be. And so what's your lifestyle, what's your style, what's your goal, and then start working for programs that work to help you achieve that. I just want to comment just the very nature of online education. You're going to have some cost savings because you're not going to have a room and board. You're not going to have to have a meal plan. There's no gas involved. So So all of those things that would be expense would add to your cost because it's in person, some of those things could be then eliminated if it's online. But like Beth said, it needs to align with, you know, how do you learn and other factors, not just the financial, but anyway. And Beth mentioned it, and I reiterated in the chat because I wasn't exactly sure maybe where your question was coming from about the online. If you're asking about assistance and scholarships and things, issue is whether or not institution is accredited or not. That's huge because a lot of these programs are going to be contingent on a university being in good standing and accredited. So I hope we answered your question. That was a quick question. Yeah. And accredited means they've gone through the steps to become, to show that the quality of their programming is there. So something for you to think about. I have one quick little tip to share before. We end if we have time. I want to make sure I'm missing anything. If you're fortunate enough to receive financial aid to support or co support your college experience, I can tell you a quick personal story. I had enrolled for financial aid, I was fortunate to receive financial aid letter. This is grad school. I'm out of state, and all of a sudden, I get a big bill saying your expenses are past due. After my heart started beating again, I ran to the financial aid office only to discover that there had been a hiccup in the financial department communicating with the university. And it got all worked out, but I want to just make sure that people are, you know, you do receive financial aid, make sure you know where that financial aid office is on campus. In case you receive a bill that you're not expecting, you know who to go talk to right away. That's a great cautionary tale. Yes, it is. It's a great story. All right. That's all I had this evening. Thank you. Before you leave though, I'm going to put in the chat a quick survey. It's like four or five questions, if you can take just a few minutes to fill it out. Also, I'm going to put another survey in. We are in the process of planning for next year's Adulting 101 program, and we want your feedback. So I'm going to put another survey in and if you can maybe fill that one out as well. That way you could have an impact on what is offered next year. I want to thank Beth and Jinnifer and Juliana for being here today. They gave some great information. And I also wanted to do a plug for our next Adulting 101 session, which will be in November, and it's related to this topic. It's about Cracking the Code to College. So we have some people from the admissions office who are going to be talking about what do they look for when they admit people into a college, how to write your college essay, and all the tips about filling out an application for college. So a good topic. It will be on November, 19th, which is a Tuesday 5-6 Eastern Time. So we hope you will join us. This session was recorded. I will be sending in follow up e mail, probably in the next few days with the resources that Beth shared and information about this survey and our overall survey to get feedback on how we can make this program better in topics that you might like to see in the future. So we appreciate all your input in providing that information. So Thanks, everybody. Thank you, too, everybody. Have a good rest of your night.