In this episode, Carolyn Nelson, Scholarship Director of Admissions for Minnesota State University, talks about how students can set themselves up for success when it comes to scholarships.
Join students of the Financial Planning program at Minnesota State University along with Dr. Dan Hiebert as they share tips and best practices to help you save, manage, and invest money while in college and beyond. A podcast made by students for students.
Daniel Hiebert: Well, greetings, listeners, and welcome back to math money talk. This is episode
four, and we have a special guest on today. Carolyn Nelson, who is the Minnesota State Mankato scholarship director of admissions,
Daniel Hiebert: and if I have that right Carolyn, please correct me, for sure. But we're just
really thankful for you for carving out part of your busy day here to talk to our listeners about all things, scholarship, and even student loan related. So, I�m going to pass it over to Charlie, who's on our call as well.
Daniel Hiebert: So, Charlie, take it away.
Charlie Frazzini: Thank you, Dan., my name is Charlie Frazzini and I�m. A part of the Mav. Money talks podcast, and today we'll be talking to Carolyn Nelson about scholarships and we're going to find out what scholarships are who can get them, how to stand out as a potential scholarship, candidate,
Charlie Frazzini: and ways to find out more information about scholarships at MSU. And with that. I'd like to introduce you to Carolyn Nelson.
Carolyn Nelson: Hi Everybody so happy to be here today representing Minnesota State University, Mankato. But also, I hope that this information is just helpful to anybody who want might want to have some advice about applying for scholarships. Maximizing, I should say minimizing what
you're paying for school and this investment in your future. So, I�m happy to be here today. Thanks for having me.
Charlie Frazzini: Yeah, awesome. Thank you. Do you want to just start out and tell us a little bit about yourself?
Carolyn Nelson: My name is Carolyn Nelson. I�m a Minnesota State University, Mankato alum Twice over. I have my undergraduate degree in Political science and a master's degree in educational leadership. I have fifteen years of experience working in higher education, especially in enrollment management, and a higher education financing. I presented several times at the National Scholarship Providers Association, National conference
Carolyn Nelson: on scholarship management, best practices, and emergency aid programs as well.
Charlie Frazzini: Awesome. Wow That's a long list of experience, I can tell you're very qualified. So, the first question is just some general information about a scholarship. What is it?
Carolyn Nelson: And then do you want to just give a little information about scholarships at MSU
Carolyn Nelson: money that they don't have to repay right, and a scholarship when you're talking
about scholarships. Usually, you're talking about money that's awarded, based on some measure of merit. And so oftentimes it's academic merit. That might be, your major, certainly your GPA.
Carolyn Nelson: But it also might be merit in terms of, if you're a musician and you're going to be contributing to the Maverick machine athletic band, right? You're bringing a talent
and a merit to this, to the table, and you might be deserving of a talent-based scholarship.
Carolyn Nelson: But really scholarships are awards that recognize some sort of merit in the in an individual, and it's an oftentimes an incentive also for enrolling at the University, and a reward for what you've done previous, but also recognition of potential for the future as well.
Carolyn Nelson: Here at Minnesota State University, Mankato, we offer recruitment based
scholarships. to new incoming students based on their high School, GPA. And the things that they've done and accomplished in high school. And then once they enroll with us, we want them to
continue to work hard with us, right? And so annually we do about two million dollars here at the University through six hundred and plus unique scholarship opportunities. We try to make things as
simple as possible for students to apply. Recognizing that that application process can
Carolyn Nelson: to be a barrier for students, and applying and accessing these funds, especially those students who need at the most.
Carolyn Nelson: And so, we utilize a tool called Scholarship Finder, which one students log in with their unique university Id they're able to be matched to the scholarships that they uniquely are
qualified for. And so, we recognize that you're
Carolyn Nelson: Time is an investment, too. And so, we don't want you as a business student to be applying for engineering scholarships, and we don't want engineering students to be applying for
psychology specific scholarships. So, once you log in, you can complete a general application and
based on the information that we know about you. From your student record we can match you to scholarships that you uniquely are qualified for. So, we don't want to waste your time. Your time is precious as a student, and we try to keep things as simple as possible for you.
Charlie Frazzini: Yeah, that's awesome. I've looked at the scholarship finder, and there's so many scholarships. It's crazy, you. But you just search, to do a great job at
narrowing it down because you could be a business student from a specific part of the State with this GPA.
Charlie Frazzini: And get a scholarship. And I think that's cool. There's that level specificity with the scholarships, and
Charlie Frazzini: from those Are there any more general scholarships? They're like some popular ones that you should be applying for, because it's kind of a no-brainer. Yeah, there are some that some that are going to be specific to different majors like I mentioned specific to extracurriculars.
But there are some scholarships that are just open to every single student at the University. So, one I always like to mention is our MAV care student scholarship is open to everyone. We also have one full tuition scholarship. That's the Margaret Prescott scholarship. She's a former president here at the University. And every couple of years we're able to offer that up to everybody.
Carolyn Nelson: It's nice incentive there to have that full tuition scholarship there. But we really for those ones we're looking for our university leaders, regardless of what their academic major is one.
Charlie Frazzini: And then, for those scholarships. Are there any essay requirements, or they are pretty General?
Carolyn Nelson: Yes, sometimes. You're giving me the opportunity to make a pitch for students to, not wait to the last minute to apply for scholarships. Right? So, our scholarship season here at the University occurs in the month of February, and about ninety percent of applications are submitted in the last week,
Carolyn Nelson: It's to your benefit as a scholarship applicant, wherever that might be, to apply and log in early to review the application materials that they're going to be asked. So, if a
scholarship is going to be asking you for a letter of recommendation, if you want a positive letter of recommendation, it's best practice for you to give that faculty your employer
recommendation time to do the recommendation for you.
Carolyn Nelson: And so, If there are essays that you might need to have completed. go ahead and take some time to be planful and thoughtful in those essay responses, too, and generally you
know, the larger
Charlie Frazzini: the dollar amount. The more effort is required from students as well.
Charlie Frazzini: The Admissions office is looking for people applying for scholarships.
Carolyn Nelson: I think the most important thing that students can be when they're applying for scholarships is their own authentic self.
Carolyn Nelson: And so, as someone who reviews hundreds of scholarship applications annually, I don't know what my number is over my whole ten year, but it's very easy to tell if a student is using their authentic voice as being their own. They're the ones writing the application and not regurgitating what they think that they should say right, and so be yourself.
Carolyn Nelson: and an authentic voice. is very easy for seasoned scholarship reviewers to identify
Carolyn Nelson: It's also important for you to know who you are in the scholarship
application, process. And so, what about you is unique, unique in this applicant pool? And so, everyone in an application. Applicant pool is meeting basic and minim requirements. And so, what makes you stand out in that pool? Right? If you are applying for a large scholarship, recognizing
that, probably everybody in this a scholarship pool has a 3.8 GPA. If that's the minimum requirement.
Carolyn Nelson: So maybe it's wonderful that you are in the National Honor Society.
Carolyn Nelson: But so, is everyone else right? And so what else are you doing? Right? Are you engaged in something uniquely entrepreneurial. Have you started your own business? Have you? Are you
Carolyn Nelson: an Eagle scout compared to like? Are you engaged in the Boy Scouts of America? Sorts of programs. So, think about those things that are your unique qualities. Sometimes it's that you are the first in your family, to be accessing higher education. Sometimes that means that you are,
caring for your younger brothers and sisters at home, or that you're a first-generation immigrant, and you speak three different languages. Right? So, thinking about those things that make you unique as an individual and a qualified pool and making sure to highlight those things.
Charlie Frazzini: Yeah, and that sounds a lot like it's the intro to an actual job
application and going into the real world, they from what I've gathered. Employers like to see authenticity, and they like to see that you've done things beyond the classroom,
Charlie Frazzini: and that's kind of what it sounds like, but it's like a good introduction into that, because it's for scholarships.
Carolyn Nelson: I often tell students to treat a scholarship application just like they would a resume. It should be a fluid document that you update annually
Carolyn Nelson: with the new things that you're doing, and you're engaging in, and that you customize to different scholarship opportunities, right? So, every scholarship, application, especially with external scholarship applications that you might be doing outside of the University.
Carolyn Nelson: Those should all be uniquely customized to those different scholarship. Application processes just like you would apply differently to you, submit a different resume. You should be submitting a different resume to different employers
Charlie Frazzini: So, would it be accurate to say that when you're applying for scholarships, even if you don't get the scholarship.
Charlie Frazzini: The worst-case scenario is, you just got better practice, for when you actually apply for another job, interview or position, you want to get down the line.
Charlie Frazzini: Yeah, practice makes perfect, right?
Charlie Frazzini: Last question I like to ask is, what is kind of a general best piece of advice for somebody who's trying to make college as affordable as possible. Maybe just kind of pool together all the different opportunities.
Carolyn Nelson: College accessibility is so tied up in affordability, and I know that this topic is on the mind of many different students and their families. And so, I think one of the things that you did correctly, Charlie, is that you chose a high quality affordable option, like Minnesota, State University, Mankato, and that was, I hope, that that was conscious right that it was a good fit for you academically, but also, you are investing in your future when you are attending our University.
being planful with that investment, like any other investment you might make in the future is important. And so, I think it's important for students and families to sit down and make a budget, a family budget, a student budget. How have conversations about how this investment is going to happen. Is it going to be through scholarships? Is it going to be through? student employment Is your family going to be able to contribute some to your education, to make time to apply for need-based financial aid like the FAFSA and so just like scholarships, need based aid like Pell grant don't have to be repaid.
Carolyn Nelson: And so, being intentional about those types of need based financial aid that you take out can be important accessing scholarships at our university, but also taking some time to do an
external scholarship search to. And again, while you're doing those external scholarship searches
and be intentional about how you were applying. If you're just entering the search word scholarships into Google, you come up with one hundred an overwhelming number of things to apply for. But if you start to put in search terms like scholarships in Minnesota, scholarships for STEM science, technology, engineering, and math students. Science in Minnesota scholarships for STEM students who are women, right as you're starting to build those scholarship, search around the things that you are uniquely qualified for. Now you are kind of getting to the scholarship that you are likely to be not only a qualified applicant for, but a successful applicant as well.
Charlie Frazzini: It would just be very overwhelming if you look on Google for any scholarship, because I thought it was kind of overwhelming just looking at every scholarship at MSU.
Charlie Frazzini: So yeah, and one kind of piece of advice I�d like to give is when you're choosing your college and trying to make it as affordable as possible. I think the best thing to do is kind of look at your goals and make sure that the university. You want to attend aligns with those goals. Maybe it's a career, choice or affordability or location.
Charlie Frazzini: I know a lot of people when you're eighteen years old. Maybe. Just think about how I can have fun and be with my friends and have the best college experience. But in a couple of years that will go away, and your career and making colleges affordable as possible will be probably your top priority. So just sitting down like you, said, budgeting and talking with your family about your goals before you go to college. That's a huge thing that people need to take advantage of.
Carolyn Nelson: Yeah, I want to recognize to that for a lot of families and a lot of
students that the need to take out student loans is really a part of that conversation. And so, a good rule of thumb that I've always kind of used for students when they're making decisions about taking out loans or saying how much is too much. Maybe right is if you're planning to you don't want to take out more in student loans over the course of your four years and completing your education than what you can expect. Your starting salary might be in that profession. And so that dollar amount is going to be different for an engineer than it is, maybe for a social worker or a teacher. And so that doesn't mean that you should just take out all that you might need. Right? You should be living within a student budget, and that really means like you can afford a new pair of sunglasses occasionally. But you probably can't afford a pair of Gucci sunglasses right and so practical and smart with how you're expect your expensive look while you're a student is important to think maybe people, when they hear living within their means and budgeting. They might take it too far, and I can only I can never eat out. I can only buy, or not
Charlie Frazzini: You think they have to go all in
Carolyn Nelson: Yeah, yeah. And I think sometimes students say, well, I can just work more. I can just work more right.
Carolyn Nelson: And we know here at the University that, if you are being successful as a student, you really need to be committing at least forty hours per week to your educational experience to going to class, to prepping and preparing for class to doing the re reading materials. And so, if you're really treating your university experience as a full-time job. You ought to be spending forty hours a week on being successful in the classroom, and so that limits your ability to work
outside of the classroom and be successful here. So, we know that students who work more than twenty hours a week
Carolyn Nelson: Have a harder time being academically successful at our university. Because you must sleep somewhere, right? You need to have good a lot of sleep. And so, it is important to think about as a student, not only how you might work to pay for school, but also, I think, a work experience can be a positive educational experience as well whether that's working on
Campus in one of our student offices and gaming office work,
Carolyn Nelson: experience or working off campus. And, elevating yourself to managerial role. experience, too.
Charlie Frazzini: Yeah, yeah. I've been there where it all sounds good when you're maybe applying for classes or planning out your work and course, load all. I can just work more, but it sounds good when you're not working, and you're not in the thick of it, and then once finals come, and you have to work and study, and the pressure to perform is kind of there.
Charlie Frazzini: You might rethink that that previous decision of just working more because it's hard, you, and it's your
Charlie Frazzini: your top priority if you're a student, is to do all academically, even though you might want to work, and money sounds appealing. But,
Charlie Frazzini: like you said, it would be the best to maybe work less, but get quality work experience that can translate into what you want to do in your future. So maybe, instead of working, if you want to work twenty-four hours a week at Home Depot. Maybe work somewhere, maybe twelve hours a week, but in an office, or maybe some sort of Mini internship job experience, because even though you'll make less money. You'll get more valuable experience and be able to do well academically.
Carolyn Nelson: Yeah, I think a reality for a lot of students today, too, is that they must work. They're working to paper their rent to pay for their food to. And so sometimes, when the
rubber hits the road on. What decision do you make? Do I work, or do I go to class?
Carolyn Nelson: If your basic needs are not being met. Then you must work, and you can't go to class right. And so that's when that cycle of that choice happens is, you must work because you have to work to.
Carolyn Nelson: afford to live right. And so that educational experience kind of sometimes comes down on that hierarchy of needs for students. But if you're planful from the start of the semester and you budget your time, you budget your money.
Carolyn Nelson: And you have conversations about having some level of savings account right even if it's small as a student. Two hundred and fifty dollars can kind of get you through a little bp in the road and allow you to work fewer hours during that one week.
Carolyn Nelson: Perhaps the midterms or finals are. If you're budgeting appropriately, that gives you a lot of flexibility in those stressful times to make that choice. That's right for your
academics.
Charlie Frazzini: Yeah, that's kind of a good segue into our next episode Five or we'll start to talk about budgeting and Aiden. Austin and I will come on and talk about our budgeting strategies, and how we attack the week or the month. We have different strategies with our food, and, just overall purchases, wants, and I think that we'll give some great advice there in the next episode. Dan, did you have any questions for Carolyn?
Daniel Hiebert: I had a quick one, and maybe I heard this, and I�m completely wrong. But it seems to me I heard, and maybe you covered this already, and I missed it. But are there more scholarship opportunities that go on met. So, in other words, we don't have enough applicants to cover the scholarships, and they just don't get so that it happens it happens, it doesn't happen often here at the University
Carolyn Nelson: Donor requirements for awarding are so restrictive that if you don't have that student from a specific southern Minnesota town apply it. We may not be able to award it as a student, and so
Carolyn Nelson: It doesn't happen often because we have so much demand here. And we try to spread our scholarship opportunities around, and we're very intentional about awarding.
Carolyn Nelson: The best candidates here but yes, it happens. And so sometimes students say I�m not going to get it, because I don't have that four point zero. GPA or I don't have that real high academic GPA:
Carolyn Nelson: Well, there are some scholarships at our university that a donor has said, hey, I was not that student, right? I was a two-point zero student who barely squeaked by, the by my own grit, right?
Carolyn Nelson: And so, they want to help that student who's barely squeaking by just like they were okay. But if you didn't because your GPA. If you opted out of the application because you didn't
think you might be qualified. You're missing out on that opportunity,
Daniel Hiebert: and it's interesting to bring that up, because it's exactly now that I�m thinking about it how I heard that. So we have just to look at our own financial planning area. We've got scholarship
Daniel Hiebert: scholarships for financial planning students, but they must be like you say they must be from a smaller town. They must have a certain GPA. They must sit for their CFP designation exam in a certain time.
Carolyn Nelson: But it's always good to raise your hand right like, raise your hand, and I could do it and submit the application. They can only say no right the same place as you were before.
Charlie Frazzini: Let them say, rather than You've said that in previous episodes, too. I can't hurt, and, like I said, the worst-case scenarios, you get better experience putting yourself out there and sending
Carolyn Nelson: your qualifications to other people.
Carolyn Nelson: So, what we turn on your time investment here it's never better than when you're submitting the scholarship application.
Daniel Hiebert: Well, Caroline, this has just been super helpful. This is one of our best episodes, so we really appreciate it a ton. All the great information you've given us,
Daniel Hiebert: If you, if we have a need in the future, would you be open to coming on again, and maybe talking about maybe some more specific topics, not to. Not a lot of your time here, but
Daniel Hiebert: great. Well, thanks, everybody for listening. Really appreciate it. Stay tuned for episode. Five is Charlie's given kind of a sneak peek. We'll talk a little bit more about
budgeting, which is nobody's favorite subject, but I think that it could certainly help you
Daniel Hiebert: in that three-pronged approach that we've talked about, and how to finance your education, personal savings, which includes cash flow
Daniel Hiebert: scholarships, as Caroline has talked about today, and student loans and some of the factors that are involved there. So, thanks again, everybody, and stay tuned for episode. Five.