In this enlightening episode of Money Talk With Tiff, host Tiffany Grant engages in a deep conversation with Dr. Darla Bishop on how she navigated through graduate school without incurring any new debt. Dr. Darla Bishop, a recognized authority in public health, shares her invaluable insights and actionable tips for anyone looking to save money while furthering their education.

See full episode show notes: https://moneytalkwitht.com/podcast-show-notes/navigating-grad-school/

About Our Guest

Dr. Darla Bishop, affectionately known as the FinanSis, is the Founder of Finansis LLC, a boutique consulting firm based in Lansing, Michigan, and the author of How To Afford Everything.

Motivated by her own challenging childhood in Detroit, Dr. Bishop’s unique gift lies in her ability to motivate individuals to transcend limiting beliefs about wealth and cultivate a positive financial mindset. She firmly believes that empowering individuals with financial knowledge is pivotal in creating prosperous and resilient communities.

Episode Highlights

Choosing the Right Program

• Dr. Bishop emphasizes the importance of selecting a program that accommodates full-time work and schooling. She shares her personal journey of choosing a doctoral program built around working professionals.

Working for Your University

• Discover how working for your university can significantly reduce tuition costs. Dr. Bishop explains how her university's employee benefits could have covered 96% of her tuition.

Utilizing Scholarships and Assistantships

• Learn how to continuously seek out new scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships throughout your academic journey. Dr. Bishop provides tips on maintaining a strong GPA to unlock additional funding opportunities.

Covering Additional Expenses

• From books to travel for conferences, Dr. Bishop discusses the importance of seeking funds to cover non-tuition expenses. She encourages building relationships within your department to tap into available resources.

Leveraging Campus Housing and Resident Director Roles

• Explore the option of becoming a resident advisor or hall director to save on living expenses. Dr. Bishop outlines how these roles can provide free housing and additional stipends.

Bonus Tips from Tiffany

• Tiffany adds her own experiences on how to ask employers for support in attending conferences and other professional development opportunities.

Resources Mentioned

• Dr. Darla Bishop’s website: HowToAffordEverything.com
• Downloadable email templates for requesting uncommitted funds

Connect with Dr. Darla Bishop

• Website: How to Afford Everything
• Instagram: @my_finansis
• Additional Resources: DarlaBishop.com

Connect with Tiffany Grant

• Website: Money Talk With Tiff
• Social Media: @moneytalkwitht

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our podcast on your favorite platform. Your support helps us bring more insightful content to help you manage your finances effectively.

Support this Podcast

Copyright 2024 Tiffany Grant

You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your money

nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse strings

and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff

podcast.

Hey everyone. I am so excited because I have Doctor Darla

Bishop here on the line and she's here to talk to us about how she

made it through grad school with $0 in new debt.

I told her, not being selfish or anything, y'all, that I'm

interested in these tips as well. So. Hey, doctor Darlingenhe. Darla, how are you?

Hey, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for having me on the show.

Yeah, my pleasure. And thank you for joining us with this topic

because I feel like it's something we've never talked about and I feel like I

may know some people that need help. So let's just jump right

into it. When we're talking about grad school, you say you have five

things that made it possible. What's the first one? So I do have to back

up a little bit and tell people that. So I have a

doctorate in public health and I on purpose

chose a school that would allow me to work

as a full time or mostly full time employee while

also pursuing school. So that was actually probably one of the first decisions

I made. I didn't even apply to programs that were going to require me to

be a full time student. And there's a bunch of reasons for that. The first

one being I'm nothing and was not, especially at that

time, far enough out of poverty to just be like, I'm going to be in

grad school for four or five years and only live off of student loans or

whatever package they decide they want to give me that was not going to work.

And so I only applied to and decided to ultimately

attend a university that was built around working

professionals where most of our classes were in the

evenings or that we had some online options. Those didn't come

until I was near the end of my program, but they did eventually come

up and that allowed me and

respected the fact that, you know, I was working and that I was

a mid career professional and that I didn't want to take a four or five

year career break to go to graduate school. So one of the

first decisions that you can make as you're thinking about graduate

school is decide is your life set up? Is your

learning style set up for being a full time student

and a part time worker? Well, maybe you are working in a research lab or

you've got a little part time side gig just to keep a tiny bit

of money rolling in? Or is your life and your learning style set up that

you need to be engaged in full or almost full time work and being

a part time student? Yeah, let's pause on that real quick because that

was one of the things that I struggled with for a long time when trying

to figure out what school I was going to go to because I was

originally going to go for my PhD in business and

all of the business. Well, I'll say most because I don't know about all,

but a lot of the ones that I've seen and heard about and all of

that, they all required you to do it full time, do it

to where you could work. Like they told me I would not be able to

run my business when I go to grad school. And I said,

oh, like I have three kids that I'm taking care of, that's not gonna

work. And that's why I had delayed for so long until

I had finally enrolled in a PhD in social work program

that was more flexible and understanding. And so

that's a good point because a lot of people that I've talked to is

like, I didn't know that they had stipulations like that. And

you have to look at the program because that is a thing,

right? And for some people that absolutely works and is an investment

worth making. Right. Where especially if you go to some of these name

brand MBA programs, you need to be

fully available for the program because of not only the class schedule,

but because of the required, but thankfully usually

lucrative, what is that called internship that you do between

your first and second year that hopefully leads you to that really nice

high paying job once you are leaving the MBA. And so for some

people, taking that two year work break is absolutely

worthwhile because they know that they'll make the money back based on

their career change. For other people who maybe their bills are just

not set up that way. Maybe they're already caregiving, already

married that don't work. And so you have to be real about

what will and won't work with not only

your learning style, but your life setup.

Yes, and that is so true. Like different

programs work for different people. So I feel like that is super

important as well. So now that we talked about number one, let's get to number

two. What's the second thing that people do can do when they're thinking

about grad schools and doing it for low cost? The second thing to

do is once you get to the program is figure out if

and whether and when it makes sense to work for your university,

because the university I attended had a very

strong and generous employee benefit,

that if I decided to go work for the university, my tuition would have been

96% covered. So I would have only had to come up

with 4% of my tuition costs, plus one very small $50

per semester fee. And so I actually sat down

with my spouse. I was already married when I was doing graduate school, and we

did the math, you know, what would it look like if I left my job,

which did include compensation, retirement benefits,

as well as an annual bonus for a slightly

lower paying job at the university so that I could have my tuition

covered? It turned out that the math told us it was better for me to

stay at my corporate job that had a bonus and the retirement match

was a little bit better, but it was only a few thousand dollars

difference at that time, so it really could have gone either way. And

so one of the other important things to do is to actually

check what the benefits packages are for employees of your university,

because it might be a great fit for you to go get a full time

or whatever they consider a full time benefits eligible job, which might only

be 50 or 60% to work at the university. So you can get that

tuition discount. Yes, I love that. And one thing that

I did, just to tag onto that, because I did something

similar with my university, your first year

tuition was covered if you did an assistantship. And

so I did that route even

though unfortunately you didn't get the benefits and stuff, but at least

the tuition was covered and I was able to get a paycheck every month

and still run my business. So, you know, definitely look at the

different schools and see what they offer, just like doctor Dollar

said. So let's get into number three. What's the third

thing people can do? The third thing is just like, even

if this, you're a college student or have a college student living in

your life. What we sometimes forget is whatever the benefits

package or the scholarship package we got when we came in,

that doesn't mean it's fixed for all three, four,

five years of your program. Every year there are new scholarships

available. And whenever you start a new program, your GPA is starting over at

4.0. So even if your previous GPA wasn't that great,

if you can keep it up that first semester or two,

that gives you access to a whole new set of

assistantships, scholarships and fellowships, some that you need to

apply for and some that will just come automatically because of your merit

GPA. So keep that GPA very strong that first

semester. So whatever you got to do to get off your plate to be a

strong student, you know, lowering your responsibility at

your day job if you're still working, making sure you have a strong childcare plan

if you're parenting, make sure that your spouse knows how to cover you. When it's

a week, you have a bunch of papers or presentations due, you know,

having things in place so that if it's just too busy to cook, you don't

have to spend a million dollars on takeout all week because you got a few

things in the freezer or you got a relative or a friend or a cousin

who can come take care of dinner at least one of those nights, right? Put

some things in place so that you can be a really strong student that

first semester or two. Oh, that is a gem right there that I

didn't even think about. And I've called myself the queen of saving money,

but I did not think about how

your package can change. You know, how you can look at new

things, new opportunities based on merit. I never

thought about that. So that is an excellent idea for those thinking about grad

school. Now let's get into number four

on our list. So number four is

there are all these expenses that come up with being a graduate student. So

maybe you figured out the tuition, right? You got the tuition covered. But what

about your books? What if you have to do an internship as part

of getting your credits to graduate? What if you need to

travel to a conference? Make sure that you are finding funds

to cover those expenses because maybe you got the tuition under

control. But those things, conferences, presentations,

travel, can add up to thousands of dollars a year. So make sure that you

are always in your department's office saying, hey, how you doing? You got a new

mug. Because having that relationship when you're like, hey, I really want

to go to this conference, but it's going to run me about two k between

the registration, plus the hotel room, plus the travel, does the school have any

funds? Guess what they'll be like. Actually, yeah, we do have some funds. Make sure

you apply by this date. I love that. And I'm gonna throw a little bonus

tip in there. You can do this with your job, too.

So if there are any conferences or anything that you think would be

beneficial to your role or like doctor Darla said to

your schooling, ask them people, because you never know

unless you ask. That's right. And there is a part two to this one.

One of the ways I actually got almost

$18,000 simply because every

semester I would go to the registrar's office and say,

hey, I'm a graduate student. I'm a doctoral student. I've

been here this many years just checking if there's any

unused or uncommitted funds. And what

I mean by that is, if you're a doctoral student, especially people who are in

a PhD program are similar. Frequently, at least a handful of them are

fully funded, which means they have an assistantship tied to them. They have some

scholarship dollars or fellowship dollars tied to them, but sometimes things

change. So student A, who came in as a fully funded student,

maybe at some point in their program, they convert it to a full time

employee, which means that their tuition dollars went way down

because they're getting it through their benefits. So that scholarship money that previously

had student A's name on it no longer has student A's name on it.

And so because I made sure I asked, hey, is there any

uncommitted tuition money? You know, I'm a little bit short for tuition this

upcoming semester. They'd be like, oh, yeah, actually, your classmate, student

a, just started working for the university, so we don't have anything this semester, but

next semester you can have their. Their scholarship.

And so I got that person scholarship for two semesters. That was $18,000

just because I asked. Wow, that is a

gem right there. Like, I wish I had the dun dun dun

dun because you deserve the horns

on that one. That is a great idea. And I don't. It's not

common knowledge. And even, like, for instance, when I was in my program, nobody

ever said that. Like, they talked about the grants and they talked about

going to conferences and all that stuff, but they never said there might

be some uncommitted funds or. You know, that's

right. And it was one of those things that

I created an email template, and I'll tell you about this at the end that

people can get from my website so that if they are a graduate

student, grab the email template. Send this email every semester, because the worst

they can tell you is, stop emailing me. We ain't got nothing for you. The

best they can tell is, like, actually, we got all the money. You want it

now or you want it next semester? Not. You coming with the templates?

Yeah. Let's go ahead and get into number five just so we can get to.

To see how we can get these templates. What is number five?

So, number five, this one might not work for everyone. So that's why I kind

of left it on the end because I know people listen to podcasts this way.

They listen to the most important stuff first. So this one might not work if

you're already parenting or married, but

if you are going to a university that has dorms or

residence halls, consider being a resident

advisor, because graduate students can be a resident advisor

or consider being a hall director. And so if you in your

undergraduate studies had any experience being

a resident advisor, an RA being in student government,

being a student leader, then a lot of times you can qualify for these jobs.

And what being a resident advisor or a hall director

does is not only do you get a stipend or salary,

you also get free living expenses because you then live in a

dorm. Now, if you're a resident advisor, you live in a dorm room. So that

will really only work if you're a single person or a not married person who

needs to live with their partner. Now, if you are married and even

parenting, then you could be a hall director because those are

apartments that are situated within the dorm. And so

that is a way to take your living costs way down because

you now have a meal plan, you have access to a cafeteria,

and you're not paying any rent on top of getting some sort of

stipendous or salary. Now, I do

want to add something to that one. So one thing that I heard of

someone doing in my program, you know, they had to commute,

and so they asked the school, you know, is there a way for these

days when I have to be up here to stay, you know, stay somewhere? Come

to find out the school may, depending on where you're at,

have, you know, rooms that you can rent for very, very

low compared to, you know, a hotel or what have you

for very, very low. And that's what she did. She would come up for like

two days a week or two or three days a week and then go back

home. But it was like super cheap. That's

right. Like there might be sometimes if they have, like an executive in

residence program, they have little, small apartments or even a mini hotel

usually attached to the business school, or they might just have a hotel,

right? Because the university is always welcoming speakers and guest

professors and people for short terms that they do

usually have some sort of living experience. It might

not be the best, but like you said, it could be very helpful for your

budget. For sure. For sure. Now, all of those tips are

great tips for our grad students out there, people thinking about graduate

school. Just to have in mind. Now, you mentioned templates you

knew I was going to go back to this how can we find these

templates? And what is it that you help people do? So I am the author

of how to afford everything, and I've just finished an

ebook called how to Afford College. I originally wrote it as how

to afford graduate school, but my editor was like, you know, more people go to

college than grad school, right? And I was like, oh, good point. So I broadened

the tips a little bit so that it could apply to that first

year student who's going to undergrad for the first time, or that person who was

kind of like me, who was an older student going back to a graduate program

after they had already established some other parts of their life. And so

the ebook will be available very soon. And so if

you go to my website how to

affordeverything.com and hit the little resources

button, not only will you find the email template that I

used so that I could get money from my department every year, that

led to $18,000.02 full semesters of tuition just because

I always asked, but you'll also be put on my email list. So

that way when the ebook is fully published and available for purchase,

you'll get the first notice that you can go get the ebook how

to afford college, which has all the juicy details. Awesome.

Awesome. I definitely want to check that out and I'll make sure I

have those links in the show notes for the audience. And also,

how can we communicate with you, like social media? Or how can

people reach out to you? Oh, thank you so much for asking. If anything I've

said today has been useful or helpful to you or you think it might be

for somebody in your life, come find me on Instagram. That's where I'm most

active, my underscore finances.

Or if you're not sure how to spell that, just come to my website,

darlabishop.com and it'll get you linked to all the things. All the

things. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, and I'll make

sure I have all those links so people can reach out to you. Get these

templates, get these ebooks and everything else that

you have available. So thank you so much and I hope you have a wonderful

rest of your day. Oh, same to you. Bye.

Thank you for listening, joining and being a part of the Money Talk with TiFf

podcast this week. You can check tiff out every Thursday for a

new money Talk podcast. But if you just can't wait until next week,

you can listen to previous podcast

episodes@moneytalkwitht.com or

follow TIFF on all social media platforms at

moneytalkwitht. Until next time, spend wise

by spending less than you make. A word to the money wise is

always sufficient.