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Learn from the expert Paris Przekurat, Director of Financial Aid, on how to build a budget and pay for college with Macey. Paris explains the ins and outs of budgeting in college and why the FAFSA matters every year for students enrolling in college.
Transcript
Macey
Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Redlands Rundown. I'm your host,
Macey. I'm very excited about today's episode. We have with us a returning co-host.
I'm going to go over the co-host today, Paris, and I never know how to say your last
name. [I don't either, Przekurat(Co-cur-at)] But Paris works in financial aid, and
so I wanted to have her on again this year, on season two, to talk about budgeting,
scholarship opportunities, and just all the information that current students and
incoming students really need to have, so I'll let you kind of introduce yourself
a little bit more. Tell them a little bit about you.
Paris
My name is Paris Przekurat. I've been here at Redlands for almost 19 years. Director of financial aid. Went
to school here. Graduated from here. So, been here a while, feel like I know everybody.
But, yeah.
Macey
Awesome. Yeah. So we'll go over today, and hopefully this episode will help students
that maybe you're feeling overwhelmed with having to pay for college. I think there's
a little bit of that initial shock value when you see your first bill [definitely]
from college. And so we're here to kind of talk through and help give you some different
options that you have and different opportunities to look for. So, I want to start
first talking about building a college budget, and we'll talk about some other things
later on, but can you touch on the importance of why students should consider building
a budget?
Paris
I mean, I think the importance is you don't want to, you know, get to that school,
wherever you're going, and then all of a sudden they just throw, you know, a $60,000
bill on you, and then you're like, oh, well, crud, I don't have this much money coming
in to pay for this balance. So, if before, I mean, you may have an idea where you're
going, but definitely get on to that school's website, have a rough idea of, okay,
this is what it's going to cost per year or per semester. And then if I'm going to
be there for four years, I'm looking at this much. Do I have, you know, resources
to cover that, whether that be financial aid, scholarships, loans, savings that you
may already have. It's just I feel like very it could be discouraging for the student
if they see that for four years, it's going to be $160,000. But I only have means
to, you know, $50,000. Well, then I that's gonna-it could crush a dream, too, if that's
where they've always wanted to go. So just kind of have an idea of what it's going
to cost. If you have an idea, I've got this in savings or I've got grandparents that
are going to help with this, I've got this scholarship coming in, and then if you
see, oh, that's going to, that could cover all of it. Maybe I only need 5,000 more
dollars then that could be a little more realistic for a person. But it's just you
don't want that student to get there, and day one and then they're like, I can't make
this possible, and I'm four states away, I've already moved up here, and I'm not gonna
be able to pay for this. So, if you can do all that kind of planning ahead of time,
sit down with pen and paper and just do the math, a simple math of it. I think that
can kind of help you as you transition or as you get there before you get there.
Macey
Yeah, for sure. That can help you to be prepared whenever you see that. Yeah. And
I, I would say that's a lot of, something that I really didn't know when I was graduating
high school and looking into colleges, I never really had a plan to come to Redlands,
and I'm also Redlands alumni. You know, starting off at the two year school, one of
the perks is we are quite a bit cheaper than a bigger four-year university. So, even
if you have a dream of going to a specific university, you've always dreamed of going
to OU or OSU, you can still do that, but maybe it looks like going to Redlands or
a community college for two years first, where you can start off and save some money.
And then also we'll probably talk about some other scholarship opportunities that
will come with that if you start with us first later on in the episode. Okay. So what
are some expenses that some students forget to include kind of in that planning process?
Paris
I guess books, to me, is going to be one. I mean, we've been doing this a little while,
so we're like, yeah, you're going to need books. I think some of the students and
it's already week three and they still come to like, oh, I, I guess I need a book,
you know, and I'm like, how are you already this far into your classes and you don't
realize you need a book? Whether it be they just kind of forgot about it or what,
but sometimes, I mean, there are going to be book expenses, sometimes there's not,
but you're going to have some book expenses. Even though-you're going to have food,
whether if you do a meal plan at a school, but if you don't do a meal plan, you're
going to eat out, you're going to McDonald's, you're going to Sonic or whatever. Those
are expenses that you're going to have. And if some schools are different, but like
with us, we don't disperse any of our aid or scholarships until, you know, 4 to 5
weeks, maybe after classes start. So, if they're depending on that money in a refund
to survive and pay for food and stuff, I don't have that. So that could be expenses
upfront or early on that they don't have necessarily the money. So yeah, budgeting
for that or live where your means are.
Macey
Yeah. I'll say another thing too: I think a lot of times we just look at tuition,
don't forget about fees, also. we're really fortunate that our fees at Redlands are,
are very affordable and that they're not a huge price point, but some colleges fees
are [More than the tuition] more than the tuition. Yeah. And so that's something to
be mindful of. Maybe ask about what fees are going to look like. And if you're not
sure about how to check into books and supplies, for us, here at Redlands, we have
an online library, I guess, where you can put in your information and it will kind
of pull what you need for your classes that you're enrolled in, so you can plan that
ahead of time. And then, admissions also has a document that has all of the courses
that have free textbooks for our students. So, if that's something that you are saying: hey, I need to, right
now, enroll in classes where I have access to free textbooks, and we can definitely
help to, to work around that.
Paris
And I'm going to add on that. So, if you're already enrolled, on that site, it's the bookstore online, if you're enrolled, you can put your student ID in there and it'll link straight
to your schedule. So yeah, you can see what you need or you don't need. And even if
you're not enrolled, but you have an idea, I want to take this math class or this
history class, you can instead of putting in your student ID, you can also just put
in that course number and section and so it'll go ahead and pull up just what's needed
for that class. So, you can kind of get an idea too. [Yeah.] Or if you know, hey,
I've only got $200 I can spend on books, you can kind of shop around and see: well,
that one's a little more expensive for right now. Whatever. [Yeah.] Switch it up.
Macey
Another tip I will share, and this is something that I did as I got later into my
college career. And I do it now, because I'm, I'm in school right now, sometimes you
can check rental, like book rental websites. A couple are like BooksRun, Valore, Chegg,
You have to have-[Amazon, too.] So, there's lots of other websites where you can look
up the title, make sure you look up the correct version, and the author's, or what
is it, the ISN? [ISBN] where you can look that up and a lot of times you can rent
them a lot cheaper. [Oh for sure.] I have a textbook this semester, when I looked
it up on my university's website and the rental was maybe $100, $150, and I rented
it, I think for $17 through Valore, something like that.
Paris
And the good thing, even with that, I've done it where you rented them or you bought
them cheaper on a different website. And then when you're done with the book, like,
I don't need this book anymore, I'm never going to use it. I even just Googled it
and was like: hey, where can I sell back college books or whatever and it let you
shop around. You put in that ISBN number and then it gave you different sites and
it may say, and you've spent, you know, 30 bucks on the book, but it may say, oh,
this site gives you $15, this will give you $20, and so you just select which one
you want, it sends you or it gives you the shipping label, you just print that, put
it in a box, send it, and then they'll just send you the money so you can even get
some of that money back too.
Macey
Yeah. So those are some good tips to keep in mind, especially whenever it comes to
books. That's been really helpful for me. How often do you think students should be
revisiting their budget, planning those things?
Paris
Once they're at the school or the college, I think every semester. Because one semester,
they might only take four classes, the next semester they're taking 5 or 6. So that
out of pocket expense or whatever their bill is going to be can definitely change
every semester based on the number of hours they're in or even the classes, because
one class may have couple extra fees if it's a science class or something. So, definitely
revisit it every year or every semester and see-it may be about the same. And you're
like, oh, okay, we're good, you know? But it could be a little bit more, might be
a little bit less, but definitely every semester.
Macey
Yeah. And for those of our listeners that want to actually track all of their expenses,
we were visiting at about a few different ways. And I visited with friends before
about what they use, and there's a lot of free apps that are available to you, but
we kind of agreed, even just using an Excel sheet, a Google Excel or Google document
where you can see what you're spending your money on, I think that really gives you
like new control over your money. So you can be very conscious-
Paris
Or when you just see it or be on paper or. Yeah, in the spreadsheet. I mean, you need
to ideally you're seeing what's coming in is more than what's going out, you know.
But yeah, I think just seeing that would definitely help the students.
Macey
Yeah. When I started [or for people in general] when I started at school, I remember
my mom called me after the first couple weeks. She's like, you need to be careful
about how much you're eating out. And so I know that that's challenging for some of
our students and groceries can be expensive [they haven't had to do this before.]
Yeah. So if you need-also if you need resources, something that we have here on campus,
we have a food pantry that's free for our students. And so that's another great tip for saving money, use
the resources that we have available on campus and stop by and get some groceries,
get a snack in between class. That's for you guys-
Paris
And for, like you said, with the food pantry, and we just got a flier delivered to
us yesterday, but our BCM does the free lunches, so you know, every little bit that
you can get that's going to help save an expense if it's a lunch or dinner or a snack,
you know. So yeah. [Yeah.] And we're not the only college that's going to do, like
I know the free meals like with the BCM, I know other universities and stuff like
that. We'll do free meals throughout the week. You just need to get in contact with
them. And again you have your budget sheet. But then you can also do a little calendar
and say, you know, we got free lunch this day and free lunch. Oh, I'll go get free
food here. And so...
Macey
Yeah, absolutely. Cool. I think those are all really helpful tips and ways that students
can be kind of conscious of what they're spending their money on and saving some.
So I want to transition now to talk about scholarships and financial aid and dig into
that a little bit more. So, I want you to first touch on what kind of financial aid
is available to our students.
Paris
So primarily, I mean, we kind of focus on in our office, in financial aid office,
filling out the FAFSA. So, when you fill out the FAFSA, that's a free application, don't ever pay for it. That seeing or letting us know
and you, the student, know that if you qualify for Pell Grant, which is the free grants,
you have to fill that application out to see if you qualify for any student loans.
Here in Oklahoma, we have Oklahoma's Promise. And so one requirement of that once you're in college is filling out the FAFSAevery year. So you have to do that. A lot of tribal grants, most I would say, require
you to fill out the FAFSA. There's some extra little state and federal grants that they give out too, requirement
as well as the FAFSA. Some outside scholarships may require the FAFSA, but it's kind of the, it's where you are going to start to see what you qualify
for. And it doesn't hurt if you end up not qualifying for some of that stuff. It doesn't
hurt. It's not a credit check on you or anything like that. But it definitely lets
you know and then lets us know kind of what you can qualify from and for and then
we go from there.
Macey
Yeah. And then outside of Paris's office, I'm a little more involved with scholarships
that we offer internally here at Redlands. So few things that we have are our tuition waivers. We have tuition waivers for freshmen and returning students so everybody qualifies
to apply for those. Those can range anywhere from 250 to $1000, depending on how many
credits you're enrolled in. Also, we select our Presidential and our Regents, which
is a scholarship, up to 16 hours, plus books and fees each semester, from our freshman
tuition waiver applicants. So, current seniors that's something to keep in mind. That's
essentially a full ride outside of housing. And so, yeah, we look at several different
things for those ACT, GPA, class rank, extracurricular involvement, there's some short
essay questions. And then another opportunity is our foundation scholarships that
we have internally. They award right around $60,000. That's one application through
our Foundation and puts you in the pool for all of those scholarships. So, it's very much so worth
your time to do one application to be in the pool. And then we also have, a Reach Higher scholarship, which is more focused on our adult students who have some college credit but didn't
finish their degree, and so if that's you and you've been on the fence about coming
back to school, know that there is support intentionally set aside for you financially
to help, you know, address any financial barriers that you may have. So those are
just a few of the internal scholarship opportunities that we have here at Redlands.
Paris
And I just want to add a little bit. I don't know if other institutions are like this,
but I feel like this happens a lot here with the Foundation scholarships: a lot of times there's just not that many people that apply. I don't
know if they don't want to take the time and write the essay problem or the essay
question or answers, but there's just not that many. And so there's times that'll
come through, those scholarships end up coming to us and we award them, and it's like,
well, no one's on this one, no one's getting this one. And I think a lot of it is
there's just not people applying. So I mean, that kind of helps the, the pool of applicants
if there's lesser, you know, people actually applying that increases your chances,
but definitely apply. I mean it doesn't hurt anything again, so.
Macey
Yeah, absolutely. So tell us a little bit more about when students should be doing
their FAFSA applications for scholarships, that window is November 1st through February 1st.
But for FAFSA and on your side of things, what's the timeline look like for students?
Paris
So, the academic year that we're in right now is 2026-27. So the FAFSA that we are using, was available starting October of 2025. So it does seem a little
weird because you go back, but you can still fill out that same application right
now. If-students could be enrolled right now and haven't figured it out, and that's
fine, so you can still fill it out. The next FAFSA that will be available is the 2027-28. And as far as I know, October 1st, sometimes
that changes with the Department of Ed. But if it's October 1st, that one would be
available and that one's going to start for the academic school year, that would be
fall of 2027. So the high school seniors right now, that would be like when they're
going to be starting school, their freshman year in college. So, they would start
filling that FAFSA out this October. And it is a requirement for Oklahoma seniors, high school seniors
for them to fill out the FAFSA to graduation requirement as well.
Macey
Awesome, yeah, that's good to know. So later this fall, that's something you need
to be looking out for the FAFSA application, our internal application. And then something I want to touch on: You
can also apply for scholarships outside of Redlands. There's lots-thousands, hundreds
of thousands and millions of scholarships that are available. A website that I would
encourage you to look at is Oklahoma College Start. That's a database that has about 20,000 different scholarship opportunities. I know
that the Regents recently have put together a new scholarship that I've shared with
lots of students. It's a little more workforce-focused, but there's thousands of scholarships
on there. And so, especially for our Oklahoma students, but we have a lot of out-of-state
students that that come as well. And so, look into your local community, a lot of
local businesses, [churches] churches, organizations offer scholarships. Look statewide,
because you can a lot of times take those different places. And then another thing
that I tell students, sometimes if we have students that are coming to Redlands and
being on a competitive team, and that's something we haven't touched on, if you're
interested in playing sports or being on some kind of team, a lot of times there are
scholarships associated with that. So we have some students that have a lot of support
because they're going to be a competitive member of the livestock judging team or
whatever team it is. You can see about deferring those scholarships too sometimes
if, if your bill is going to be zeroed out after your aid or whatever scholarships
you have, and you don't need to cash that in yet, see if you can defer that until
you know you transfer on and your bills are going to be more expensive and use that
then, so that's kind of another-
Paris
And we do, like with our business office, so in that situation, if a student can have
everything covered and they're not going to need to use any of those outside scholarships
that they're bringing in with them, they still may send that check to Redlands. So
again, you know, if a student may not want to hold on to a, you know, $10,000 outside
check, or what am I going to do with this for two years? So they can even still give
it to us, and if we're not putting that towards their balance because we don't need
to, it's already covered, we kind of keep it in their own account here. So, we keep,
on an Excel sheet, we keep a balance of that. And so then, when they're done here
after two years and they're transferring on, they just need to let us know: hey, this
is where I'm going, and then we can just transfer that 10,000, 20,000, whatever it
might be, transfer that on with them. [Yeah.] So maybe a little easier than them having
to keep up with it or because sometimes those donors, whoever gives that scholarship,
they're like, no, this is it, we're not holding on to it. If you send it back, like,
you don't get it. So, they can still send it to us, we'll hold on to it, and then
send it on with them.
Macey
Yeah. And if you need help navigating those decisions, you're always welcome to ask.
[Oh for sure.] Business office, financial aid, anybody. We're, we're happy to help
you navigate those decisions and see what the best option for you is. You touched
a little bit on rolling things over, keeping an account versus getting a refund. For
students that get refunds, do you have any tips for them? What to do with that money?
Paris
Don't go crazy. It never fails. It seems like every year, you know, after refunds,
they might get a hefty little chunk of money. And I get it. They're not used to having
this kind of money. And, you know, maybe mom and dad are monitoring it, you know,
money at home. But I get this, and it could be a couple thousand. And they come in
with some new tattoos, some new shoes, some new clothes, and I get it. But then, you
know, here in a couple weeks there, they don't have food, you know, or they needed
that book or whatever it might be. So I get it, I understand it. We-I've been there
too as a student, but just know like, yeah, when you transfer someone-somewhere else,
your expenses are going to be more, it's more expensive there. So, if you can set
that back aside or, you know, put it in savings and know that you're going to need
this probably later on, or just get that Excel sheet out or that, you know, app or
whatever and be like, okay, you can play with a little bit of this money, but then
this is the stuff that does need to be paid, or if I've got a bill I've got to pay,
whatever. But [yeah, yeah] be a little smart with it. Don't go crazy.
Macey
Absolutely. And then one final thing I would encourage, because I do feel like we
have a lot of students at Redlands that balance also full-time jobs: ask your employer
if they offer any kind of tuition assistance programs. We're fortunate at Redlands,
a lot, our employees here have a lot of tuition assistance or partnerships with other
universities that support their cost there. And so ask your employer, if they offer
anything, it may be like a reimbursement afterwards or, stipend or whatever that might
look like-
Paris
We had a student-it was a couple of years ago, but she worked at the Chick-fil-A in
Yukon, and she ends up coming in and she had a nice scholarship check from them because
she had worked for them for a couple of years. And I want to say we even had someone
just the other day-it was McDonald's. [Yeah.] And they said they worked there-they
had a sheet, you know, that they were going to be paying some tuition and stuff. And
so yeah, yeah.
Macey
It's, it's always yeah, it's always worthwhile to ask because the worst case scenario
is you are going to be exactly where you were. It's, it's never going to hurt anything
to ask and to, to advocate for yourselves. What can a student do if they're struggling
to pay for school? Let's, let's say that they're they're-
Paris
Definitely I mean, it's going to probably be different at different universities or
colleges. I feel like I've-since we are small enough, definitely come and talk to
someone, because we might know resources or it could be someone-They come to me and
I may contact you and be like, hey, they just they're short a couple hundred dollars
and then I may ask you: Hey, is there any tuition waiver money left? Because that
may be just what they need, you know, to help them out or if they're strapped for
cash. I mean, the Foundation has, you know, another little-I think it's like $750 they can apply for. It's not
necessarily that they're short for money for school, but could be stuff going on at
home, you know, and there are resources out there. And sometimes it's just talking
to one person and then that person can get you in contact with another office, another
person that may know something, or, you know, could even be looking for a job, and
I don't know of anything, but you do, you know, so just kind of letting someone know,
and that's fine. You can talk to us. Not saying you can't at a bigger university,
but it is a benefit, I think, of us being so small. I know who deals with scholarships.
I know the person in the business office, you know, and we all know each other, and
we're all here for, you know, the same greater good of, you know, helping these students
succeed. And they can't succeed if they're not able to eat, you know. So I think just
come and talk to someone, you know, we'll try to help you whatever way we can.
Macey
Yeah. And another thing I want to mention too, we have some more continuing ed. type
programs, and we're really fortunate to have partner agencies that have funded a lot
of our students that have went through those, like, for example, we just added a new
CDL training program here. And, the Oklahoma workforce, which it's WIOA funds, and
then Yukon Work Ready. Those are two organizations that have funded several of our
students that have went through. And so if you don't have any resources, but you're
looking for something especially like that, that's more of a short-term training opportunity
that, you know, opens the door for a lot of employment, you know, right away. There's
also other resources for that as well.
Paris
And then we have too, I mean, for say, for some reason, if you don't qualify for financial
aid, you don't get any scholarships, no tuition waivers, nothing: they do have a payment
plan, you know, so it's-we're not a school where you have to have your whole bill
paid the first day of classes, or we're going to drop you from them. We don't do that.
So, if you're taking a couple classes and you sign up early enough, you can pay that
out throughout the semester. So that makes it a little easier than having to pay a
huge lump sum all at one time.
Macey
Yeah. So absolutely. Okay. So I want to kind of summarize some do's and don'ts. So
some dos: complete the FAFSA every year. [Yeah. Yeah.] Apply for multiple scholarships,
anything you see that you think you are a good applicant for, apply for all of them.
Even if you're on the fence. Apply. Keep track of deadlines. We mentioned some of
the timeline things for scholarships for our seniors, returning students, November
through February is that applicant window for next year scholarship pool. Tuition
waivers are always open throughout the year, but that priority deadline is February
1st. Ask questions. If you don't understand your financial aid package or if you get
like, do students get an email or a notification that they qualify for certain loans
or awards?
Paris
So yeah, once we receive the FAFSA and if we're processing stuff, if they get awarded,
then yes, they get an email telling them to log in and then they can view their awards.
If we're missing a document, they'll get an email to saying, log in. You can see what
you're missing. So, check your email is a huge one. I remember saying that on the
last podcast, but I'm like, check your email. So check it. And then if you don't hear
anything, say you do check your email and you're not receiving anything, but, you
know, you filled out that application: contact us. There could be something going
on. Or maybe you thought you completed the application. There's one step that wasn't
finalized, so we can try to look that up and see, okay, but definitely keep in communication
or just follow up and make sure everything's good.
Macey
Yeah. And then the last thing: borrow only what you need. So that you don't, you know,
take on more debt than, than what you need. Don't wait until last minute. You said
this one: (don't) ignore email from financial aid or any emails from Redlands. That's
something that we talk about with students: Check your emails. That's how I send out
scholarship offers is through emails. So make sure you're checking that, paying attention
to those things. Don't assume that you won't qualify for scholarships. I've talked
about this with job applications also with students before. But even if you think
in your mind, oh, I'm not going to get that. Just apply. It's going to be worth your
time.
Paris
Well and kind of on that to I mean a lot of your scholarships, yes, maybe based on
GPA or class rank, ACT scores and stuff, but sometimes, I mean, like the tuition waivers,
it's because they may think, oh, I don't have the best GPA or, you know, that's okay,
because this one's not necessarily oh, you have to have a 4.0 or a 3.5 whatever. [Yeah,
exactly.] So yeah, don't be discouraged because you don't have the best GPA.
Macey
Yeah. And then finally, don't skip buying required course materials if they are essential
for success. I had this conversation with a student. Actually, I've had two conversations
in the last week asking, do I really need to buy this? It's this amount of money,
but I can't get to my work if I don't buy it. So, I know that that can seem like an
extra cost, and you want to just ignore that, like, hey, you need to get this textbook,
but a lot of times it says it's required for your course and your instructor's telling
you, you need that. That's going to be essential to, to your success in the course.
So don't, don't just ignore those things. Okay. Cool. So I want to kind of move on.
How can students contact financial aid.
Paris
Yeah. So our phone number you can just contact it'll be the front desk. And if no
one answers that, it'll roll over to the other offices, but phone number is (405)
422-6250, so you can just call us directly. You can email us financial.aid@RedlandsCC.edu.
So we monitor that daily. But yeah. Either one of those and [okay] we're usually on
it.
Macey
Cool. And then what advice would you give a first-time college student?
Paris
Fill out the FAFSA. Don't think like, oh, I'm not going to be able to do this. Like,
I'm not smart enough to go to college. I mean, you can do it. You know, money can
be there if you search for it. And like you mentioned, I'm not just promoting a community
college because we work at one, but that is a way to make a whole experience a little
bit cheaper to go to a community college. We've got the resources to possibly help
you. So do that. I don't know. It's possible it's an investment in your future. So
you may have to take out a little bit of loans. It's not the end of the world, especially
if you can be mindful about only taking out maybe what you need. But, yeah, you can
have definitely a return on your investment once you graduate and you're working and
everything.
Macey
Yeah. And something I didn't mention. Also, if you go to a community college first
and then transfer on, there's a lot of transfer scholarship opportunity. [Yeah] We
have some that we offer internally through partnerships with other schools. But I
remember when I transferred from Redlands to OSU, I got a transfer scholarship because
of my GPA or whatever that was. So, there's a lot of transfer scholarship opportunities.
Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for joining us. I think this will be really
helpful for students. I think both seniors, and those nearing high school graduation,
and our current students know that there's opportunities and resources for all of
you guys. And at the end of the day, we are all here to help you. So if you're overwhelmed
or you don't know what to do, just reach out. We're here to support you, so make sure
to join us next time on Redlands Rundown. Subscribe and follow wherever you get your
podcast from and we will see you next time on the Redlands run down. Bye.
