22-year-old Princeton grad who got $2 million in scholarships: ‘There’s free money out there’
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When Gabriella Carter started applying to colleges for the 2018-2019 school year, she couldn’t help but think about the debt burden higher education places on millions of students. She began researching and applying for scholarships.
“Once I figured out that there’s free money out there that other people could give to me because they believed in me and my dreams so that I could go to school for free, I jumped on it and applied to every opportunity that I saw,” Carter, now age 22, said.
Carter submitted applications at more than 100 different programs and at one point received 30 rejections in a row. The more scholarships she tried for, though, the better she got at the process. After Carter scored a $20,000 check from Coca-Cola, the floodgates opened. Throughout high school and college she won 35 different scholarships totaling more than $2 million.
She graduated from Princeton University in 2022 with no debt and $100,000 in savings.
In 2020, Carter started a business, Growing with Gabby, that helps students secure scholarships. She’s also one of 11 social media creators to join NBCUniversal’s inaugural Creator Accelerator Program, a yearlong, paid learning experience that gives the creators an inside look at television production and helps them develop content.
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Money Tip of the Week: Get ready now for federal student loan payments to resume
If you have federal student loan debt, it’s likely been awhile since payments were part of your monthly budget. Due to emergency financial measures passed during the Covid-19 pandemic, interest hasn’t been accruing and borrowers haven’t been required to make payments since March 2020.
That could soon change. Federal student loan payments are scheduled to turn back on 60 days after the Supreme Court rules on President Joe Biden’s debt relief plan. If the litigation hasn’t been resolved or a debt forgiveness plan hasn’t been implemented by June 30, payments will resume 60 days after that.
Between now and then you can take steps to prepare for the end of the pause.
First, make sure you know which firm handles your loan payments by logging into your My Federal Student Aid account and scrolling down to “My Loan Servicers.” There may be confusion over this if you graduated or left school since March 2020, or if your loan servicer has changed during that period.
You’ll probably have to review or choose your payment plan. Borrowers pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness, for instance, are required to enroll in an income-driven repayment plan.
An IDR plan may be a good choice for borrowers who may have trouble affording monthly payments under the standard repayment plan. The FSA’s loan simulator tool can help you determine which payment plan is best suited for your priorities — whether that’s paying off your loans as fast as possible or keeping your monthly payments low and fixed.
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Next Gen Investing: Mark Cuban says potential impact of A.I. tools is ‘beyond anything I’ve ever seen in tech’
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Billionaire Mark Cuban thinks we’re just scratching the surface of what chatbots powered by artificial intelligence could be capable of. The potential impact of the technology is “beyond anything I’ve ever seen in tech,” he tells Make It.
Last week in a tweet, Cuban compared the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to the introduction of HTML in the early days of the internet. “Everyone knew it would be impactful,” he said of the now ubiquitous internet coding language, “but we made it seem far more complicated than it was.”
When the internet began to grow in popularity, anyone who learned HTML and built websites for businesses “was considered a tech genius,” Cuban tweeted.
In other words, if you’re not learning how to use AI, now may be the time, Cuban says: “It will go from being perceived as difficult to being recognized as being fundamental and used by everyone.”
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Worth the Money: Levoit 300S humidifier — $79.99
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As a native swamp creature — which is to say, I’m from Georgia — I really struggle with New York winters. Forget dry skin, my hands crack and bleed regularly. Enter: my beloved Levoit 300S humidifier ($79.99), which I named Cassandra. She’s quiet and dark at night, which is a seriously tough combination to find, and her automatic sensors keep my bedroom at a healthy 40% to 60% humidity at all times. A lifesaver, y’all.
—Cameron Albert-Deitch, Success Editor
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