Saving on College: Mastering the College Financial Aid Game with Dr. Kuni Beasley

Eric Brotman [00:00:03]:
Welcome to Don’t Retire, Graduate, the podcast that asks you what you wanna be when you grow up so you can graduate into retirement with a purpose and a passion. I’m your host and valedictorian, Eric Brotman. And after nearly 200 episodes and a year long hiatus, Don’t Retire, Graduate is back for season 6. We’ll be bringing you interviews with amazing guests every other Thursday. And on alternating weeks, we’re hosting a new segment called diary of a financial advisor, which we know you’ll all enjoy. So please subscribe and check out all our new episodes every Thursday. Our guest today is a fascinating gentleman. Who’s been helping young people get into college and more importantly, helping families pay for it for over, for over 40 years.

Eric Brotman [00:00:45]:
Our guest is Doctor. Kuni Beasley. He’s been helping students reach their college goals of all types since 2011, Doctor. Beasley and his team have helped students earn over $300,000,000 in scholarships and grants. And students have been admitted to top institutions across the country. The Ivy league, the service academies, top tier colleges and universities. His sat and act prep program has been used in public and private schools in over 20 states. Doctor.

Eric Brotman [00:01:09]:
Beasley was the Dean of new college preparatory academy with 22 sites across the country from Springfield, Massachusetts to hot Springs, Arkansas, to Palm Springs, California. Doctor. Beasley holds a BS from Texas Christian University and MBA from Oklahoma City University, a doctor of ministry from Tyndale Cemetery. PhD from university of Texas at Arlington. He went to college for 22 years and get this. He paid for only 1 semester. Doctor. Beasley, welcome to the show.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:01:38]:
Thank you for having me.

Eric Brotman [00:01:40]:
You know, one of the, one of the fun things about, about a bio like yours is I don’t even know where to begin. I I will I will begin by saying, I I’m pretty sure I re I referred to your seminary as a cemetery. It’s not. Seminole Seminary is where you got to at. Listen, we’re we’re all human. And I I believe I said it was a cemetery. Hopefully that’s not where you got that particular degree. Would you introduce yourself for our audience today and tell us a little bit about how you got into, specifically this line of work? It’s fascinating to me.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:02:13]:
Well, I I I was actually started, doing this, in the late seventies. I was tie I was assigned in the army as a test control officer. One of my jobs was to find educational opportunities for service members so they can finish high school and get college degrees, and I really got into it. And I started doing research, and I’ve been researching this since about 1978. And, I, stumbled upon institutions that were very favorable to helping, military people, advance their education and began to learn more and more and more. Of course, went off, got married, started having kids, and, had to take care of, their college. And in the meantime, I mean, I went to I went to Texas Christian on full scholarship. I was on an ROTC scholarship.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:02:55]:
They paid for everything, plus they gave me money every month, and then, I used the military GI bill and bunch of other things. And then, with my, last batch of kids, I put, my I let’s see if I do this. My wife was a high school dropout. And in 2014, she graduated from Harvard University with a full honors, cum laude. Her I put her and her 2 daughters through college for less than 30,000.

Eric Brotman [00:03:23]:
Oh my gosh.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:03:25]:
And, that’s and then with her, her part was 22,000. Most of that was the, the apartment in Cambridge. There’s just ways of finding the money. You just have to know what you’re doing, but most people don’t know what to do. I’m gonna say 60% of the college, whatever you wanna call them out there, they they are really not, professionals in this. There’s only about a handful of us who can really perform the brain surgery. Most what I tell people is most of the other people who are doing this business are ambulance drivers. There’s about 25 of us who are brain surgeons.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:03:55]:
And so we know how to out and not so much manipulate the system, but where the opportunities are. And and you if you know where the opportunities are, it’s like, you know, what’s the secret of walking on water? You know where the rocks are. Okay? So Yeah. Yeah. Our business, we know where the rocks are, and and, we approach this from a very, very wide perspective. I mean, for example, last week, our our first service academy appointment came in, and it was a homeschooler to the Merchant Marine Academy. So our first service academy appointee was a homeschooler. About 20% of my clientele base are homeschoolers, and we’ve gotten them in the service academies.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:04:31]:
The Ivy Leagues got them full scholarships. And a lot of people say it can’t be done with homeschoolers. I just say, well, stand by and watch.

Eric Brotman [00:04:39]:
Wow. Well, I I here’s the good news. The good news is my daughter is 14 as we record this, and I get the opportunity to get some free advice from you before I potentially, sign up and, and work with your program because I’m, I’m looking at college sticker prices, just like other parents. And we certainly are doing that with clients and, and helping them with their kids and their grandkids And the, the sticker price, which I realize very few people actually fully pay, but some do. And the sticker price for these schools is outrageous. And financial aid is not something that, that a lot of people are able to rely on. And even with a, a decent income, it’s hard to put 1, 2, 3 kids through school simultaneously if you’re writing the check. And so, you know, we’ve been helping clients save for college for years.

Eric Brotman [00:05:23]:
That I guess is part of the ambulance. But, but tell me about the brain surgery, because I am no surgeon, but but I’m ready to find out. Yeah.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:05:31]:
I save this much for college.

Eric Brotman [00:05:34]:
Okay.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:05:35]:
Absolutely zero. There’s first off, we have to understand, but there’s 5 types of money for college. And we actually use the acronym money, m o n e y. M Okay. Merit based money. That’s academic scholarships, athletic scholarships, activity scholarships. I mean, we had a girl get a full scholarship to UCLA in theater costume design. Okay? They’re out there.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:05:59]:
Scholarships are out there. Okay. Next is what we call opportunity money. This is money that you have that somebody offers you, you have give something in exchange for an ROTC scholarship comes in, which is the best scholarship in the country right now today. It’s an ROTC scholarship. Employer payment, work study. There’s different types of ways where you can find opportunity. I mean, I had we had one girl.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:06:20]:
In fact, she’s the one poster girl on our, Facebook page. She got what we call campus based money. She ended up being an RA, and she paid nothing for college. I mean, we got scholarship money on top of her RA money, on top of a few other and she says, you know, mom and dad didn’t have to pay a penny for college and neither did I. She didn’t. In fact, she made money going to college. And so there’s just ways of understanding the system. The opportunities are there.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:06:44]:
It’s like fish in the ocean. The fish are there. You just gotta get a good net, go to the right fishing grounds.

Eric Brotman [00:06:50]:
Okay. And what’s the end? You got me on bated breath here.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:06:54]:
Okay. When you when when you say what the end?

Eric Brotman [00:06:57]:
In money. What are you? You you I got merit. I got opportunity, but you have me literally on the edge of my seat. Need based. Okay.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:07:04]:
Yeah. It’s need based. Okay. Yeah. Need based doesn’t mean needy. Okay? It means the difference between what the FAFSA says you should be able to pay and what it’s gonna cost you for college. K. That’s the the gap, the need.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:07:18]:
K. When I had my wife and both our daughters in college at the same time, my college bill was $72,000 a year. Now according to the FAFSA, I should be able to pay 36,000 of that and the rest of it was need based. So they got, Pell Grants, and I assure you this 36,000 they expected me to pay, I didn’t pay. Okay? But, there’s just, you know, the need basis is, you know, for example, places like Harvard and Princeton, If your adjusted gross income is below 80,000, you go for free. I mean, tuition fee tuition fees, room and board free. And if it’s below like a 120,000, they’ll cover tuition. You know, a lot of your, more expensive colleges have very handsome financial aid packages.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:08:01]:
In fact, that’s one of the things that my wife got when she went to Harvard. She got a very good financial aid package. I paid $596 for 1st semester at Harvard.

Eric Brotman [00:08:10]:
It’s unbelievable. Alright. So we got an E based. We’re on the E.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:08:14]:
Okay. E, entitlement. Okay? Things such as GI Bill, things that in state tuition, in district tuition, those are entitlements. Some of these entitlements have what’s called reciprocity, which means 2 states, like, for example, Texas and Louisiana. They have reciprocity so that a Texas student can go to Louisiana state schools at at state rates, and Louisiana students come to Texas schools at state rates. There’s a lot of types of reciprocity that are there. There’s also entitlements. We had a student who is legally deaf.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:08:43]:
He got to go to state schools in Texas for free. Orphans, foster children, different types of categories where you get entitlements. But, but, even with the US government, every US citizen and legal resident is entitled to some form of government aid. A lot of people don’t apply for it because they say, oh, we make too much money. Nobody makes too much money to get financial aid from the government.

Eric Brotman [00:09:05]:
Interesting. Interesting. Alright. Well, that is a new that’s a new wrinkle. We’re I’m gonna we’re gonna come back to that, but I gotta hear why yet.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:09:13]:
Why is your own money? Okay? Uh-huh. Every institution in the United States will accept your check, your credit card, or your money order, you know, to pay for it. Now there are strategies you can use If you’re gonna take it out of hide, there are strategies you can use that will minimize the amount of money you have to pay out. And so, you know, for example, doing what we call a 2 plus 2. 2 years community college, 2 years and a 4 year college. Means of stacking credits, taking CLEP exams, AP exams, Dante’s exams, stack credits. We had a student who actually worked through and finished his college degree in a little over 6 months as he stacked credits to the test. And and, there are just ways of watching the credits and get gaining the credits and some, colleges that, if you accumulate the appropriate credits, they’ll issue you a degree.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:10:01]:
Legitimate state universities will issue you a degree.

Eric Brotman [00:10:04]:
I’m I’m dumbfounded doctor. So this is this is a completely different take than I’ve ever heard. And, and we’ve met with admissions officers. We’ve met with, we’ve met with financial aid officers. We’ve certainly met with all of the financial institutions that can’t wait to have you save money in a 100 different ways. And all the states have their college savings plans and their 5 29s and they give tax subsidies and, and, deductions in certain cases to try and incent that. But the state’s also making money on those plans. So that’s not altruistic per se.

Eric Brotman [00:10:37]:
So, so the merit piece is, is, let’s start there because,

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:10:40]:
let me just, let me just

Eric Brotman [00:10:42]:
go ahead. No, I was gonna say the merit piece. We, we have a musical theater kid and we’re gonna be looking at programs that have a BFA and we’ll be looking at, and I have, one of my dearest friends has a, a daughter who’s a senior in college and they have to not only apply to all these schools, then then have to audition for these schools to get into the programs they’re looking for. And she’s applying to 24 schools, which is also expensive. They’re also doing 2 national auditions. There’s 1 in Chicago and one in Dallas that are national, where lots of schools go to try and get into the program from a, a merit standpoint, from a talent standpoint, all of that costs a fair amount of money. And they of course have hired a consultant to help with navigating that process as well. So it feels like there’s a lot of different, very expensive ways to go find this solution.

Eric Brotman [00:11:32]:
And you’re suggesting there might be some inexpensive ways to find that merit aid.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:11:36]:
Yes. Well, let me just give you an example. One of my clients is a member of the Dallas Symphony plays trombone. Okay. Of course, he’s both his boys were very musically talented. Both of them went to state. His most recent one is, just graduated, this last year was All State Cello. Okay.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:11:53]:
Now, both of his sons got merit scholarships to the University of Alabama. Now, University of Alabama automatic scholarship. You’ve got a 32 ACT and a 3.5 automatic, 28,000 a year, $112,000. K? Automatic. Now they were both wanted to major in engineering, so they got engineering scholarship and they got a music scholarship on top of that. Dad doesn’t have to pay anything. He’s got 2 kids, University of Alabama basically pays for their airfare.

Eric Brotman [00:12:21]:
Now that’s University of Alabama, of course, is a state institution. Is that true? A private institutions too or is this a state?

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:12:27]:
You can do this stuff at private institution. Had a kid, Chapman University out in California. He had nearly a maximum, at at he he maxed the math portion of the SAT. He got a full scholarship, tuition fees, room and board. There’s a lot of colleges out there. You know, you have to target the colleges that give money away. You just don’t go to any college and say I’ve got good grades, good test scores. I should get a scholarship.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:12:47]:
I mean, you know, and and where I live in Texas, what would get you into the University of Texas in Austin would get you a full scholarship at the University of Texas at Dallas?

Eric Brotman [00:12:56]:
Interesting. So, so some of it is which campus you’re on. I mean, we’re, we’re not all that far. Yeah. We’re not all that far from Penn state where there are a ton of different campuses and we’re in Maryland where University of Maryland’s got a few campuses. So certainly that’s a, that’s an option as well. How much of, how much of the merit based aid is based on the sat and act? How much is based on grades? Cause I, I get the sense that grade inflation is real and, and that some of these weighted GPAs sound kind of absurd and that schools are trying to almost inflate the grades of their kids so they can say, hey, look at all the schools we got into. Can we rely on grades very much? Or is it really the standardized test?

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:13:36]:
Rely on grades because most of the colleges will look at unweighted grades as the waiting system is just too doing some variable, and they’ll look at the test scores. Now, you know, we went through the test optional phase, which was a disaster.

Eric Brotman [00:13:48]:
Of course.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:13:49]:
People still don’t realize that it it it although it was test optional, you are half again more likely to be admitted. You had test scores that were in the in at least in the median 50% and higher than you were if you didn’t turn in your test scores. Okay? And, the other thing is a major Ivy League, I’m college, I’m not gonna mention this name. They had a windfall of $7,000,000 of an additional revenue because people were applying on a wing and a prayer without their test scores. Of course, you know, it it drove down their admission rate, so it made them look more exclusive. But just because you had more people apply, and they made $7,700,000 more money and it became a became a cash cow.

Eric Brotman [00:14:29]:
On application fees?

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:14:31]:
Yeah. Application fees. I don’t I don’t a lot of colleges are still gonna keep test optional because it’s a revenue generator.

Eric Brotman [00:14:37]:
Oh my goodness. All right.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:14:38]:
So, so These places are businesses. I mean, in Harvard University itself, Bill O’Reilly says it’s a, it’s a hedge fund. It’s not really a college.

Eric Brotman [00:14:46]:
Well, which, which makes me wonder, and this is a show for a different day. It makes me wonder why they’re tax exempt. And I know that’ll make me real unpopular real fast, but, but at some point, are they really nonprofits when they have $1,000,000,000 endowments? I don’t know.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:14:59]:
Well, the endowments, but the money goes back into the school. It’s not paying dividend dividends. Right. And it is paying for I’m well, it’s it’s got I’ve had 3 students there in the last few years, and it paid for their tuition and fees room and board. So I don’t complain about that too much. But, I mean but, again, it gets back to understanding how to navigate the this maze. And most people don’t know. I mean, your your high school counselors don’t know.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:15:23]:
Most of them couldn’t name the Ivy League Colleges. I do have a anecdote here. I used to, I used to, present at the Texas High School Counselors, annual conference in Galveston. Until about 7 years ago when I had a workshop, there was about 40 counselors in the room. Half of them had PhDs in counseling. And I asked, okay. Name the Ivy League Schools. And it wasn’t until one of the ladies Googled it on her phone that we got an accurate list.

Eric Brotman [00:15:53]:
Oh my goodness.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:15:54]:
You wanna try it?

Eric Brotman [00:15:55]:
I know what they are. I can do that in my sleep. You put me on the, on the spot, Columbia Brown. And

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:16:00]:
this is the right answer. This is the wrong answer.

Eric Brotman [00:16:03]:
Okay. Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, and Columbia.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:16:12]:
You got it. You’re the first person that’s done it.

Eric Brotman [00:16:14]:
The ancient eight. Well, I went to Penn, so it’s it’s a little bit unfair. I knew those. I knew those schools cold because I’m I I was lucky enough to attend one of them, but but yeah. And and that’s amazing.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:16:26]:
I do an acronym. I say, okay, here’s your acronym. BCCD. Happy. Take out the a. B c c d, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth. H, Harvard, Penn, Princeton. Yeah.

Eric Brotman [00:16:39]:
That’s good. I look. I have people who still I have family members who still think I went to Penn State. They don’t know what Penn is, but that’s fine.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:16:45]:
That that and and that’s a great experience. Within the Ivy League, Duke in the Ivy League, Chicago. I said, you know, the sports dancers can’t be in the Ivy League. If there was in the Ivy League, it couldn’t go to the Rose Bowl. That’s funny. As an athletic association.

Eric Brotman [00:16:58]:
Correct. And, and it’s funny. I, I, I met somebody who was a Stanford alum recently, and I said, that’s the wannabe Ivy or the west coast. And she didn’t love that, but that’s fine. I, they do get to go play football over there. So that’s good. Let’s talk about need based because the, the FAFSA is something. And of course the FAFSA got, got, adjusted a year or so ago.

Eric Brotman [00:17:18]:
And, oh yeah. And, and it was a cluster because it looked like the government put out some new forms before they were ready and applications were being delayed and, and it just didn’t work. FAFSA sounds kind of like a nightmare. And we, we represent folks. We represent folks, many of whom are over a limit where it feels like the FAFSA is even worth spending time on. You would say it’s still worth spending time on.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:17:40]:
Oh, yes. Yes. Okay. Number 1, over 80% of the people make mistakes on the FAFSA. That’s that’s from DOE itself, Department of Education. 80% of people. In fact, I had a CPA who needed help on this FAFSA, And I reworked his FAFSA, and there was a $20,000 differential in what he was avail what he, was eligible for. Really? Because you know, and he was a CPA.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:18:02]:
You know? Because most people don’t know how to fill up the FAFSA. They don’t understand the FAFSA. They try to fill it out online without doing their homework. Because we have them print out the form and fill it in first, then I review the form, the the paper form or the PDF, and then we go on, we plug it in. What happens is they go in and they start plugging it in. We had one family where, you know, the the the term they they kept on using. What is your income? What is, your what is your assets? And the parents were filling it out, and they were filling it out for themselves. Recording the FAFSA, the kid made $80,000 a year.

Eric Brotman [00:18:34]:
Okay.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:18:35]:
They they make mistakes like that. And and once you hit that send button, it’s gone into the ether world and and you have to go to every individual college and fix it.

Eric Brotman [00:18:45]:
Wow. Okay. So getting the FAFSA right the first time is a major time time saver for sure.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:18:51]:
Yeah. So, I mean, it doesn’t and if you do it right and you got your records together, hang out, hour and a half. Okay? And I I review the FAFSA and send it off. And, I mean, there’s there’s there are strategies. Well, let I’m gonna give you an example. I had a relatively wealthy gentleman, you know, and probably had 12,000,000 in assets. And, at that time, the, parental loan was, I think, about 4%. But his his portfolio was performing at about 11%, 10%.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:19:19]:
And I said, you know, you’re gonna have a a better chance of retaining more of your wealth by going ahead, taking out the loans while the kid is in college, and then, using your portfolio and the proceeds from your portfolio to pay it back after college is over because you’re gonna have a differential of, about 6%. You know? So you don’t wanna take that savings and apply it to college, take out the loan and then pay the loan back with, with your, your portfolio.

Eric Brotman [00:19:46]:
Well, and that’s certainly there’s a lot of variables there. Obviously, interest rates are not as low as they were and portfolios sometimes don’t behave exactly the way we’d like them to year in and year out. So, so there’s, there’s a little bit of risk involved in that. Although I can certainly appreciate the arbitrage of trying to do that. Some of the things that we’ve talked about are, the, the ROTC piece, the, the, the GI bill piece, those, I think people fully either understand, or if their kids are, are exploring those, there’s a military community that I think is very supportive of, of young people who want to do that. That’s not for everyone, certainly, but for, for those folks that are,

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:20:23]:
it’s great to take them.

Eric Brotman [00:20:26]:
Well, maybe that’s true.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:20:27]:
Families who, who, who they know, all they know about West Point, They know about Naval Academy, but all they know about is, oh, that’s where the navy sends that’s where navy people send their kids, is what they think. That’s where army people send their kids. They don’t know what it is about. They don’t I mean, yes yesterday, I was, doing my initial, consultation with the student from California, and I brought up ROTC, and he goes, oh, that’s military. What is that? And most of them don’t know. Most of them don’t know the opportunities there. In fact, there is a National Guard scholarship, does not have an active duty requirement that actually pays more than the ROTC scholarship.

Eric Brotman [00:21:03]:
Really? And there’s no active duty. You’re so you’re you’re part of the so you can be called up to the National Guard during your educational years or thereafter?

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:21:12]:
No. Not in your education. Here’s what it says. What happens. You join the National Guard. You go you join ROTC on campus as a non scholarship student. K? And then the it was called the Minuteman. The Minuteman will pay your tuition, plus you’re gonna get your regular ROTC pay was $450 a month, plus you’re gonna get your reserve pay was another $500 a month.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:21:32]:
You got about 9 $900 pizza money every month. Okay? Your your obligation is 8 years in reserves. You gotta have a whooping 2.8 and a 1000 SAT to qualify. And 2 years ago, they couldn’t give enough away. They they had a surplus.

Eric Brotman [00:21:50]:
So, so for, for many years, 3 decades plus, we’ve been counseling families on how to do this. And one of the things that we’ve suggested to people for many, many years is don’t bankrupt yourself, trying to educate your kids, unless you’re planning to live in one of their basements later, you’ll have really educated kids and no retirement funds for yourself. And so there’s the, I use the airplane safety lecture to talk a little bit about this with people, which is, you know, if, if there’s a loss of cabin pressure, masks are gonna drop down, put your own mask on before securing the mask of anyone else. And it’s sort of true that way too. Retirement’s the only thing you can’t, borrow for. You have to save for that. And so, you know, I don’t like to see families and I don’t wanna be one of those families that has such a well educated kid that we can’t retire. And I think we’ve done a pretty good job of planning for this and you, maybe you’ll have a, a different spin on it if we, if we were to engage, but what do you tell those families with multiple kids who are, are really trying to prioritize their kids’ education over their retirement? Are are you really in a, hey, we can do both type of situation rather than you have to choose 1 or the other?

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:22:57]:
No. Well, let me put it this way. If you have to touch your retirement, there is no college in the United States that is worth touching your retirement. That college does not exist. Okay. Yeah. You cannot tell me by going to a higher profile college or a more expensive college that somehow it’s gonna amortize itself, over time. The Kruger study, which started in 1972, tracked people who was or or admitted to Harvard and tracked those who actually went and those who didn’t go.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:23:25]:
And after 40 years, no significant difference in income, no significant difference in success. Okay? You can’t there’s no not one single study that says if you go to school x, you gonna have an advantage over everybody else because they went to school y. That doesn’t exist.

Eric Brotman [00:23:39]:
That is that is extremely quotable, doctor. And and I I know we’re gonna see that again because that is that is, I think gospel. So what, so what are we seeing in lieu of that? You don’t want to touch your retirement. You don’t want to touch your long term money, but you want to make sure your kids have an opportunity.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:23:56]:
Okay. You start early, like in your case, 14 year old, she’s in the 9th grade, right?

Eric Brotman [00:24:00]:
Yep. Sure is.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:24:00]:
Okay. Every day after the 1st day of 9th grade that you are not on a formal program, you’re losing a $100 a day of opportunity money. Interesting. Because you need to start early and and because see, a lot of people think, oh, we’ve got time or whatever, or we’ll get around to it. And then they come to me middle of the junior year, what do we do now doctor Beasley? And I go, you know, I told you 2 years ago you should have started. So what you do is you start building the resume. You start building it. You you start testing them early.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:24:29]:
Then you need to get them in SAT and ACT early. You know, test early and test often. Because the colleges will always take your best score. All of this myth about the average of scores and those no. Not a single college in the country that will average your test scores. They will always take your best scores. In fact, most colleges will super score. They’ll take your top highest component score over multiple tests.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:24:50]:
Harvard does that. So, you know, so you you wanna get your testing strategy set up. You wanna get good grades. There’s no substitute for good grades. So one of the things that we do with our kids is we package them. Okay? We want their resumes to shine. So we just had 3 students finish the congressional award. This is where your congressman awards you a gold or silver medal for your self development and community service.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:25:13]:
So we’re gonna be posting those. So that’s on your resume. You get the presidential volunteer service award. Letter signed by the president. Thank you for your volunteer work. K? We work with them things like going to boys state and girls state because that’s the highest single honor you can get in high school. Most people don’t even know it exists. Most high school

Eric Brotman [00:25:30]:
counselors I’m not familiar with that. I’m not familiar with that.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:25:34]:
But the people in the admissions office, they know these things are.

Eric Brotman [00:25:38]:
Interesting. You

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:25:38]:
know, things like that that are gonna build and build your resume up, that you’re getting, experience, that you become an asset for the university. So if you become an asset for the university, they’re gonna pay you to go there. So you start working these college. I have one family, 6 kids. Every one of them got a full scholarship to college. I started them in the 8th grade.

Eric Brotman [00:25:58]:
I I am, I have you written a book or you’re not giving out your secret sauce because that’s,

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:26:03]:
that’s I’m I’m starting I’m starting to do a series of essays that I’ll be developing on this. I mean, I I don’t you know, everything that I’ve learned, every somebody else can learn. You can you know, it’s not there’s no secrets about these things. It’s just I just know the information, you know, but it’s like your surgeon. Your surgeon knows the information too, you know. And it’s you can go to YouTube and learn how to take out your own appendix. Russian Russian doctor did it in Antarctica. Okay? But people say, well, I I can do this myself.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:26:29]:
I I had a mom come up and says, you know, a diligent parent, you can do this yourself. And I said, yeah. You probably can’t just I did it. My son got a national merit scholarship. I said, well, what did he get? He said, I only have to pay $40,000 a year. I’m sitting there going national merit, and you have to pay money. K? Interesting. Get a national merit scholarship, the colleges will line up and start throwing, you know, gifts at your feet.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:26:51]:
I mean, you know, but some people will go to a different college and not not take the money from, you know, colleges that are offering them lots of money.

Eric Brotman [00:27:00]:
Interesting. You know, it it

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:27:01]:
it seems like John John diligence. Why did you rob banks? Because that’s where the money is.

Eric Brotman [00:27:06]:
All right. Well, I think there’s gonna be a line around your door after this show goes live, because a lot of people are gonna wanna talk to you. And I’m gonna let you tell everybody how to get in touch with you and how to learn more. But, but first I have to ask you a, a, a fundamental question because, you know, you’ve been doing this for 40 years and, the, the theme of our show is of course never retiring in the traditional sense. Life’s too short to spend a third of it, you know, watching daytime TV and playing shuffleboard. So, what do you want to be when you grow up? What’s the plan?

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:27:35]:
Well, I wanna be a little bit, lighter. And, but I’m gonna continue to do this. I’ll die at my desk like Einstein did. I mean, I just turned 69, and I’m going to continue to do this and help people and develop this and find new ways of doing this, because I’ve got other things I want to work on. I’ve got a learning program where I can help people transform and raise their grades significantly. I’ve got different things I want to do. That’s going to be able to advance human capital. And so that’s really, I’m going to focus on that and continue to do this, continue to help people get into college and save money.

Eric Brotman [00:28:14]:
Well, it sounds like you’ve already found your passion and, and, you know, a wise man, I believe once said that if you, if you love your work, you never work a day in your life. So it sounds like that’s where you are. I congratulate you not only on, on having a, a phenomenal, phenomenal Vitae yourself, but also helping so many people. I’m sure. I’m sure you have made not only customers or clients, but heroes. You know, I’m sure a lot of people are really very, very happy. How can folks learn more about what you do and find you online and so forth?

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:28:42]:
Well, they can go to my website, beasleycollegeprep.com and they if they wanna, set up, we we will offer a free consultation, unless I have a stampede, then I’ll turn it into a webinar. I’ll invite everybody to the webinar, but free consultation and, beasleycollegeprep.com. And if they wanna email us, it’s info at beasleycollegeprep.com.

Eric Brotman [00:29:05]:
Fascinating. We

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:29:06]:
have some in we have a lot of information we give away for free and just to help people along.

Eric Brotman [00:29:11]:
This has been fun. I’ve enjoyed this. I could talk to you for hours. And, and now I feel like I’ve wasted a $100 a day for several months already. So apparently we have a lot to talk about on that front too. Doctor. Beasley, thank you. Thank you for being a part of the program.

Eric Brotman [00:29:26]:
I, I really have enjoyed having you on.

Dr. Kuni Beasley [00:29:28]:
Thank you for having me and a pleasure.

Eric Brotman [00:29:31]:
Thank you all for listening today. If you enjoy our show, please subscribe, leave a rating on your favorite podcast platform and share it with your friends and family so they can join you on your journey to financial freedom. If you’d like to send us a topic or idea you’d like to discuss in a future episode of Don’t Retire Graduate, please post it on our Facebook page or tweet us at Brotmanplanning. We’ll be back next week with another entry in our diary of a financial advisor and in 2 weeks with another engaging guest. For now, this is your host, Eric Brotman reminding you don’t retire, graduate.

Unnamed Voiceover [00:30:06]:
Securities offered through Kestra investment services LLC Kestra IS member FINRA SIPC investment advisory services offered through Kestra advisory services LLC Kestra AS an affiliate of Kestra IS Kestra IS or Kestra AS are not affiliated with Brotman financial or any other entity discussed.