Sometimes it all comes down to answering the right question.
Thirty years ago, Rich Schalter was struggling to make ends meet while finishing his accounting degree at Michigan Technological University. He sat down with the financial aid officer, who asked him how much he needed to get by that semester.
“I don’t know. A couple hundred dollars,” Schalter mumbled.
“I don’t think you understood me. So I’ll ask you one more time how much you need,” the officer told him.
A light went on for Schalter. He said he needed $1,500.
“We have $946.28,” the officer informed him.
That taught Schalter the value of listening – something that not only helped him pay for his last year of college, but has proved invaluable in his role as president of Spartan Chassis, a multimillion-dollar corporation in Charlotte, Mich.
“I would have missed out on a lot of money,” Schalter said with a laugh.
Another lesson Schalter learned: It’s all about the personal touch. Even though the Internet now offers a wealth of resources for students, he firmly believes there’s no substitute for face-to-face interaction.
From his time as a freshman, Schalter hung around the financial aid office. He wanted to be the first person officials thought of if a new scholarship was founded or a student left mid-semester, freeing up additional aid.
Persistence paid off. And he gained the added bonus of developing long-term relationships with university staff, which even helped him land his first accounting job.
That’s something Kurt Reed can relate to. As a Central Michigan University transfer student, Reed faced an all-too-common problem.
“My mother made just enough money that my financial aid package was terrible,” he said with a smile.
After tangling with a financial aid officer (whom he nicknamed “The Gatekeeper”), Reed saw an opening – literally. The director’s door was open and he walked right in.
“I am a firm believer that you go to the top,” said Reed, a 1992 graduate of the School of Broadcast & Cinematic Arts. “I managed to get him to laugh and he agreed to meet with me.”
The meeting changed his life. Not only did Reed get his own financial aid situation straightened out, but he found a “mission.” The director showed him the ropes and soon Reed was helping other students with their own college funding crises.
Today, Reed works as assistant director of Michigan State University’s GEAR UP program aimed at helping low-income students.
His college days also taught him another important maxim: Creativity counts.
Loans and grants only went so far, so Reed became a dorm-room entrepreneur. His first venture was as a hairstylist for students of color, since Mount Pleasant, Mich., did not have any ethnic salons at the time.
“I saw an opportunity,” Reed said.
He also started a DJ operation for campus parties and sold sweatsuits and shoes wholesale, often flying to California and New York to find the latest styles. It was “very lucrative,” Reed said.
Another budding businessman was Ed Sarpolus, a 1976 Aquinas College graduate in psychology and philosophy.
Sarpolus started out doing standard work/study fare at the Grand Rapids, Mich., school such as shoveling snow, cleaning dorm showers and working as a security guard. He developed a reputation as a jack of all trades, and paid for one semester by detailing an antique baby grand piano.
He also started his own business ventures, photographing events and throwing dinner parties in the house he rented with friends.
But it was an internal research job for the college that sparked his true passion. Sarpolus learned about data collection, polling, drawing samples, analyzing data and cross-tabs.
“It was love at first sight,” Sarpolus said.
Soon the undergraduate was a player in state and local politics, doing polling for the congressional seat vacated by Gerald Ford when he assumed the vice presidency. Sarpolus also won a casino gambling study with the state of Michigan.
“My girlfriend posed as my secretary for the meeting,” he recalled, laughing.
Today, Sarpolus is vice president for the EPIC-MRA polling firm in Lansing, Mich., and holds the title of Michigan’s most quoted pollster.
Proof that paying for college can really pay off.
Susan J. Demas is a contributing editor to EduGuide and 2006 Knight Foundation Fellow in Nonprofits Journalism.