The $1M Scholarship Strategy w/ Nia Baiyeroju #1142
How to Money
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Most of us think of college as an investment… one that hopefully pays off over decades. And for a lot of people, it does. But with costs skyrocketing, it’s not quite the slam dunk it used to be. So what if you could flip that equation? What if instead of paying for college, college paid you? Our guest today did exactly that. Nia Baiyeroju earned over a million dollars in scholarships and now she’s helping others do the same. She’s here to break down how it works and how you can take advantage of the estimated $100 billion in available funds. We specifically discuss:
- Leveraging your unique story
- An unlikely social media platform to find scholarships
- Casting a wide net and going for smaller opportunities
- Losing $20,000 bc of a missing headshot
- Sidestepping the headache of filling out applications
- The value of internships
- Hustling, burnout, and mental health
- Importance of stated goals and community
- And much more!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.3 | Welcome to How to Money. |
| 0:05.7 | I'm Joel. |
| 0:06.1 | And today I'm talking the $1 million scholarship strategy with Nia Bayeroghue. So most of us think of college as investment, one that hopefully pays off over decades. |
| 0:35.4 | And for a lot of people, it does. |
| 0:38.4 | But with the costs skyrocketing, it's just not the slam dunk that it used to be. So what if you could flip that |
| 0:43.8 | equation? What if instead of paying for college, college paid you? Well, my guest today did |
| 0:49.8 | exactly that. Nia Bayeroju earned over a million dollars in scholarships. Now she's helping others |
| 0:56.2 | do the same. It sounds like a made-up number, but it's not. Like she really did. So we'll talk |
| 0:59.6 | about that. And she's here to actually break down how it works, how you can take advantage, |
| 1:04.0 | how you can use the system to get your higher education for less money. Nea, thanks for joining me. |
| 1:09.9 | Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. So glad you're here. The first question I ask everybody who comes on the show, Nia, is what they like to splurge on. We call it the craft beer equivalent because I like to spend a lot of money on good craft beer. What is your craft beer equivalent? What are you spending maybe ridiculous sums of money on or at least other people might think |
| 1:27.9 | it's ridiculous but hey it's okay because you're still saving and investing for the future |
| 1:31.3 | my craft beer equivalent has to be experiences um i just got married actually last year and my |
| 1:39.1 | husband and i was going thanks you thank you we're going to the f1 race in Japan in like two weeks, literally, less than two weeks. So I'm excited about that. That's amazing. Oh, my gosh. Have you watched the Netflix series? I have watched the movie. I have not watched the series. Honestly, I'm just going for the vibes. Okay. But I love a good experience to just trying new things I never would have tried before. |
| 2:04.2 | Yeah. |
| 2:04.9 | Give me an example of another experience that you've partaken in that was well worth to spend. |
| 2:12.1 | Skydiving. |
| 2:13.1 | Oh, yeah. |
| 2:13.8 | That was so much fun. |
| 2:15.2 | It was actually for my 21st birthday. |
... |
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