Ask and you shall receive. Plus, “Mama knows best.”
When one woman combined these two pieces of advice, the results were nothing short of miraculous: She was offered a full-ride scholarship to law school, worth up to $300,000.
“The call that saved me nearly $300,000,” TikTok user Jayda (@jaydapeets) captioned her viral video. It shows her mother in a coffee shop while she mouths along to a voiceover of Kris Jenner saying, “What would happen if you just call Taylor up?”
@jaydapeets the call that saved me nearly $300,000, need ti do a story time #law #blacklawyers #lawschool #williamandmary #legaltiktok ♬ original sound – 🎆Bec🎆
The famous catchphrase was delivered by Kris to Kim Kardashian in a season 12 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. It was in reference to the infamous drama surrounding Taylor Swift and Kayne West’s song “Famous.”
The voiceover quickly took over TikTok with hundreds of users making parodies of the most ridiculous things their parents have suggested.
Jayda shared the advice her mom gave her in a text overlay. “When my mom told me to literally just call the dean of my law school and ask for a full-ride scholarship,” it read.
But unlike other TikTokers who found their parents’ advice to be unattainable and, well, delusional, Jayda’s mom was onto something.
“She actually said yes,” Jayda shared of the dean of admissions who offered her a full-ride scholarship.
According to a 2020 survey by the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and AccessLex Institute, half of law school graduates accumulate over $160,000 in student loan debt.
By Wednesday, Jayda’s video had been viewed more than 1.1 million times. It also received hundreds of shocked reactions from commenters. (The Daily Dot reached out to Jayda via TikTok comment.)
“OMG?? shoutout to momma!” one user celebrated. “The saying goes a quiet mouth never gets fed or something like that,” another wrote.
“Actually insane if that’s how it happened,” a third user commented.
Many shared their own stories of asking for help from their schools.
“I literally emailed my grad school that I couldn’t afford their tuition and woke up with a scholarship the next morning,” a user shared. “Asking helps.”
“I got rejected from a law school, upped my stats, and asked them to look again,” a user shared. “Got in with 75% scholarship. Never hurts to ask.”
A third wrote: “I did this when I was in university. I littler went to their FA [financial adviser] office and said I couldn’t afford my tuition and had a 17k scholarship same day.”
But only some have been as lucky as Jayda and these other students. Many have been hit with rejection, including one person who was declined an application fee waiver.
“Literally. i called and ask for an APLICATION FEE WAIVER for a school I WAS CURRENTLY ATTENDING and they said ‘nothing we can do,’” this user shared.
“I asked for more financial assistance for law school and they told me to get a job,” another wrote.
One student was told to basically collect food stamps. “What kind of financial aid offices do y’all have cause the director of mine told me to try the food pantry,” commented a third.
Since people wanted to know Jayda’s full story, she uploaded a storytime in another video.
@jaydapeets Replying to @sachai.elijah Story time on how 1 call saved me a whole lot of money for law school! shoutout to my hbcu! #blacklawyers #lawschool #williamandmary #legaltiktok #howarduniversity #hbcu #scholarship ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim
She explained that getting offered the scholarship wasn’t actually as simple as a phone call.
She had visited the school multiple times before applying, including organizing a school trip of 15 people, and got to know the employees of the admissions office.
“They were able to see my work ethic beforehand and just get my personality,” Jayda said. “I wasn’t just a name on a paper, they had to put a name to a face, and it was me.”
She then explained that she learned about a scholarship that not many people know about. “The scholarship is tucked away on the internet,” she said. “Unless you’re looking for it, you won’t find it.”
By using her knowledge of the scholarship and the personal relationships she had fostered with the admissions office, she asked to be considered.
After she was accepted into the university, she was hopeful that she, too, would get offered the scholarship. But when weeks passed and that didn’t happen, she called her mom crying for advice. Her mom told her to call the dean and ask for it.
“I thought that was crazy, but whatever,” Jayda said in her video. She decided to shoot her shot and called the dean one afternoon.
“She was really iffy on the call, so I figured I didn’t get it. She said, ‘Let me call you back in 5 minutes,’” Jayda recalled.
When the dean called her back, she had incredible news. Thanks to Jayda’s networking efforts and GPA, the dean was offering the law school scholarship that would change Jayda’s life.
