I’m an incoming grad student and I’ve been offered work/study amounting to about one day of work per week. This won’t be enough, but it’s still something to consider. What I want to do at this point is keep my options as open as possible.
Can I accept the work study but, upon finding other employment, just never use it? In a more extreme scenario, can I start on the work study job but then quit at some future point, just like a regular job?
I’m an out-of-state student, so I can’t really find a job until right before the semester starts. I want to keep work/study as an option, without fully committing to it.
Yes, you can do all that.
My D did not use the work study for last year and this year although it was given to her. She just keep that option option in case she found some research opportunity with it.
So if I apply for jobs on campus, (bookstore etc.,) will they ask me whether I’m eligible for work/study? Or will they automatically know? I’d prefer to keep it to myself, after all… Then I’ll only use it as a last resort.
At Brown, your work-study award represented the maximum you could earn under the program. There was nothing to stop you from earning less–accept that you would have less money. I was grateful to have work-study as the vast majority of the research and departmental internships were reserved for work-study.
Sadly, I will not be attending Brown. 
My work/study also represents the most I can get, but it’s only about $70 a week, which is… disappointing. What I want is to work MORE than that, either by combining several jobs or by just getting an unrelated job off campus.
Here’s what worries me though. If I apply for a half-time job on campus, can I be REJECTED from it on the grounds that it exceeds my work/study? My work/study specifically stipulates that I can’t use it while employed at other campus jobs. The question is, can I still keep it as a last resort while I apply for those jobs, or do I have to clearly and firmly reject it.
For many on-campus jobs, the department/organization will want to know whether you have work-study because they might not have the funds to hire you otherwise (this has to do with how budgets get allocated within the college). If you are hired under work-study, you can’t work more than your total allotment, because your employer will run out of money with which to pay you.
Work-study allotments are set in part based on available funding, but also in your educational interest – how many hours per week can you work and still be paying adequate attention to your studies? Being a full-time student in college is already the equivalent (or more) of a full-time job (e.g. 12 hours per week in class plus another ~36 hours outside of class reading, studying, doing homework, working in the lab, etc…)
To answer your question more directly, if you have a work-study award and you are looking for a job on-campus, your on-campus employer is likely going to make you use the work-study allotment first before dipping into their own budget. If you want to work more than your work-study award will allow, you will probably have to look in to getting an off-campus job in addition (or instead of).
At UMich, they actually post the job with work study eligibility.