<p>I received $1000 worth in scholarships, and hopefully will receive some more. </p>
<p>Is it wise for me to choose to eliminate my work study or loans? I only have subsidized loans, so that is why this dilemma exists. My thought is that if I eliminate work study, I can find a different job and simply work that the entire year for about 10 hrs/week. If I work a work study job, that money counts towards my aid... so it doesn't really change much. But if I find another job, that money goes directly into my pocket and can pay for either my personal expenses or the actual tuition bill. I understand that if I eliminate loans I won't have to pay that money back later, but these are "friendly" and subsidized loans (...or about as friendly as loans can get), meaning that I won't have to pay interest (it'll be paid for by my school or the government) until I graduate anyway. Assuming I accumulate enough money from working a job every year, or at least some of my years, I can probably make enough to prepay these loans anyway, right?</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is that income from WS will not negatively affect your financial aid the following year. WS income is deducted from the AGI before your EFC is calculated. </p>
<p>Non WS income may negatively affect your financial aid the following year. Any income over the protected student income allowances (@ $3800 for this year plus a little more in allowances for work related expenses such as FICA) 50% of it goes to the EFC.</p>
<p>Hmm… so if I have a summer job and make about 2k from it this summer, and then begin working again in September, if my total earnings go over $3800, 50% of anything over that goes towards EFC? Wow, that sucks. I don’t know what to do! If I reduce my WS and get a real job, I get penalized. Hm, let’s see…</p>
<p>Calculations:
$2000 (approx from my job here in NJ) + [8.00 (min wage in Mass) * 10 (hrs/week) * 4 (weeks/month) * 4 (months I’ll be in Mass until 2010)] = $3280</p>
<p>Assuming all of those calculations are correct, I’d be pretty set. But of course it probably won’t work out to be exactly that much… I’m thinking to get rid of work study though, because I can always quit my job but quitting a work study job would be bad because I need the $ to pay tuition.</p>
<p>If you have to work anyway, a work study job is highly preferable to regular real world job.</p>
<p>No job and more subsidized loans is preferable over any job and less loans, if you have the ability to choose like your subject title indicates. This of course is a generalization and may not be applicable in every situation.</p>
<p>neethus, the school doesn’t KEEP your ws earnings - you do get a regular paycheck, just like any other job. Your tuition bill will be due before you ever get to college anyway.</p>
<p>If you haven’t already, you must find out what the school is doing about your $1K scholarship. They may just make the choice for you by reducing your ws award or another grant they gave you. Take your time and don’t decline anything just yet!</p>
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<p>Only if you love working more later on to pay for money you’re spending now! Imo, far better to work a bit now and pay as you go!</p>
<p>sk8rmom, the school sent me a paper indicating that I have a choice - I can choose whether to eliminate whatever I wish.</p>
<p>And I understand that the school doesn’t keep my WS earnings and I get paid with a paycheck. But I also know that when the time comes, I will have to use it to pay tuition. But if I got a non-WS job, I would not have to contribute that towards tuition necessarily.</p>
<p>Basically what I’m saying is that I don’t have the $2000 that they gave me in WS in my pocket to pay tuition currently. I’d have to take out a loan for the 2k. Then I’d have to pay it back using WS earnings. So wouldn’t it make more sense to use my scholarships to pay off the WS and get a non-WS job and use that to pay MORE of my tuition rather than take out a loan and just pay it back?</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t make sense from an accounting standpoint or I’m just misunderstanding the basic question. You’re being offered both loans and WS. A small amount of scholarship money is available but isn’t enough to cover what is needed. You need /want to work, so work study is a good thing and it doesn’t prevent you from also taking non-ws jobs if you choose/have time. It does give you access to a job that you can schedule around your courseload. The subsidized loan can give you the “advance” you need to pay tuition before you have a chance to earn all the money…it doesn’t cost you anything in interest if you pay it off before it becomes due.</p>
<p>You owe $2K tuition - pay it from summer earnings/scholarships or take a loan. There is no “paying off” WS - WS is not a loan, it’s just an opportunity for you to earn money without affecting your EFC for next year. </p>
<p>You go to college and need a job to pay personal expenses, tuition, whatever. A work study job will likely pay you the same amount as a non-ws job. You choose to pay tuition for spring semester with either type of earnings or pay personal expenses and take a loan for tuition. Whether the money comes from a ws or non-ws job is immaterial.</p>
<p>Am I missing something? Why would you “have to” use it WS income to pay tuition, but not non-WS income? I would not decline either award at least until you get and have figured out how to pay for your first semester!</p>
<p>I knew that would get a rise. Let me explain my thinking. It is just one point of view. It assumes a lot of things.</p>
<p>If the loan is a subsidized Stafford there are no payments and no interest until 6 months after graduation. We are talking about not reducing a loan by $1000. If he keeps the loan, he will receive 1000 2009 dollars and pay it back with 1000 2013 dollars, which will be worth less then due to inflation. About 3% per year less, based on historical rates of inflation. So he gets 1000 2009 dollars and has to pay back 880 2009 dollars in 2013.</p>
<p>Plus, he will earn those 880 dollars at a much higher rate after graduation, being a college graduate, than he can earn 1000 dollars now at a low wage work study job. So it will take much less work time for him to pay off the loan than the time to earn the equivalent now in work study wages.</p>
<p>Plus, instead of diluting his time now with the demands of a part time job, he can focus more on his studies and a restorative social life, leading to a better academic record and polished manners, leading to a higher paying job upon graduation and yet an even easier pay off of the loan.</p>
<p>I’m a big fan of work study myself, but also a big fan of subsidized loans. Loans as a type of aid in general get a lot of bad-mouthing, but that is due in part to extreme cases where someone has a pile of unsubsidized loans and for some reason can’t earn enough after graduation to pay them off quickly.</p>
<p>^ I know it makes sense in theory, but I don’t think it’s really a practical benefit. I think it’s better for kids to stay focused (ie not have too much "restorative social life, lol) and ws jobs are also a good way to get them out of their dorms and involved with different people/places on campus than they might otherwise be. I always had great on campus jobs, though they weren’t ws, and made some interesting contacts. </p>
<p>It so easy for people to fall into the debt trap once they establish a habit of borrowing by choice. I agree that the subsidized loans are a great deal if you need them, though they don’t bring the same satisfaction of knowing you worked and saved to pay your way. Just my .02!</p>
<p>I have a WS award of 2k. When I work, I will make no more than 2k during my school year. This 2k will go to pay my tuition. If I cover this with scholarships, then my work study disappears. I no longer have to pay 2k towards tuition - it is covered by scholarships. Rest of my fin aid award is in subsidized loans. Therefore, I owe nothing but my EFC. If I get a WS job, I will pay my EFC out of pocket, plus use the WS money to pay that extra 2k.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if I use scholarships to cover all of my WS award (assuming I win another 1k in scholarship money), I can cover my WS with scholarships. This means I owe nothing but my EFC. I can use my non-WS earnings to pay my EFC.</p>
<p>Does that make sense…?</p>
<p>And I do have a summer job - I’m planning to use that to pay my EFC. Then get a non-WS job to pay more of my EFC. The rest my parents would pay for. Btw, the school does not allow me to get more than 1 job on campus, so I’d be stuck with either a WS job or non-WS job. TBH, I don’t really want more than one job… it’d be really hard to balance school/social/jobs.</p>
<p>Either way you will end up paying about the same amount of money towards your college expenses. The better path to choose in my opinion is the work study, it is EASIER to get a job on campus that will schedule around your classes with a work study program. </p>
<p>Having a work study, they probably took that out that 2k from your other loans they offered or maybe even part of the upfront money you had to pay. So let’s say you originally have 10k in subsidized loans, and nothing else. Now, because you have a work study, you will have 8k in subsidized loans and 2k in work study.</p>
<p>What i was wondering was, how would one pay off a work study program. I know that a WS program give you a paycheck instead of automatically going to financial aid, but what if you spend that money on personal expenses instead of saving it up and paying back the financial aid? Do I pay them the money first (lets say I got 3k in WS), then you work for that 3k back in my pocket?</p>