<p>So currently, I have an EFC of 0 but wish to eliminate work study through scholarships. (is this even possible without a high-paying scholarship?)
If my scholarships are paid directly to the colleges, can I use the money to get out of work study without paying any additional fees?
Because different colleges have different policies, I'll list the major colleges I applied to</p>
<ol>
<li>UCs</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>U Penn</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>U Mich</li>
</ol>
<p>BTW: If I have an EFC of 0 and a scholarship can only be applied to "unmet need", will I get any money from the scholarship or will schools just reduce their own financial aid provided.</p>
<p>Thanks for any replies.</p>
<p>If you get an outside scholarship, most schools will say that reduces your need by that amount. So if you get an outside scholarship of $4000, you have $4000 less need and the school’s aid package will likely be reduced by $4000.</p>
<p>I guess I don’t understand why you would want to eliminate work study. For the schools you have listed, most meet full need. Students are EXPECTED to make a financial contribution and many do this by working a w-s job.</p>
<p>Alright thanks so much for the reply but…</p>
<p>I have another question: If outside scholarships reduce the financial aid colleges give you based on need, is there no reason for me to apply for outside scholarships, if my EFC is 0?</p>
<p>Is there any way to get rid of work study, since I’m “expected” to pay a certain amount of the my college tuition? (Do I need a full or incredibly high-paying scholarship?)</p>
<p>Let me ask again…why do you want to get rid of the work study? Working is a GOOD THING. Most work study awards do not exceed $4000. </p>
<p>Is there some reason you do not WANT to work?</p>
<p>Won’t work studying conflict with my academics and leave me with less time to study? Not sure how many hours I would have to dedicate to working every week, but wouldn’t it be better for me academically to avoid it?</p>
<p>Just like Thumper says, outside scholarships are going to first go toward reducing your “need”.</p>
<p>It is not treated exactly the same way at every school however. At my son’s school they will reduce workstudy first. (Some private schools will apply outside scholarships first to loans then to workstudy.) If you’re attending a no-loans school like Stanford, and have no loans, it could be their policy would be, like at my son’s school, to reduce your workstudy first, and then apply any remaining amount towards your other costs.</p>
<p>If there are no loans and they won’t reduce your workstudy, but they are meeting your full need, then yeah it’s true you don’t have any big incentive to apply for scholarships. However, that’s not going to be the case at every school you applied to, and since you don’t know where you’ll be attending or what your financial aid award we actually be, you’d be well advised to apply for them.</p>
<p>Studies have actually shown that students who work a modest number of hours per week actually do better in school.</p>
<p>OP here’s my thoughts on this. If you have zero EFC clearly money is tight. We don’t have a ton of money and believe me my kids have zippo spending money most of the time because they have to stretch their summer work earnings. Work/Study gets paid to you. Generally these are campus jobs and generally the people that you work for are going to be very, very accomodating of your schedule relative to college, exam and mid-term time and generally you are not awarded so much money that you need to dedicate lots of hours per week. Work/study is a great opportunity. My son was not awarded work/study his freshman year and worked off campus. He was thrilled to get some work/study the next two years. He loves his job and if they don’t have work for him to do at his scheduled time they let him study. The check he picks up he pretty much enjoys. I would advise you not to dismiss the idea of work study quickly. You can “accept” it on your finaid but it’s up to you to locate your study. If you don’t find a job you won’t get the dollars so it’s totally up to you but I would not decline it this early in the game.</p>
<p>My daughter got a job as a research assistant for a history professor. Her schedule is flexible, she really enjoys the job, and it’s great experience for her. Her summer job is working at a snack bar, so you can imagine how much more she enjoys her workstudy job!</p>
<p>My kids use their workstudy money as their spending money. I don’t send them any extra, so how much they have to spend depends on how much they want to work. They are averaging about 6 hours a week, I think, so it’s not a burden schedule-wise.</p>
<p>Won’t work studying conflict with my academics and leave me with less time to study?</p>
<p>Oh please.</p>
<p>College students aren’t in school that many hours. You’ll have plenty of time to work a few hours a week and still have PLENTY of time to study.</p>
<p>At the UCs, an EFC of $0 usually means a financial aid package that includes $5k in loans and $4K in work study per year (unless you are offered Regents). If you were my child, I would advise you to keep the work study and use outside scholarships to decrease the loans.</p>
<p>At Stanford, outside scholarships were used to decrease the work study portion of my son’s financial aid package.</p>
<p>Both of my sons are on work study and it has been a tremendous experience.</p>
<p>If work-study really did hurt student academically, it wouldn’t be offered to millions of students. </p>
<p>BTW…many, if not most, students have to work to pay for some things…even if it’s just car expenses and pocket money. It just sounds like you’re not willing to work.</p>
<p>As a student in a similar position, I think there may be some misunderstanding here between the posters and the OP. I have an excellent FA package from my school, but included in the package is a Work-Study contribution and a summer contribution, which I assume is typical. You also need health insurance and a laptop, which they’ll give you loans for if you can’t cover it. I’m not sure how it works at all the schools on the list, but for mine, you can reduce your contribution, loans, and work-study with outside scholarships without reducing the FA package the school gives you. Therefore, I’m in the same position of trying to reduce my work-study with the outside funding. I still plan on working during college, maybe not quite as much as is recommended by the package, as I’ll be an athlete, but enough to earn some spending money. Besides, from everything I’ve heard about WS jobs, they pay well, are flexible and accommodating, and can be interesting and give valuable experience. Many, like me, might tend to do better when given a full schedule.</p>
<p>OP: I’d suggest you apply for all outside scholarships you might qualify for and wait for acceptances in a month or so. Then, evaluate each of these schools individually on the quality of the package they give you and what they’ll do with the outside scholarships. The worst you wind up with is having to do work study. You might even be able to get those costs covered and still work if you’d like.</p>
<p>OP let me put it this way- I have about 3k in work study that I make a year plus I work 2 outside jobs (one’s about 6 hours a week the other varies from nothing to ~20 hours a week with an average of about 15 hours). I took 18 credits last semester (2 honors classes), got a 3.7, and still had a very good social life. </p>
<p>Work (ESPECIALLY work-study) will only interfere with your academics if you let it. I don’t know anyone that it’s interfered with.</p>