<p>I keep on asking people how work-study works, but I can't get a straight answer. I know you have to find your own job and you can only work up to a certain amount($1350 in my case), but I don't get what the money is supposed to go towards.</p>
<p>People keep saying books, transportation, living expenses, etc. but I don't get how this happens as doesn't it have to go towards your unpaid balance. People say it isn't an amount of money that the government forgives so where does that 1350 of your bill go? Does your work-study pay for it?</p>
<p>This is how I'm seeing it, so correct me if I'm wrong, or I'm getting it wrong at a certain point somewhere.</p>
<p>When you get your financial aid package it lists expected cost of attendance and what your package consists of. This is usually grants, loans, scholarships, and other things such as work-study.</p>
<p>Now lets say it costs $18,000 to attend your school and $17,000 is loans, grants, and scholarships. $1000 of it is work-study. School is about to start and everything in your package is disbursed, loans, grants, scholarships, etc. Where does that unpaid $1000 go. Do you start the school year off with that balance and pay it off as the school year goes by. What happens if you don't make a $1000 and don't pay off the full balance. You can't pay it off before, because the school year hasn't started, and you obviously haven't even started your job, so you don't have any money yet. Are you expected to pay the $1000 first and just keep the money from work-study?</p>
<p>Please help me understand this as I don't get where I'm not getting the missing link.</p>
<p>Your financial aid package is based on the COA (cost of attendance) at your school. COA usually consists of tuition and fees, room and board, books, (these will generally be charged to your bursar bill) and Miscellaneous and possibly travel expenses (not generally charged to your bursar bill though some migh be - parking permits or entertainment like football game tickets for instance). Miscellaneous expenses and travel expenses are an estimated cost that the average student will incur - not neccessarily a direct charge from the school but an expense the student may have to pay - gas for your car, laundry, toothpaste etc.These are not billed to you by the school. Your work study earnings are paid to you as a salary for a job and you can use them to pay for these miscellaneous expenses. </p>
<p>Of course if there are charges on your bursar bill not covered by your parents, loans, scholarships, grants etc - you can use your WS earnings to pay those also.</p>
<p>THANK YOU, now it makes sense! Your an angel. No one ever explained it like that. I didn't know that colleges calculated those extra things in. I thought it was just, tuition, room and board, books, and fees. </p>
<p>So nothing happens if you don't make your work-study limit, you just have less money. Is their a limit for how many hours you can work a week?</p>
<p>You are welcome :)</p>
<p>If you go to your college website it probably has a search feature - search for COA or Cost of Attendance and it should give you a break down of how the total is arrived at.</p>
<p>At my Ds school most WS jobs want you to work a minimum of 10-15 hours a week. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the maximum you are supposed to work is 20 hours a week but I don't remember where I read that so it may not be correct. At her school the wages vary from minimum wage to about $8 an hour. The maximum number of hours you can work would be your WS $ amount divided by your per hour pay. So say you have a WS award of $1000 a semester and find a job paying $6 an hour then the max hours you could work would be 166.67 hours (so roughly 10 hours a week depending on your semester length).</p>
<p>I too read that the maximum number of hours a student may work for work study funds is 20 a week.</p>
<p>From our schools website:</p>
<p>Students must be eligible to work in the United States, and
Students must be currently enrolled at least half-time.
Students must maintain satisfactory academic progress as defined by the university.
Work study students may work a maximum of 20 hours a week during semesters. Students may work up to 40 hours per week during university designated breaks and holidays</p>
<p>Be sure to check your school's website to find out the maximum number of hours your school will allow you to work. At the college my son attends, freshman are not allowed to work the first term, and then the 2nd and 3rd terms they can only work 5 hours per week.</p>
<p>I learned something interesting today ... an acquaintance told me her daughter qualified for work study last year, but she couldn't get a job. She tried throughout the year, but there were none available. This was through the federal work study program. That was the first time I ever heard anyone say there weren't enough jobs on campus. So ... if there is a danger of a job shortage at your school, apply early.</p>
<p>kelsmom that happened to my D too. She was "awarded" $2000 in work study, and the final tally came to less than $600 for the school year. There was simply not enough work to go around. Pretty disappointing.</p>
<p>I wish that was a problem at our school. We have so many available jobs and so little students willing to actually work.......I would kill to get some decent FWS students! And Lord knows I could use the help in my own office!!!</p>
<p>DD had work study last year. Her school has a huge number of on campus jobs for both WS students and others. She had no trouble finding a job. </p>
<p>DS had an interesting experience his freshman year. He applied for an on-campus job that turned out to be funded with WS monies. DS was VERY qualified for the job (it was music related). No one who had WS ever applied for the job, and they could not offer it to DS because he didn't have WS as part of his finaid package. The job didn't get filled all year.</p>
<p>The way it was explained to us is that some jobs are required to be "offered" to work study applicants but if they don't apply then the office or department can hire anyone. The office usually does like to hire the WS students because it's a better deal for their budget. WS funds pay for some or all of the student earnings.</p>
<p>That's correct. Sometimes if a job really needs you, they'll keep you at regular hours even when your work study money is all used up, out of their department's funds. Of course that is negotiated on a case by case basis, so don't expect it.</p>
<p>At USC it was always twice as easy to find a job if you had work-study than if you didn't. Anyone there with work-study that went unused usually ended up in that situation because they had a class schedule that was unusually heavy, or didn't have free hours at convenient times for employers, not because of an actual job shortage.</p>
<p>dont lots of work study options in phd programs mean u get full tuition or whatever?</p>
<p>That's not work-study. That a Teaching Assistant or Research Assistant position. Sometimes teaching assistanceships are available to undergrads as well, but with less responsibility and at an hourly rate similar to work study.</p>
<p>My daughter qualified for federal work study. The college she will be attending also has institutional work study. Since it is small & positions are limited, the students must fill out an application, listing their 3 choices. During orientation, they have a "work study fair" & interview for the 3 positions. This is a means of making sure the students are committed & the ones really needing the money & serious about the work get selected. Approximately 2 weeks later they will be notified by email if they were "hired" Most of the jobs are 9 hrs/ week. One position she is interested in is what you are referring to larationalist, a lab (Biology) assistant with some pretty nice arrangements & opportunities for research grants.</p>
<p>I work in higher ed and hire work-study students. We post a listing with the campus student employment office and let other student workers know so they can spread the word. Sometimes, we post flyers on bulletin boards as well, so keep your eyes open. The best work-study positions do go quickly.</p>
<p>In terms of obtaining your full award, let me explain what I do. I check the amount of the award, determine what we can pay as an hourly wage (determined by the kind of work as well as the student's past experience), and then calculate the number of hours per week the student will need to work to max out the award. There have been instances when students were not able to work the full number of hours, so they didn't receive all of their pay. I try to avoid having students max out before the end of the school year.</p>
<p>Hope that helps. PM me if you have additional questions.</p>
<p>My son qualified for work study at his school and took a job in his 1st semester there. It only paid minimum wage. He worked 8-10 hours a week.
It was a "mindless" job but he liked the people and actually appreciated the fact it didn't require much brain power. However, after just one semester, he decided he would work off campus.</p>
<p>He made significantly more money and probably will not return to a WS job, just because the pay is so low. I got the impression that this was a decision many students at his school made, simply because the wages weren't competitive with outside jobs so close to campus.</p>
<p>curiouser</p>
<p>Did getting an outside job increase your son's EFC for the following year?</p>
<p>Yes, an outside job can increase your EFC. Depending on your school-the formula is typically to apply 35% of the students gross income toward the EFC.</p>
<p>Fresnomom - for FAFSA schools non WS student income of $3000 (in reality more like $3200 with tax allowances) is protected in the EFC calculation. Anything over that the EFC is increased by 50% of the income. </p>
<p>My D was offered WS which we were really pleased about but while looking for a WS job (her school has a web site that lists WS and part time jobs in the college and in the town) she came across an outside job that ties in so perfectly with her career plans that she took that instead of doing WS. It only started this summer so it will not affect next years EFC - might be an issue the following year. The intangible benefits (experience, connections and references for the next stage of her education) were too good to pass up though.</p>