<p>Work study. Is it just me or is that a slap in the face? I can reject this job later right? How have others been with work study awards?</p>
<p>Not sure why you think it is a slap in the face. My D has work study in her financial aid package. The benefit of work study as opposed to a regular job is that the work study earnings will not be held against you next year for calculating your FAFSA EFC. With other income 50% of any earnings over @$3000 will be added to you EFC.</p>
<p>If your school is the same as my Ds you have to actually apply for work study jobs to earn the WS money. If you don't get a job you won't get the money. In my Ds case she accepted the WS offer but now it looks likely she will actually have a non work study job that relates to her future career plans in which case she will just not apply for a WS job.</p>
<p>so if you make under than $3000 it will not effect your EFC</p>
<p>Students have @$3000 (works out a little over that with allowances for tax/FICA) in income allowance that is protected form the EFC calculation. WS is all protected (you show it on FAFSA as income then deduct it on one of the schedules). But students have NO asset allowance so 20% of any student held assets (on the date FAFSA is filed) go to the EFC.</p>
<p>where can I find more info on this.</p>
<p>this shows the 2007-2008 FAFSA formula</p>
<p>finaid has good information generally</p>
<p><a href="http://www.finaid.org%5B/url%5D">www.finaid.org</a></p>
<p>and also has calculators where you can run your numbers to get an idea of your EFC </p>
<p>Keep in mind the rules change yearly - for instance last year the 35% of student assets went to the EFC - next year it is 20%. The above all applies to FAFSA - I have little or no knowledge of Profile schools.</p>
<p>My D had various amounts of work study in her fin aid packages, all of them less than $3000 per year. I think she ended up with one giving her quite a bit less. What you have is generous, at least compared to ours. And how much you actually make depends on the job and what it pays, and how this works out with the details of scheduling. My son always had excess work study money he didn't use due to scheduling issues. I like work study, as the jobs tend to be quite varied, a window into some different worlds, more interesting than the food service or retail jobs many students get off campus. Not that you couldn't have an off campus, or another on campus job as well.</p>
<p>$1500 is a nice salary for a semester of work and your will probably be working about 7- 10 hours per week so you will have time to both study and socialize. I am assuming this is part of an overall financial aid package and that you will be living either at home or in dorm, so this money is for books and personal spending. In the work of fininancial aid begin about to earn $3K per year from work study is great. You may end up doing academic research or organizing events for admissions both types of jobs are resume builders.</p>
<p>I got a job that pays $10 an hour.</p>
<p>If you were looking for all types of fin aid to help you, you should be happy to have this opportunity. I think many would agree with me that working a bit while in school is a positive thing. College is much different than high school in that you do not have classes scheduled from 8-3 each day. For many, having the unrigid schedule and more free time (or so it may seem) can actually be detrimental to their schoolwork. Once you get your class schedule, see where you can schedule in not only study time (which may be at 10am in the morning when you have no classes) AND work time. A few hours of work a week (probably less than 10) for work study is fairly manageable. You should at least try it at first - if it does not work out for you, then reconsider. But yes, be thrilled it was at least offered - you can make the decision whether to accept or not.</p>
<p>I never thought it'd be so low. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with $1500... Seriously, I can make more at McDonalds I think.</p>
<p>I believe there are limits on work study - something like $3000? If you are a freshman it might even be less...</p>
<p>I got a $3000 award, $1500 per semester.</p>
<p>Well that sounds pretty good! What were you hoping for?</p>
<p>My D got $3400 in workstudy ($1700 a semester). I actually think it is too high as most of the WS jobs here pay low $ per hour (a little over minimum wage) and I don't want her working more than 10-15 hours a week - at least until we see how she does with the school work. She has just got an extra couple of scholarships totalling about $1500 and I am really hoping half of that can reduce her WS rather than her subsidised loans.</p>
<p>Pug Fug - I don't know about where you live but around here McDs is pretty much a min wage job. Between min wage McDs and min wage WS you are better off with the WS because of the lack of impact on your EFC. If you can find a better paying outside job you may be better off with that - or you can always do WS and a small outside job. But $1500 WS gives you an option to consider - you don't have to pursue it if you don't want to.</p>
<p>My Son's FA package initially included:</p>
<p>This is for NYU with a COA of nearly 48K
30000 scholarship
3500 stafford
2400 perkins
3300 work study
9000 parent contribution</p>
<p>then they took off the perkins and upped the parent to 12000 (which in all honest was almost exactly my efc)</p>
<p>When I called the FA office, they said he had too much need based aid.</p>
<p>I asked them to reduce the work study and reinstate the perkins loan. And they DID. I'd rather have him get the 100% certainty of the loan, rather than the pressure to do all that WS in his freshman year. Now the WS is only 900.</p>
<p>
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I'd rather have him get the 100% certainty of the loan, rather than the pressure to do all that WS in his freshman year.
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</p>
<p>My feelings exactly. I was happy for her to have some WS as she has to earn money for personal expenses but the amount was higher than I anticipated - though, as previously mentioned, it currently looks likely that she may have a non WS job lined up that is in her planned career field. If she gets that job she will take it as it will give her some much needed experience plus an excellent reference source for when she goes on to the next stage of her education. Because of this possible job, and the fact that the amount of WS will be very difficult to earn anyway, I would prefer to see that reduced rather than her loans - which are subsidised so 'free' money till she graduates.</p>
<p>Interesting that you were able to get them to change your Finaid package from WS back to loan. They have not changed the finaid awards yet to reflect the new scholarship so I sent an email in to her school asking if we get the option of where it reduces - have not heard back yet.</p>
<p>So this money is going to be my personal money, free to go towards loans or Ramen noodles?</p>
<p>It goes to you-- in theory to help pay for the Cost of Education at your school (which typically includes personal expenses). So it could go toward tuition, books, room/board, or noodles, depending on your situation.</p>
<p>Work Study is a good thing, for many reasons.</p>
<p>pugfug, the $1500 is not a "salary" or a representation of your total pay -- it is up to you to find a job on campus, and you will find that most campus jobs pay between $7-$10 an hour. </p>
<p>If you are able to use up your full work study allotment, at many colleges you would be able to keep the job at the same pay -- it simply becomes a regular wage. </p>
<p>My daughter has worked 2 jobs this past year. One is her work study job, which she loves, but it doesn't pay too well. The other is a job with a catering agency that sends her for off campus jobs and pays much better - more than $20 an hour -- but she really does not enjoy. However, there is plenty of work, it is available on evenings and weekends, and she likes the money -- so it works well for her. </p>
<p>Usually, the more money you get in work study, the less you get in grants -- so a relatively small work study allotment is a good thing, not a bad thing. There is nothing you can do to make up the gap in funding if you aren't able to work the number of hours required to earn the full work study allotment, for whatever reason --- but on the other hand, if you are able to work more, there is nothing stopping you.</p>