@Madison85 Im a really dumb person for this because I only applied to this one school. Im want to graduate this school as an electrical Engineer and 95% of engineering graduates find a job within 6 months of graduating that pays $62,000 averagely. So the success rate for this school is fairly good. My freshman year will be the most expensive because I know I’m not going to be an idiot in my classes, so hopefully I should gain scholarships for my sophomore year.
Since you won’t be living/eating at home can your parents give you a few hundred per month?
@Madison85 My parents and the rest of my family said that they will assist me for college. And I have some relatives that live nearby. But I believe that I can make around $500 a month, with not too much stress since id already have 2 courses completed when I start school in August.
The work study is NOT guaranteed per month. You have to earn it.
What I was saying is that you’ll earn money in Nov., but then you’ll be home in Dec and not earning again until mid January, so you’ll have some months (spring break, break between quarters) where you’ll have breaks in employment. When you are living paycheck to paycheck, you can’t afford breaks. If your $2500 for work study is broken into 3 quarters, you can earn ~$833 per quarter. At about $350 per month due on the payment plan, there just isn’t enough work study money to make it work. You can also get another job, but really, do you think you’ll have the time?
I don’t understand what you mean about having 2-3 classes so you won’t have to take as many in the fall. No, it doesn’t work like that. To receive all your financial aid, you need to be enrolled full time, probably 12 to 15 credits in THAT term. You can’t take classes in the summer and have them count toward fall. You’ll be a full time student, taking 4-5 classes.
I think you can do this, I just think you’ll need to take the loans and not panic about that. If you find you can work, pay on the payment plan, great. All you have to do is pay back the loan with the money you have in the bank (from the loan) and nothing is lost but maybe a $25 origination fee. If you don’t need the money in Jan, don’t take the loan for 2nd quarter.
@twoinanddone I’m doing a program in the summer called APEX, where we take up to 8 credits in June and July. And I’m currently in Calc 1 (calc ab) and I have to get a 4 on the AP test in order to transfer the credit.
I didn’t want to take 18 credits like some other students, so I thought that it would be okay to use that time from the other classes to have enough time to work. So for full time I guess I’ll be enrolled in 4 classes. I know I have to work for 'work study, but that is just money I’ll have a month. I may get a job that pays more or two jobs, if the other doesn’t have enough hours. And I’ll still have assistance from my family throughout the year.
I just don’t want to take out too many loans.
Also since some of the lowest playing jobs on campus is $8.50 an hour and the max amount of hours a student can work on campus is 20.
Let’s say I get an 8.50 job (or two) that adds up to 15 hours a week… That’s $510 a month.
What do you think??
Guess you also didn’t know that the place where you get your degree in electrical engineering isn’t going to make or break you. Most EE grads from ABET accredited programs get good paying jobs within 6 months of graduation from college. There is a shortage of electrical engineers in many places. My husband hires EEs and he has trouble even finding qualified applicants to interview.
You should also know…you could start at a community college, and transfer to a four year school to complete your engineering degree.
And even with that route, your chances of good employment would be there upon graduation.
So…if you don’t have a meal plan…you will STILL need to eat. You will need to buy food, allocate time for cooking, etc. what you should NOT plan to do is eat out, that will add up mighty quickly and will make the meal plan look like a bargain.
@Jaamim " Also since some of the lowest playing jobs on campus is $8.50 an hour and the max amount of hours a student can work on campus is 20.
Let’s say I get an 8.50 job (or two) that adds up to 15 hours a week… That’s $510 a month."
Can anyone comment on whether there are tax withholdings on Work Study. In most jobs you would have about 30% withheld for social security tax, unemployment tax, and income tax. Only income tax can be refunded. Check with the financial aid office about that.
My son’s college posts the work study jobs on line in July. Be sure to keep a check with your college so you can apply for the plum positions early. A good job would be the library so you can study while working.
I admire your commitment to paying on your own. I think you should get a job ASAP to build a little extra cash. If you are first generation college or low EFC (Expected Financial Contribution) I think the college will probably counsel you on how to make this work, give them a call. I’ve seen on here that some colleges will advance some of your financial aid so you can purchase books when school first starts. Otherwise I think you will need about $1000 start up costs.
No FICA deducted from federal work-study earnings. Income tax withholding would be as per the W-4 that the student submits, but unless the student has a lot of other income, any income tax withheld should be refunded after taxes are filed.
Another consideration is how much time you will need for studying. You probably can’t work two jobs and do engineering, would be my guess.
Are there scholarships available at this college for sophomores? Have you found this in writing somewhere? Typically, scholarships are awarded to incoming freshman.
Yes there are scholarships awarded yearly to students with strong academic standings. The school is Iowa State University.
Also, some are given based on financial need
Iowa State and Electrical Engineering qualify for this government scholarship for sophomores and above:
Edited to add only 11% of applicants are awarded this scholarship but 25% of those are Electrical Engineering majors. It is for full tuition so it bears consideration.
If you work 15 hours a week and earn $10/hr, you’ll get to your maximum work study earnings faster. That doesn’t make more money available, just makes you earn it faster. You could then, of course get a non work study job or sometimes the school has funds to let you keep working in the same job, but that all depends on the school and the job and who is funding non work study jobs. I don’t think you can earn $510 for Sept, Oct, and Nov. That would be more than 1/3 of $2500 maximum work study award for the year.
You said you have $2500 in approved work study. You won’t have all of that by March 2017 to make the monthly payments. What you earn in September probably won’t be paid to you until October,and you’ll have a two week lag time from then on, plus any lag if you max out the quarterly amount of work study.
I do think you can make it work to go to UCSB, but not on the payment plan of $350 or more for July to March. Don’t be afraid of borrowing the subsidized loans. Bank the money. Don’t use it until you need it, but have it there. Or use it to pay the tuition, and make your own payment plan from the work study money to repay it immediately, to save the work study money for the next quarter’s payment and you won’t have to borrow it again.
You might ask if there is more work study available if you think you can work more, especially if you hit the max early in the quarter. All they can do is say no.
The SMART scholarships also require that recipients spend one year working for the government for each year of scholarship that is received. In addition to full tuition, an annual stipend is paid too, which I believe varies depending on the agency which sponsors the student, I think it is in the range of $20-25K. Students get paid summer internships at their sponsoring agency. It is a good program, but difficult to get into, the number of positions is dependent on gov’t funding avail. which does vary from year to year.
@twoinanddone I know that the work study is just money haute teed by the government if you work throughout the year. But payments start in July and my parents are covering me from July and August and any small amounts the following month. Getting a job is just the first part but I’ll just have to find an employer/job that will continue to pay me after I reach that $2,500 for the year. ALSO I do not need $510 for those months I only need $340, if it’s working on campus that your talking about lag, I can find a job off campus as well. My Apex summer program ends On the first week of August, I can talk to the school during this time to look for a job. Payments are on the 20th of each month also, not in the beginning.
When does school start? September ___? If you start the first day you move in, and work for 2 weeks, you still might not have that first check in hand for 3+ weeks. It’s not just on campus jobs that pay that way, many jobs have a week or more delay. Some are better and pay every week. I had one job I got paid on Monday morning for the week before, so only a 3 day delay. I had another where I got paid on the last day of the month. It was a looong month between paychecks.
I just don’t want you to be surprised when the paycheck takes more time to get to you than you figured and have to pay late fees to the school. If you could get a cash paying job in August (babysitting, waitress) you could have some cash on hand. I also don’t think you are looking at the $2500 total correctly. It will be divided into 3 quarters, so you can only earn the max of $834 in the first quarter, $340 (Sept) and $340 (Oct), you’ll be out of work study by Nov. Then you wait until Jan and start again. You can’t earn all $2500 @ $500/month for 5 months. Yes, you CAN get another job in Nov., but I don’t think it will be easy to do as you will then go home for break for Dec, then go back to the work study job, then hit the max of $834 again, find another job…
My own kids have been surprised at how much things cost, how little their paychecks are, how difficult jobs are to come by.
I believe that the first day of class is in the third or fourth week of August.
@Jaamim You’re obviously a hard worker, I think we’re all just worried that you’re being too optimistic. Expenses always come up, and cash flow is rarely what you think it will be.
How will you pay for things like books? An engineering-major-capable computer? Food? Shampoo? What if you don’t get all of the work study hours?
Have some backup plans in your pocket, just in case. Even if you have to borrow a bit just because of cash flow, you can always pay it back right away. Cut yourself some slack. That’s smart money management, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed at paying for college yourself.
You might want to consider taking out the full federal loan amount during your first year and bank it as an emergency fund. You certainly seem to be financially responsible, so you do not seem likely to go on a spending spree with the funds.
If you have some unexpected expenses, such as extra expensive books, or an illness which prevents you from working, your computer dies, etc., or if your parents have their own financial emergency and cannot help you as planned, having the loan funds available would give you a cushion. These types of things do happen(one of my daughters in college right now is being tested for mono and is not feeling well enough to work her part time job).
If you end up getting plenty of work hours and being able to save up and add to your emergency fund, without relying on your loan, you can pay the loan off early.
One of my daughters, a biochemistry and computer science major, had to purchase some software for a class or two, and had a extra equipment fee. If you join any honors or engineering societies, there are annual fees required. Some of her books were quite expensive(they were new additions and used ones were not available). Her computer did also die after her sophomore year, and needed to be replaced, and because of the technical requirements for her majors, she needed a fairly expensive one.