I was granted work study to the amount of $3,600 a year, or $1,200 per quarter (my school is on a three quarter system).
In the information email the financial aid office sent, it gave me a pdf of a chart where I can log my hours and it says in bold, “to ensure that your quarterly work study amount is not exceeded.”
So that means I absolutely can’t earn anything more than $1,200 a quarter?
For instance, if I work overtime, my employer isn’t allowed to pay me for the hours I worked overtime?
The job I’m applying for right now is a design job that may require me to work on designs from my own computer at my dorm. I don’t think it’s fair or legal that I could be working long hours for this job and not be paid for it.
I’m concerned about this because I wanted a good portion of my work study wages to go towards my tuition, but I need money to live on as well. There’s no way I can live for 3 months on $2-300! My parents aren’t in a position to support me while in college and I don’t think I could manage work study in addition to a full time job.
The school could only use the work study fund to pay you up to $3600. However, the school could use its own fund to pay you beyond $3600.
You won’t work any hours that you don’t get paid for. The school employer will be keeping track of how many work study hours you work each quarter. If you reach your work study limit for a quarter, they either won’t let you work any more hours that quarter or they will pay you from non-work study funds.
Work study is a program where the federal govt reimburses the school for making a job available to you. So when you get work/study hours, there are specific jobs that the school offers that are reimbursable. This is behind the scenes. To you it just looks like a job that you get a paycheck for. If you want to work more hours you a) take a non-work/study job or b) find a work/study job that will pay you for hours in excess of your allocated hours (some departments will have that budget) or, c) take a 2nd job.
So are you saying this job is a school offered work/study job? Colleges usually don’t require you to put in free hours, not sure what you are talking about.
Work study isn’t usually used for tuition and room and board. It is earned during the semester so it is usually used for the other types of expenses you have during the school year. Personal, transportation and sometimes books. If you need to use work/study for tuition and room/board then maybe you can’t afford this school. Working as much as they allocated you is the most a student can usually manage to work and still have enough time for school. If you think you can handle more on your own then fine, some people a really efficient and excellent students too.
If you can, put your cost and aid package here so we can see it.
What I meant by “free hours” is my job description says that there will be limited supervision by my employer. It’s a job where I have to design flyers and informational booklets. The description gives the idea that I’ll be given a task and a deadline to have it completed so I imagine some of the work on these flyers will have to be taken home. It’s difficult to have an allotted amount of time per day to work on projects like that and have them completed by a deadline. I’ve had a job like this before and I ended up working overtime often.
Thanks for the clarification on what work study is actually used for. When my college showed a breakdown of my tuition, they deducted my work study earnings from the total so I was assuming that all if not most of my earnings were meant to go towards tuition. My parents seem to think that too. I’m the first in the family that has to deal with financial aid so I’m sorry if I sound ignorant, I just couldn’t find any more information about work study on my school’s financial aid page so I came here.
As for affording this college, my family can afford it, I’m just trying to take some of the load. The reason they can’t support me in college is because they’ll have the lion’s share of my tuition to worry about. My second year should be easier because I can apply as a resident (we have family in this state) and get cheaper in-state tuition.
As for my aid package and tuition this year:
Tuition: ~ $34,000
Aid: $25,000
So my parents end up paying around $3,000 a quarter.
Please print the breakdown of expenses and awards here for further analysis. You have to look at the whole COA, not just tuition.
And let me ask again, is this a work/study job from the college?
It is very rare for students to be allowed to reclassify once they begin college as an out of stater. Utah does allow it, is the school in Utah? Let me know the school and I will find the residency policy. Usually your parents state of residence is used. Are you going to be living with the relatives?
USo this is a public school then? Please give more details so we can help more.
If there is a limit on the hours you can work, don’t exceed it. I don’t think you are allowed to work more than a certain number of hours per week on work study (20?) so overtime pay will never come into it. Put in for your hours, don’t exceed them, ask if they can pay you for extra work.