Hi there,
This is just a question asked to satisfy my curiosity: Do you have to SIR to a school to be offered work-study? Only one out of the four Cal States I applied to offered me work-study, something I was really hoping for, and it miraculously happened to be the school I chose to attend. I SIR’d and was offered work-study in addition to loans in my financial aid award a few weeks later, while the other three schools offered nothing but loans (I don’t get grants, sadly). Was I just lucky? Or could I have been offered work-study if I’d SIR’d at another school?
SIR? What is that?
Federal work study monies are limited at each college campus. It’s very possible that all funds were used by the time you applied for aid.
@thumper1
SIR is Statement of Intent to register. Is it common to get work study without any other Federal grants?
@hanachu: Your FA package should be available prior to enrolling so if you are offered work study it should be in your original package so maybe you missed it when reviewing the package?
If you weren’t eligible for the Calgrant, perhaps your family income is too high to qualify for work study. Work study is a need based award.
It is absolutely possible. The only federally funded grants are Pell and SEOG. There are plenty of students who don’t get these federal grants, and still have financial need…and do get work study.
@Gumbymom Yes, essentially what happened was that I SIR’d near the end of February to CSUEB, and like a few days (not weeks sorry) later I got finaid award emails from both Sonoma and CSUCI. They offered nothing but loans which makes sense because our family income is pretty high so I kinda anticipated it. I can’t seem to find emails from CSUEB or SFSU but the next time I checked my finaid through my portals, loans were there for SFSU and loans+work-study was there for CSUEB. I was just curious if I’d been offered work-study at CSUEB because I happened to SIR there or if it wouldn’t have mattered either way. I’m very happy with the result regardless because work-study was something I was hoping for 
@thumper1 Yeah, it was definitely because of my family income that I wasn’t eligible for the Calgrant, which is why I was so surprised to have been offered work-study at CSUEB. It just seemed very convenient that I got work-study at the school that I ended up choosing to attend lol