Juggling work study and classes?

Paying for College
1

<p>I'm a freshman applicant. As many of you probably know, the FAFSA opens on January 1st, and the looming paperwork has reminded me to research various financial aid options, one of them being work-study.</p>

<p>What is a typical work study schedule like? Are students working 15 hours a week, or is it more like an actual part-time job of 20-30? I'm thinking about being an Economics/English double major and am wondering how much influence a work study job would have on my time, considering that I'd like to do other things on campus and have a decent social life too.</p>

<p>How are work study students paid? Does all of the paycheck go toward tuition/room and board, or is there some left for discretionary income, or what? Are you only permitted to work until you reach the work study amount?</p>

<p>Thank you for your feedback.</p>

2

<p>Work study is awarded to meet need as defined by FAFSA, and the amount is usually the maximum you can earn. You have to go to the financial aid office and look at the job listings and find something that fits your hours and your schedule. It is not guaranteed. You get a paycheck as you earn it and you apply it as you see fit. As a result, you really need to have most of the money for your first semester as it will take a while to accumulate the sum. You are only permitted to get work study funds up to the limit, however, sometimes there are non workstudy funds allocated to similar jobs to which you can switch when that happens. </p>

<p>My brother’s niece got a work study award that she could not collect during her first semester at college, and she ended up just finding her own part time job. The award was small, and she wanted more money anyways. I think her award would have allowed her about 5 hours a week of work and she wanted about 3 times that much in terms of pay. And she found it. Then by pure chance, she found out about a work study position open that fit her schedule perfectly with a department she liked. She could just tuck those hours into her schedule and loved the work. She added it to her schedule, continuing with her other job. Half way through the term, she was offered a very nice positon there that integrated with her work study and allowed her to drop the other job. She is still working there as a junior and moves seamlessly from workstudy to regular work as the allotment runs out. </p>

<p>My son had a job on a non work study basis, but a lot of the kids in the same positions were on work study. </p>

<p>The advantage of work study is that the income is not included the next year and I believe social security is not taken out. Do check on that–it was the case at one time. Also departments and places that have the work study funds will hire the work study students first since those funds are subsidized. </p>

<p>Any job can be an issue if you have other things to do… My current college kid had a great job. Great pay, great location, hours and work. But he ran into some issues with one of his classes and the extra time he needed conflicted with the hours he was needed for it. He was not happy giving it up, but with such a conflict, the academics had to come first.</p>

3

<p>It really depends on the work study program at the particular institution. At my regional comprehensive university (that one in your backyard), the workstudy rate is about $8.50/hr, while I know that at some large private institutions, the work study rate is >$10/hr.</p>

<p>I set my schedule to work 19 hours a week. I’m lucky in that I’m a tutor on campus, so my center has longer hours than most offices (we’re open until 8P M-R) and also on Sundays as well; I’m also able to not work a shift schedule, but work hours in between classes. My campus caps employment at 19.5 hours/week-- I’ve been looking at other schools, and some cap it at 12/wk or something in that range, so policies vary on campus.</p>

<p>I get my paycheck deposited into a bank account, and I can use it for whatever I need (typically groceries). When my work-study runs out, I am shifted to the normal campus employment rate (which is minimum wage).</p>

<p>In general, I have friends working all across campus, and campus jobs are typically a little more flexible than off-campus jobs with regards to studying/tests. No, you can’t take off all the time, but employers (which are departments on campus) recognize that you are a student as well as an employee, and if you’re good at your job most of the time, they tend to be a little more flexible on letting you have the shift before your large physics test off.</p>

4

<p>If you are awarded work-study, get the details about how jobs are assigned. I know one college where all the first year work-studies are automatically assigned to food service. This has the huge advantage that the students are indeed guaranteed jobs that will let them earn their full work-study amount, but the disadvantage is that they don’t get to choose their jobs. I also know a college where all campus jobs must be applied for individually, and there are absolutely no guarantees that anyone will actually be able to pin down a position for which they are qualified and where they will be able to earn anything approaching their work-study amount. The first year students I know had been applying for everything for which they were remotely qualified, and had not found a position yet at Thanksgiving time.</p>

5

<p>As the other two posters have indicated, the way work study is run depends largely on the college. My current college son found a non work study job for more pay than the going rate for work study. My graduate worked non work study but at the same pay that the work study kids got, and the position he had seamlessly flowed from work study to regular pay for those who were WS recipients.</p>

<p>What seems to be a constant is that freshmen are at a disadvantage since returnees who know how the WS jobs are allocated and have the experience tend to get and take first dibs. As I wrote before, my brother’s niece couldn’t find anything her first term to use her work study allocation, but then found a dream job that she loves her second semester, and it features strongly in her life now. I think she works 20 hours a week at this point and uses up her WS allotment pretty quickly at that rate.</p>

6

<p>What is a typical work study schedule like? Are students working 15 hours a week, or is it more like an actual part-time job of 20-30? I’m thinking about being an Economics/English double major and am wondering how much influence a work study job would have on my time, considering that I’d like to do other things on campus and have a decent social life too.</p>

<p>If you’re given a WS award, it is divided into two semesters (or quarters if you’re on that system).</p>

<p>So, if you’re given $2k of WS, then you’d earn $1k for Fall, and $1k for Spring. If you do the math and estimate that you’d be earning about $8-9 an hour, you’d see that you won’t be working 20 hours a week during a 16 week semester.</p>

<p>Many WS students work about 8-12 hours per week. Since WS is rarely on weekends, you’ll still have time for a social life.</p>

<p>Remember, college students aren’t usually in class for as many hours as high school kids are.</p>

7

<p>Mom2college kids, though the awards might be so split, it is possible at some schools to use the entire award in the second semester. You are limited to half the award in the first term because if you don’t come back to school thereafter, you could exceed your award limit. That’s why federal aid can be taken in full second term, but not first. My brother’s niece used her year’s alloment for WS all in the second term because she couldn’t find anything the first term. Also, there are WS jobs for the weekend–ID checking at the gym or other venues is often a WS job that has hours 7 days a week, and food service also is such a job.</p>

8

<p>^^
That makes sense for those who couldn’t get a job in the fall semester. </p>

<p>How are work study students paid? Does all of the paycheck go toward tuition/room and board, or is there some left for discretionary income, or what? Are you only permitted to work until you reach the work study amount?</p>

<p>Students usually get their WS paid to them…sometimes auto-deposited into a bank acct. </p>

<p>BUT, if you don’t have funds to cover all of your tuition, dorm or food, then you may have to use some funds towards that…otherwise you’re going to owe the school money and won’t be able to continue attending. There was a mom who posted last year that every time her D got her WS check, they made her put half of it towards her outstanding balance at school because they (the parents) couldn’t afford to pay the amount that was owed.</p>

9

<p>Oops, I realized now that I probably should have clarified: I applied within the University of California system, so I’m looking into the UC campuses’ work-study program. But all the info so far is still very useful!</p>

<p>Any job can be an issue if you have other things to do… My current college kid had a great job. Great pay, great location, hours and work. But he ran into some issues with one of his classes and the extra time he needed conflicted with the hours he was needed for it. He was not happy giving it up, but with such a conflict, the academics had to come first.</p>

<p>This is precisely one of my concerns…If you are unable to keep the work-study job and you don’t earn what you need, does the university bill you, or is there a penalty or something similar? Or is it simply money that you’ll never get?</p>

<p>If you’re given a WS award, it is divided into two semesters (or quarters if you’re on that system).</p>

<p>Interesting. I was not aware of that. </p>

<p>There was a mom who posted last year that every time her D got her WS check, they made her put half of it towards her outstanding balance at school because they (the parents) couldn’t afford to pay the amount that was owed. </p>

<p>My tour guide at UC Berkeley says that the 50% deduction is what Cal does too, and the other half goes to the student for personal spending. But obviously this isn’t necessarily true of all the UCs.</p>

<hr>

<p>Another few questions: Is work-study typically reserved for low-income students with high financial need? My family is middle class, so I already know that we won’t be a priority for financial aid in general. In addition, if the work-study option is offered to you as part of your financial aid package, but you don’t want to do work-study, could you accept the other parts of the package and simply turn down the work-study? Or is it an all-or-nothing situation? Again, I’m speaking of the UC system here.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

10

<p>If you drop the work study job or cut your hours, or for any reason do not work the number of hours needed to earn your award, you simply do not get the money. </p>

<p>Federal awards are allocated by the term. If you want it all in the second semester (for those at schools on a semester basis), you can get it all in the spring term, but you cannot get it all in the fall term. Not really sure why. We have friends whose student went to UMD starting in the second term and was able to use the full year’s allocation of work study and loans for the second term. In fact, they did the same the following year. It stretched the dollars as he took courses at the local cc in the fall at low cost. </p>

<p>Work study is a mixed blessing. You do have to find a job and work the hours to make the money. It is not guaranteed. Most schools do not have a job waiting for you. For those kids with high need from low income families, getting work study instead of a grant means that it cuts into the time that they had planned to work for their own money. My son who is not on financial aid worked at a non work study job which reduced the cost for our family. If he had been on financial aid, and gotten work study, the money would not go towards his EFC, but is considered part of his award. For a family who is trying to come up with the EFC, when a college awards the unsub Staffords and workstudy, it eliminates those venues for the student use that towards EFC.</p>

<p>For instance if your COA is $30K and your family EFC is $10K, to have $5500 of Staffords that freshman year, and then for the student to work summer and during the school year for the $4500, would really help the family out if the school gives a grant of $20k instead of self help included in ther. If the school includes the $5500 Stafford (with part of it subsidized) and work study in the package, the student HAS to work just to get what the family’s cost down to what FAFSA says they should pay, and it takes up the hours they may have wanted to work for the EFC. </p>

<p>How schools allocate work study is up to each school. My college would rank accepted students, 1,2,3. The designations meant little except there may be a special invitation for accepted 1s, and those 1s who are qualify for fin aid will get the grants. The best packages. The 2s get the grants that are left, work study and loans. The 3s get self help or get gapped. </p>

<p>At other schools, there is consideration that students who come from very low income families need every chance to earn and borrow the EFC, and so a concerted effort is made to give them as much in grants as possible, whereas a student with low need, say under $5K, for example is given the subsidized Stafford and work study. There are any number of formulas to distribute aid between grants and self help.</p>

11

<p>Almost every school I know of includes student employment in the fa package if not subsidized ws. I don’t understand how ws could be a mixed blessing at all.</p>

<p>Most ws jobs are between 7 and 12 hours per week. It’s not hard to work that little in college and juggle classes.</p>

12

<p>It;s a mixed blessing when you are planning to work during the year to earn some of the EFC. The time you had hoped to use to earn that money has to go towards your financial aid instead. I know any number of students who did not get any work study in their packages. I didn’t in my day, though many of my fellow students, including my DH did. My alma mater is one that does preferential packaging and there are kids who do not get work study or loans, for that mattter in their aid packages, and some who get nothing but that.</p>