if I was assigned a $4,000 work-study, how many hours would I need to work a week to meet this? Right now, it seems all the positions available for work-study compensate at $8-9/hour (whereas nearly all non-workstudy are 10-11), is this what all work-study pay?
Other people have said that it is hard to get $4,000 worth of work study in a year. You can look up the details, but I don’t believe you can do work study over winter break.
My son will be starting his third year at UVa. I was also perplexed by the number of WS hours offered. My s was unable to find a job first year and even so there was enough aid without WS for us to meet our financial obligations. I’m sure this varies by family, but we are out of state and low income. He found a job his second year.
A first year may be better off applying for a private part-time job than waiting for a work study job. They may get more hours, and they could possibly work over some breaks with a private job. I’m not an expert on the subject, but my impression is that the better work study jobs are grabbed by upperclassmen.
Students can also apply to be University bus drivers.
http://www.virginia.edu/deanofstudents/accessuva/employment-opportunities/
The highest-paying work-study job I’ve seen at UVA was $11/hr (tutoring with the Curry School). I have a work-study job in the library system ($9/hr). I don’t know about other parts of the university, but you can work library jobs over break periods. Essentially you can burn through your work-study funds however you want, but the library will continue your employment. I’ve definitely earned more than $4000 since last August, but I wasn’t notified and didn’t have to do anything once I hit that threshold; I just kept showing up for work and kept getting paid.
One thing to keep in mind is that you’re not permitted by federal law to work more than 20 hours per week so long as you have not exhausted your work study funds.
The perfect work study job would be inside a quiet departmental library with few students using it, and where you could spend much of your time studying. However, I hear those jobs are not easy to get.