Not a surprise since these schools do not guarantee to meet full need.
To be clear, I’m counting loans as “money I have to come up with”, not “financial aid they’re giving me” when I say all these figures. I’ve been told not to take any loans if it’s at all possible. The total cost for me for Amherst is $28k, Dartmouth and Lowell are about $22k (they haven’t given us 2023-24 COA info, so guessing based on this year’s $$).
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Could their ability to pay get even lower in subsequent years?
The $10k/yr from my parents, as I understand it, is set for four years. What more they can scrape together on top of that is not guaranteed, and yes, it’s fairly likely at least one of my parents’ incomes will be going down. My $7k is my current savings, so that’s only good for year 1, after that, I’ll have to make however much I need as I go.
That’s probably what I’ll end up doing. I’m just concerned about finding an off-campus job I can get to if I don’t go to college in a city.
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OP- you will likely have “startup costs”- maybe a new computer or a phone?
So think about your savings as funding that- plus books, etc.
U Mass Boston looking better and better, no? What is your intended major?
So how are the work-study wages used at the end of the day? I know some say that pay is direct to students (I guess for discretionary spending that’s needed??)
And then are these then also taxable at the end of the year??
(I had work study DECADES ago and can’t remember at all. lol. I know it wasn’t much, but…) TIA! It’s an “up to” amount.
Am wondering how earning outside of the work study effects the financial aid given since the % of what they take/assess from students is much larger than the parents’ earnings. Would be interesting to see how that would affect it all, i.e. cost/benefit analysis. One might not be that much better in the end.
I hate that they make it all so complicated.
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I’m pretty sure the money goes straight to the student and how they use it is up to them. End of day, that "bucket’ in the financial aid package has to be paid somehow!
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You don’t really make that much in a campus job because you just don’t have the time.
Our daughter just needed entertainment money and wanted the lab experience.
They gave my daughter open hours which meant that whenever she could come in, she would go in. She averaged about 3 to 10 hours a week, depending on the week.
She could have done more hours, but she didn’t want it to impact her grades. When they needed her for more hours, she would accommodate them, and/or go in on the weekends, but overall, she kept it under 10 hours a week.
Worked out really well for both parties.
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Well, if the money is earmarked for tuition, it would presumably be spent before the next year’s FAFSA, so it wouldn’t be in assets at the time of the FAFSA.
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Totally depends on the job. My kid oddly got work study. She worked in undergrad admissions from 2006-2010…and made $15 an hour. She worked between 10-15 hours a week most weeks, but more when there were accepted student events.
And she worked full time there in the summers that she stayed on campus. Really, it was a good paying job.
And the good thing about this job…when the kid exceeded the work study allotment every year, the college paid after that.
If you want an on campus job with great pay and flexible hours, get certified as a lifeguard. At both of my kids’ colleges, they were always looking for lifeguards. Pay was excellent with lots of options for work hours. On campus job that was not funded with work study money.
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Agree! I wish they would explain that more in the aid packages or just keep that as a separate category that could be applied against some of the misc personal items that are in the COA calculations. Tuition, Fees, Room and Board are due before they step on campus and find a job.
One of DD’s aid packages actually stated it was the expectation that work study from the previous year would be saved to help pay for the next year! That seemed optimistic. They also listed the amount that they expected from summer work to be applied to costs.