Hello,
Does anybody know how easy it is for freshman students to get work-study? My son did not qualify for federal work study but will most likely need to work to help cover some of his expenses. Are most work-study jobs just for students that got FWS?
Thank you,
I was a little confused by your subject heading…the term “work study” is the name of the federal program. What you appear to be asking is are there on campus jobs that are not work study. Yes there are. But it may be a little harder to get.
Some jobs are available as both work study and non-work study. Most tutoring jobs across the campus’s are available as non-work study.
If you are on Facebook you can post your question on our admitted families page…you may get more answers. Just search for “Harvey Mudd College Admitted Families”
Thank you and sorry for the confusion. I work in an university and we have work study need based (which is federal work study) and work study merit based (for students that don’t qualify for federal work study), so the only difference is how the money is allocated internally.
We will be going to the admit weekend so hopefully we get more information then. However I was hoping to hear from current students/parents to see how easy it is to find jobs without work study, which by your response seems it may not be that easy.
Thanks again!
Okay…I’ve never heard the term “work-study” used for anything else. Guess, it’s all in what you’ve been exposed to.
It sounds like your university allocates and award similar to the federal workstudy from their own funds as merit. That doesn’t exist for us. You either have federal work study or you just “get a job” on campus. The budget for “get a job” comes from the individual department that that is hiring the student, so obviously they prefer to hire those that have federal work study. This makes the non-WS jobs fewer in number, but they do exist. My D (a former Scrippsie) is the one that mentioned that most tutoring jobs on campus are both WS and non-WS. I’m sure there are others. My son (a Mudder) never gets close to earning his WS allocation so it’s never been an issue.
I’ve never heard anyone complain that it is difficult to get a job, so I think he’ll be able to find something. It may be a little difficult at first though. (Both my kids, even with WS, had a little trouble the first semester but managed to find work…after that they’ve never had an issue.)
Thanks again! That is very helpful!
I’m a current student, and I can confirm that you will not have an issue finding a job on campus even without work study. Some employers prefer to hire work study students, but in my experience many don’t care either way.
Paid summer research opportunities on campus are also available for many students, even after freshman year. They may not get their first choice of lab first year, but if they are flexible there are a lot of opportunities. Usually the departments start emailing/looking for those shortly after winter break, I think.
I agree with @ClaremontMom — at most universities the phrase work study is just for federally funded WS jobs.