<p>One real advantage of WS as opposed to an off-campus job is that the WS supervisor knows you’re a full time college student and will usually be happy to work around your class schedule. Off campus employers, however, will expect you to work when they “see fit” and not be interested in “how much [you] can handle” or whether you’ve got a really tough week of midterms and papers coming up.</p>
<p>Also WS does NOT add to the FAFSA EFC the way non-work study income does.</p>
<p>^ Mirotic,
I am very impressed by your postings, on seeking information and following up, not to mention your gratitude shown to the parents and posters here who have provided you with some great information!</p>
<p>With your focus and commitment you are ready to take on the World!. Congrats and Good Luck, your Mom should be proud of you!</p>
<p>Work STudy is not a set program. It varies from college to college and there is often a wide variety of jobs and hours. I know one student who helps organize a blind professors notes at the end of each day as a WS job. Another shelves library books, another checks ids at the gym. Some positions have a lot of flexibility in hours, others have to be taken in a set bunch. </p>
<p>That is also a problem with WS. I’ve known kids who get to college and find that the jobs left (since upper classmen who know the system already tend to grab first) don’t fit their schedules or they can’t get the hours allocated with what is left. That happened to me freshman year, I remember. I waited a semester, and still found nothing, so I ended up working on campus at the cafeteria on a non WS basis because I could work shifts around my schedule easier.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, the student’s portion of the EFC (not the parent’s) increases at this rate AFTER the student has exceeded the income protection allowance and allowances for taxes. For 2010/11, the income protection allowance is $4,500. So, you could earn at least that much from a non workstudy job and still have a 0 EFC. Parents have a much higher income protection allowance, which is why many earn over $30K and still have a 0 EFC. Here’s a link to the EFC Formula Guide so you can see it all in black and white:</p>
<p>Others have addressed the first bit, but they can’t force you to work more money than the government has given them to pay you. They can ask you to stay on though, if they find more money from another source; some kids that I’ve seen on here have actually exceeded a WS limit and started working their job as a regular part-time basis – I think the college paid their wages but I didn’t get into too much detail on that.</p>
<p>I teach in IL, and two of my students have gone to GVSU. One graduated loving her four years there, the other just finished his first year, and he loved it as well.</p>
<p>Neither was a slouch in hs, either. I hope you enjoy your time there.</p>
<p>While I understand the desire for a car, you cannot afford one. As for part time jobs, most colleges have some kind of job center where people call who want to hire a student. There are often weekend-long babysitting jobs available, and they pay very well, usually cash, so won’t affect fafsa. These are good because you can take them when you have time, turn them down during heavy study weeks. Work study jobs are designed to leave time for studying- if you are assigned one that actually requires work figure out how to be reassigned to the ones that don’t ask much of you. You would be crazy to turn it down, the part time job in town is fine for summer (unless you can find full time) but more trouble than it is worth to work around schedules and transportation once school starts.</p>
<p>Mirotic, one other thing, not to overload you with info that took me, a parent, a year to figure out. By turning down the PLUS loan, you’ve left yourself a gap of 1500. So long as you make enough this summer, you can cover that with cash. HOWEVER, it would be slightly safer to accept the PLUS at $1500 and have your mom to go through the process. If she’s refused, then you would be ELIGIBLE for the PLUS yourself and be given a higher borrowing capacity to meet your school costs. While this is less than ideal, at least the PLUS has a repayment schedule that includes adjusting payments to your future income or conditions wherein hardship can – with authorization – suspend payments. That said, you also begin paying it right away. But the PLUS is still slightly favorable than, say, getting a student visa and being forced (due to shortage) to put your books on it and starting THAT kind of debt rigamarole with private and unforgiving credit sources. </p>
<p>So if you haven’t turned the Plus down yet, you can leave it on until you see how much you’ve made toward books and living allowance through the summer. That way you won’t be stressing about a bill or not be able to register for a class due to an overdue u. account in the second semester. You can cancel the loan at any time prior, and you can even send the $ back for a brief period after its issue, but will have lost the processing percentage.</p>
<p>Just a thought.FYI, the 10 year repayment on $1500 would be less than $20.00 a month for your mom.</p>