@JBSeattle kids can have on campus jobs that aren’t work study. With work study, their wages are subsidized so it can be easier to get hired. One of my kids had several on campus tutoring-type jobs and never had work study as part of her financial aid package (just a merit scholarship). The other (different university) wasn’t given work study or any other need based aid either, but she got an on campus job part way through her first semester freshman year and suddenly work study appeared in her financial aid. I think the school must have had some work study funds not allocated and those were used to subsidize her salary. She continues to get work study every semester. I think how work study funds are allocated, as well as the ease or difficulty of finding a non-work study campus job can really vary from school to school.
My S17 worked on campus last year and a bit this fall at a dining hall. Lots of on campus jobs, depending on the school, aren’t work study.
Sometimes off campus can pay more but on it generally more flexible around classes!
Ah Goldschlager…there are some fine skiing bota bag memories there!
Lol! Total time trip…Rumpleminz…
I am a beer snob now, and was pretty early on but it was a lot of Miller light as back then they had college reps and well, we had friends… lol.
Please correct me if I am wrong, isn’t there a cap for work study income ?
I think they don’t want students doing more than a certain number of hours per week on work study, with the theory that they’re supposed to be focused on studying.
I hung out with a group of guys who drank Jager, Rumplemintz and Goldschlager in my college days. Was at a funeral for one of them a few months back. Someone brought a bottle of Jager in his honor. We all had a sip of it and agreed that we couldn’t understand how we ever managed to choke that stuff down back then. There must be something drastically different with your taste buds in your early 20s. And the sugar content! Yeesh.
After winning a post-season tournament championship, my teammates and I celebrated like crazy with myself and two others polishing off a bottle of Jager and Goldschlager. For reasons still unknown to me, my girlfriend at the time refused to speak to me for the next 7 days. Said girlfriend is now my DW, and I’m banned from every drinking eager again.
@eb23282 - :))
Jager is actually an amaro. It is essentially the Milwaukee’s Best/Budweiser/name a terrible beer of Amaros. The good ones are incredible (they are typically a post dinner drink but I think they are ok to drink as an aperitif on). They are Italian liquors but I have drank ones from other countries (like Mexico and Poland). One of the better known ones is Ramazotti. Their is another good one called Vecchio something (vecchio means old in Italian). A few bars near us serve different flights of them and I probably have a bigger bottle around (I like drinking it but not something I drink often except when we go to Italy as my In Laws live there).
Sorry for the long side note!
All: Thanks for the info about work study vs. on campus jobs.
@InfiniteWaves I can confirm that I have tested your theory and checking the portal every 30 minutes does nothing. Waiting on scores to show up, midterm grades to be checked off, and interview to be checked off. Those red Xs are killing us.
Not a great day here at my house.
First, H got laid off this morning. Its not a complete surprise since his company hasn’t been doing well and he hasn’t had much work lately, but it still is not fun. He’s 63 and works in software development so age discrimination will probably come into play as he looks for something else. We’ve toyed with the idea of retirement but he feels he’s just not ready for that yet.
Then S, who is home sick today, got a letter from Pitt that I will call a soft rejection. They asked for midyear grades, which we expected, but they also asked him to take the SAT again. We’ve talked it over. He doesn’t want to take it again just for this one school, especially since there is no guarantee he’d do better, and no guarantee that he would get in even if he did do better. So I think after Pitt finds out there is no new SAT coming, that deferral will turn into a definite no. Sigh. We knew Pitt was a stretch, but I didn’t expect them to do this.
@me29034 - I’m sorry - my H is also 63 and his company has been downsizing every year. We know it is just a matter of time but he is not ready to retire either. Good luck to your hubby in his search - age and experience can work in their favor. Hugs to your son - deferrals are no fun. My D16 was deferred from BC - it was the first college notification she got and even though we knew it was a stretch, it still stung. I know it sounds like a cliche, but she ended up where she was supposed to be and never looked back. I wish the same for your son.
@me29034 What a bummer of a day for you! I’m so sorry for the rotten news. My H was laid off last year but is now re-employed. He is also an IT guy, but just shy of 50. He’s had it happen to so many colleagues, but thankfully most are either re-employed or semi-retired but experimenting with old (or new) passions. Many large corporations run such old software, that age discrimination does not apply - they need the knowledge and experience! Sorry for your son too. That letter really just prolongs agony. What are his other top choices?
@me29034:
Sorry you have had a bad day! I know it is of little solace but you can’t really have great days unless you sometimes have bad days!
Best of luck to your husband and your son!
I am sure your husband and your son have other great opportunities around the corner! I also understand that the wait in the meantime is not a lot of fun.
So I called the Financial Services office at D’s #1 choice today and the college is in a transition to requiring both FAFSA and CSS Profile for all incoming freshman. This year it is being actively encouraged to determine eligibility for school-based grants and scholarships. I forgot to ask if any of those were not need-based, but interestingly I did learn that the NPC assumes that you are applying for aid. I did not know that, but I wondered if that explains why many seem to be surprised by the low amount of aid this school offers. Not sure. The NPC never asks if you are applying, and I put in numbers to ensure it would not estimate need. I was trying to see if D would qualify for merit alone.
I learned that the CSS actually asks for a projection of future taxes and provides a space for explanation of personal circumstances which we will use to describe the layoff/severance that affected us in the 2017 tax year. They swear it is to our benefit to fill out these forms. I sure hope so, because I am certain it works to their benefit!
@me29034 I am so sorry to hear about your husband’s job. Hopefully, he’ll find something soon. Was Pitt your son’s favorite school ? We are preparing for several letters like that at our household. It is never easy to hear, but it sounds like he’s thought things out and has made a choice that he’s comfortable with which is great.
There are definitely jobs on campus that aren’t work study. My daughter worked for a professor on a project and his grant paid her; it went through the school for the paycheck. Many of her friends also worked for professors or off campus at grocery stores, reffing games (high school, elementary school). restaurants, etc.
Other daughter had a work study job last year (and yes, there is a cap to the amount she could earn during the semester) and for some reason she didn’t get work study funds awarded this year but we didn’t notice it until she returned in August. The FA aid office said they’d see if any fund opened up, but her job said she could still work and I guess they paid her out of other funds. It makes no difference to her since this is her last semester and won’t impact future FAFSA filings.
@me29034 sorry to read about your crummy day. Everything will work out. New job might be better than old one, and maybe looking at other schools is not such a bad thing. Your S will find his place, it will be fine.
@me29034 my 60 yo DH is also getting laid off. They will keep him until Dec 31st. He is interviewing but so far nothing. Its a scary thing the older they get.
@me29034 I’m so sorry. Sending you hugs. Not a fun time to be job hunting. I hope he finds something soon.
Bad day all around with deferral. 
Thanks everyone for the kind words. H and S are both taking it pretty well. H had an early retirement offer last year that he turned down. We’ve figured out that he is actually getting more severance through the lay-off than the incentive they were offering last year so he made the right decision there. And he can collect unemployment. The problem with the job search is that even though H has been doing working in software development for 30 years, he has no formal training. He was a finance major in college. I’m sure something will turn up though. Many times these setbacks are really blessings in disguise.
As for S, I think he expected to not get into Pitt so he isn’t that bummed about it. I think D16 who is currently a junior at Pitt is more upset than S is. She says she will tutor him over Thanksgiving so that he can do better on the SAT. S has not agreed to take her up on that yet. His favorite school right now is Temple and he is a match for that so as long as that comes through everything will be fine. I do wish we had one early acceptance in hand like do many others here though.