<p>Is it possible for a student to get an on-campus job without being in the work study program? Or do students usually have to be in the work study program to work at their college? It's likely that I would not qualify for financial aid. I would like to work at my college's aviation center in the fall semester when I get back to school because I would like to gain work experience in aviation.</p>
<p>Obviously it depends on your school, but at most schools absolutely. Colleges try to do as much as they can with student labor in order to create jobs for students. Check everywhere you see students working…library, rec center, dining services, etc. etc.</p>
<p>Yes. You can also get an off campus job-they often pay more :)</p>
<p>It <em>really</em> depends on your school. My own college guaranteed an on-campus job to every student (unless they got fired from a previous on-campus job). I also know colleges that don’t even have enough jobs for the work-study students, and work-study freshmen are told that they’d be lucky to get a 4 hour/week job.</p>
<p>Regarding on-campus vs off-campus jobs: I’d like to second romanigypsyeyes that off-campus jobs might pay more than (often-close-to-minimum-wage) on campus jobs, but the campus jobs are much more flexible and work with your academic calendar. For example, most on-campus jobs won’t expect you to work during breaks, but an off-campus employer will.</p>
<p>When I was a professor and had a research lab, here is how it worked. Let’s say I wanted to hire a student to help in the lab (wash glassware), I would use my research grant money to do that. I could hire a work-study student for less because some of their pay came from the work-study money. It made my grant money last longer (I could buy more lab supplies and reagents, hire an additional worker, etc.). But if the student’s work-study money ran out, I would keep them on, just that 100% of their pay now came from my grant. I also sometimes hired qualified students to work in the lab who didn’t have work-study.</p>
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<p>Be careful about off-campus jobs your first semester/year. They’re less understanding of the fact that you’re a student. I worked off-campus for a few months and while I made great money, I was miserable because they expected me to work about 35 hours per week in addition to the 14 units I was taking. They just didn’t get it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys! For those who don’t know, this will be my second semester at the school that I transferred to (junior technically).</p>
<p>HisGrace, I know what you mean. One time when my aviation class toured a company at a local airport, I was at one point thinking of working there during my first semester at my transfer school, but even for a part timer that’s still a lot of hours. Hypothetically, if I got hired, I would have to work over 30 hours a week.</p>
<p>I talked with a few college faculty and staff at my college recently and they told me I can work at the aviation center without work study, I just might be hired as a student assistant.</p>