<p>If I accept the work study, can I wait until the Spring semester to work? I understand that I wouldn't be able to work for the whole amount.</p>
<p>Or can I wait to accept it until the spring semester?</p>
<p>Basically, I'm not sure what kind of time I'll have for work, so I might not be able to until Spring. </p>
<p>If I hit accept, and then never get a work study job, will that impact future financial aid negatively? They wouldn't be giving me any money, so I don't see why it would, but I want to be sure.</p>
<p>My son got a work study award last year. He did not find employment in the first semester, but in Spring he did find a job. He was given a work study award for his second year as well and will be rehired by his Spring employer. So your scenarios all sound fine. You should accept it to keep your options open.</p>
<p>This will depend on your university’s policy. Where I go if you accept the WS award but don’t get a job within the first month or two or so(no sure exactly how long but there’s a deadline in fall semester) they’ll take back the grant for the rest of the schoolyear. If you decline it you’re also not going to get it back in the spring semester and have to wait until the next academic after you reapply the FA. And since WS is only based on your financial situation, declining it shouldn’t impact your future WS award. I’d just try to get a job starting fall semester and work lower hours per week if you’re really busy. You won’t make the whole $2,500 but you’ll still have it. Of course the alternate possibility is just to find a non-WS job, which depending on your school may only be slightly harder to find or impossible to find (at my school it’s closer to the latter). At $7.50-$9.00 per hour, and with the WS fund paying 2/3 of salary and the employer paying the other 1/3, and assuming a 14 week semester, you would have to work about 15-18 hrs per week to get the entire $2500. Of course with the WS grant paying 2/3 of your salary you will have made $3750 by then.</p>
<p>As collegestu states, it can vary from school to school, and so are many situations. My son’s school, a state school, does permit it, I know, since my “cousin” did find a job second semester and used her award then. She only got a small award and could not find a job that worked out for her the first semester, and found a non WS study job instead. She “fell into” the job quite by accident, second term, and used up her work study, was able to continue the job on non WS funds, and will have the job again this year on a combo WS/non WS basis. But that doesn’t mean it happens that way at other schools.</p>
<p>Also, financial aid offices might well have their internal policies on how to award things like in house loans and work study depending on how the student used the awards the prior year. I have known a number of cases where a student is asked if s/he will accept loans in the package. There is leeway through professional judgement and how that is used can differ widely.</p>