Schools' responsibilities re work study awards

Paying for College
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NO, FWS Pell eligible students should go to the head of the line before all others (as they are the most financially needy). Most colleges have jobs that are specifically earmarked for students who are receiving Federal Work Study, where students who have WS in their financial aid package may not be eligible to apply for those jobs.

One of the challenges is just like SEOG monies, there is a limited pot of FWS monies given to each school so as mentioned upstream, there is may not be enough federal monies fully fund FWS students.

the IPEDs at Mount Holyoke states that there are 423 Pell eligible students. Those are the students that are going to be first on line for FWS funds (and positions that are tied to them).

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=mount+holyoke+college&s=all&id=166939

So if MHC has 1000 jobs then 423 of them should be reserved for the 423 Pell eligible students.

in post 29 @bschooltotech stated that

$314,157 FWS funds received from DOE in 2016-2017 (from NASFAA)

This comes out to ~$743 per Pell eligible student. If the average financial aid package is $2.4k, this means that the school will have to come up with ~1657 of their own monies or $700,911 in funding (23.4 % of what they say they package for work study) to supplement the FWS in order for students to earn this $2400.

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There are jobs on most campuses that are earmarked for WS students…and others cannot apply for and get these jobs at all, because the funding is primarily from WS funds.

Some colleges have some jobs that can be either WS funded or college funded.

Some colleges also have jobs that are for anyone.

Another thing…there are some jobs that are needed, and pay well, which require special training…like lifeguard. At both of my kids’ colleges there was a shortage of lifeguards, and the pay was one of the highest of any hourly wage on campus.

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Lifeguard jobs in the community (YMCA, Assisted Living facility with a pool, etc.) pay even better than campus lifeguard jobs and are equally hard to staff, especially in non-coastal states where kids don’t grow up with a beach culture. My m-i-l was in an assisted living facility (landlocked state) with a therapeutic complex and the pool was closed most days of the week due to lack of a lifeguard. The Director said they’d pretty much pay whatever it took to get someone for the 9-noon slot on any day of the week.

Great suggestion, Thumper.

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FWIW, from what I have been reading elsewhere, federal funds for work study require 50% match from the college.

Also, I realize it’s open to interpretation, but I think that when MHC says 1,000 “job opportunities” they don’t mean 1,000 single distinct jobs. I think they would consider “dining hall dishwasher” one job opportunity, which would obviously provide numerous jobs for a number of students.

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deleted

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Actually it is up to 50%, not a 50% match

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My daughter had a floor mate (SUNY) whose family also didn’t understand work study. My daughter said that the girl had shifts until 3 am, at one of the dining commons, and came into the dorm really late missing a lot of her early classes. She also took non-work study hours in the cafeteria to supplement her WS dollars.

The girl was from California (like my daughter) and had no problem finding shifts in the cafeteria. Her problem was finding shifts that would work with her early schedule. She dropped out of the school after the first semester because she, and her family, used that money to fund her school fees and, I guess, she explained that she couldn’t keep up with her grades and do late night hours at the commons.

My ddd2 worked the campus jobs at UC Davis which paid more than the WS jobs her friends had. Initially, she was applying for WS jobs that were available to both sets of students. Davis had every type of work study job for every lab and every professor. When she learned that the WS jobs would go to WS students, she went over to the campus job listings. My daughter’s friends eventually sought out the campus and community jobs because the hours were often better and the pay was better.

I worked at my work study job for two years. (My job entailed time-stamping student papers and assignments for the Social Work department and running a few copies for the students; the rest of the time I was encouraged to study, at my “desk”. I had about 10 hours a week). I later discovered that I could go off campus for a few steps and make more money working at the clinic.

I think most kids and their families ASSUME that work study dollars, listed in their offer, will match what was presented in their packet.

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Some advantages of on campus jobs are:

  1. no soc sec and medicare tax deductions from pay (FWS and non FWS)

  2. doesn’t affect EFC because FWS income gets deducted from student income on FAFSA (only FWS)

  3. no traveling needed to off campus job

  4. flexible hours that work with student’s class and exam schedule

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I’m going to chime in here because my daughter is one of the students at MHC in this situation. We budgeted her work study to cover books and incidentals.

*Yes, she has taken all available shifts in the dining hall. That totals 2 hours a week. She might have picked up another 1.5 hours last semester but it conflicted with classes, and she is NOT going to miss class to work. It’s not why she’s at school and she maintains a very high GPA.

*Yes, she takes all available substitute shifts (when she can get them – they’re snapped up within minutes and she frequently misses them because she’s in a class when they’re posted)

*Yes, she has looked for other work-study jobs on campus. There are some generic postings that stay up on the website but they’re frequently not actually hiring.

*Yes, she has looked for off-campus, non-work-study jobs, but again, they don’t fit with her schedule. She has school commitments nights and weekends in addition to standard class hours, and labs 3-4 afternoons a week (STEM major). She’s a varsity athlete, a SAAC rep, and volunteers teaching swimming to learning disabled kids.

*Yes, we have addressed this with administration. They’re absolutely wonderful in the MHC financial aid office – patient and caring and helpful and responsive. They said it’s worst for first year students because a lot of kids line jobs up in the spring for the following year, so the first years get what’s left. It’s also not well explained that once you get one dining hall shift it’s okay to get work-study jobs elsewhere on campus. Many first years think they can ONLY work in the dining hall, while the reality is that they only need at least one shift.

*My daughter is extremely driven and when she’s home for summer and other breaks she busts her butt working full-time+ as a lifeguard and swim instructor. One of the things that makes her (and me) craziest is the implication that she’s just not trying hard enough. She looks for the shifts, she asks for them, she spreads the word that she’s willing to cover for people. She WANTS these shifts.

One of my degrees is in finance and I have worked as an accountant for about 15 years. I educated myself about financial aid a LOT before my daughters looked at colleges, probably more than 99% of the people out there, not that that’s saying much. I ran 100 net price calculators and read what seemed like a zillion threads on CC. We did not budget for her to get all of the work study she was awarded, because I am very careful, and because I rather naively wanted her to be able to turn down hours in case it was causing her overload and interfered with her studying. I laugh now at myself over this.

Bottom line? My feeling is that if a school promises to meet 100% of need, and work study is packaged as part of financial aid, there should be hours available. I don’t care if they’re all scrubbing dishes at 5 am, but something should be available! With all of the articles and threads I read, my takeaway was that the kids may need to be very assertive and go after the jobs, but in general if they wanted them the jobs were there. That hasn’t been our experience.

It’s an amazing school and wonderful in just about every other way. But next year, if she’s awarded any work study, we’ll just pretend that she’s not.

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@Pheebers, I really appreciate you chiming in. You did a much better job than I did reflecting the discussion that has been going on on the family FB page: The administration is helpful, the students are working hard at looking for jobs, no one is looking for an unreasonable level of support but there just aren’t enough jobs to go around – at least for first years.

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As a fellow MHC first year with not nearly enough WS hours as I need, I would like to address a few things.

For all of those claiming that students at MHC are not making enough money from WS simply because we are not trying hard enough or because we “aren’t smart enough” to look around for other jobs or whatever else, you are not giving us enough credit.

First of all, we all got into MHC (not an easy feat, mind you), so obviously we are smart enough to figure out what’s going on and we know how to work hard for something we want/need. Most WS students (and not just first years!) who I have run into are actually quite knowledgeable about how work study works. We are aware that it is our responsibility to look for and apply for jobs, to move around our schedules for shifts, etc. We know that we must work hard at these jobs to make ends meet, however glamorous (or not, as the case may be) it is. What goes moderately unknown is that first years can pursue other jobs that are not in the dining halls, but that’s a different issue.

The big issue that we have is that there are simply not enough jobs to go around. There are plenty of opportunities, sure, but many places that look like they’re hiring are actually not or are only hiring people that meet certain criteria (ie. have taken certain higher level classes, have a higher level of experience in that field, etc). This makes it exceptionally hard for students, especially first years, to get jobs.

When we do get jobs, there are not nearly enough hours to go around. My package is under the assumption that I can make $1,200 per semester, which is about 10 hours of work per week. In the dining hall, which is the only place I am able to work at the moment (and trust me, I check online for jobs on campus and off every day, it really is the only place), I only have 3 hours per week. This is not by choice, but simply because having labs, class, athletic commitments, etc interfere with most of the shifts, and the other shifts I could take are taken by others. The shifts are given away in a first-come, first-serve basis, and there are way more work study students than shifts to be given away. Most people are only able to get 1 or two shifts a week, and they are usually only an hour long with the exception of the dinner shift which is 3. From this, the maximum a student can earn is $66 a week, and for a 13-14 week semester, that’s only about $900 per semester if you’re lucky. Obviously, there is a sizable deficit here which causes a lot of financial stress (and emotional stress!!) for many people.

My point is, it is absolutely not our fault that we do not have enough hours. We work hard looking for them. We work hard in classes, clubs, and sports, and we definitely work hard at our jobs with any hours we get. We are smart enough to look around to see what’s out there, but the truth is, there just aren’t enough options, especially for first years.

Do not get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE MHC. But there are flaws, and you can’t just blame the students for it.

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I only intimated that perhaps people were just complaining, because up till now, no one had offered concrete reports to the contrary. The article that was linked to, was quite short on facts. So, thank you, I appreciate hearing the rest of the story.

What is MHC’s explanation? Are all you students just booked to the max between classes and EC’s, so no jobs can match up? Are there really jobs posted that are not actually hiring? I do hear you, about continuing students lining up jobs for the next year, so hopefully you’ll avail yourself of that advantage.

I have worked at a community college and my D attends a much smaller LAC than MHC, with a higher % of Pell recipients, and just slightly lower % of international students. I have heard not a peep about lack of jobs and as I said upthread, I’m not even sure they use student labor in the dining hall. My D’s roommate is international and she’s working (at not particularly skilled jobs). At the community college where I worked, this was also not an issue, so I’m really puzzled what’s going on.

As far as freshmen not realizing they can also apply to other jobs, I do have to say it took me all of about 10 seconds to find that on the website, unless they only recently updated it. Surely they mention this at the various job info sessions at orientation? With this being apparently such a big issue, it should only require a few students spreading the word to those who have missed it. Or parents might find such info and pass on to their kids? Maybe at this point it’s a moot issue.

If students’ daily schedules are really, really full, I can see employment becoming an issue, and I think that is a choice or a consequence people have to accept .

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@alooknac , MHC does not have a good explanation, although they do acknowledge that there’s a problem, particularly for first year students.

From what I’ve observed, the main problem isn’t that the students have schedules that are too full. If that were the case, there would be available shifts because I’ve never heard of an MHC student skipping class to work. However, dining hall hours at MHC are not long, and in many cases they do overlap classes. In my daughter’s case, she’s a varsity athlete, and her practice hours last semester were every day almost exactly at dinner time, with about 20 minutes at the end where she could squeeze in a meal for herself. So part of her issue was that she wasn’t available during dinnertime on weekdays. However, she had tons of other availability throughout the week.

The answer to another of your questions is no, they are not good about telling students they can work elsewhere – quite the opposite; they just tell the kids they’re required to work in the dining hall and never mention it’s okay to work elsewhere on campus (not that first-years can realistically get other jobs, if you see @19171998biology 's post above).

However, in my opinion, students not being made aware that they can work elsewhere for work study, while a problem, isn’t actually making things worse. You can see above that some kids are already looking for jobs elsewhere and the jobs are hard to get anyway, so if more kids were looking for them the market would be squeezed even more tightly.

I don’t think it’s fair to say to the kids that if they opt to take the labs required for their majors or participate in varsity sports it’s just an opportunity cost and they need to suck it up because it’s their choice. Despite having the desire to work and plenty of free time during dining hall hours even with her class and team practice schedule, my daughter can’t get hours.

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I’m wondering why the other colleges I mentioned in my post do not have a WS job scarcity. I would like to know what’s different at MHC.

I didn’t say suck it up, in my mind it’s more of a case you can’t always have it all.

I think if my D were ONLY available to work short dining hall hours she might have a problem finding a job too.

Not having enough jobs across campus is one thing, not having a job available in a very short window is another. IMO there is an element (just an element, not 100%) of choice, the same way there may be a choice to make between classes or ECs because of schedule conflicts or just not enough hours in the day.

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What does MHC do if people can’t work and thus are $2500 short? Does the school give more in FA or do the students drop out? Until people don’t pay what MHC says they should pay, I don’t think MHC will do anything. Somehow, the families are coming up with the money.

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I expect the dropout rate for students who qualify for work study is higher than that for those who don’t, but it’s easy to attribute that to other factors. I don’t think MHC (or other schools this applies to) just hand over $2500 to students who can’t find enough WS hours. I expect the students who stay end up borrowing more money or forego extras like going home for breaks, buying coffee and clothes, getting their hair cut… They also probably give up opportunities over the summer or winter break that would advance their career or educational objectives and just earn as much as they can. And they don’t think about going abroad.

Many of you (us) did that when we were students. Many of our students made trade-offs like that. I’m not complaining about students making sacrifices. The point (and original question) is: do schools bear some responsibility in being honest with students about how easy or difficult it will be for them to earn their work study “awards?”

There may be students at MHC (or another school) who were admitted to Bryn Mawr or Connecticut College or UVA with packages they thought were equivalent to what MHC offered. But if those schools make it easy to earn $2500 and MHC or that other school honestly cannot offer enough hours for all of the admitted students to earn their “awards,” the packages aren’t equal at all.

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FWS is an award that allows students who are able to get a job or jobs to earn up to the amount of the award. It is not a promise of funding, and it is quite possible that an individual student may not be hired … in the job they want, in a job that works with their schedule, or even in a job at all (if no supervisor wishes to hire that particular student for whatever reason).

Every school that receives FWS funding must contribute 25% to the government’s 75% … for most jobs. Some have a more favorable match from the government. All schools must employ at least one student in an early childhood literacy or math position (not an easy feat at a school like the one where I work), and schools have to spend at least 7% of the federal FWS award and institutional match on community service positions (again, not so easy in all cases).

Schools award more in FWS awards than the available hours for jobs … because not all students who accept their FWS award will work, and not all will work the number of hours that would support earning the full award. Why is more money awarded than there are available jobs? Because if the school does not spend every penny of the federal funds, they not only have to give it back in that year … but they may well end up having their FWS funding cut in future years as a result.

FWS is an award that is helpful for some, but not all, students. It cannot be considered a sure thing, and it is earned as it is worked … so it shouldn’t be counted on to pay direct costs for school.

I am a financial aid director who explains FWS in very plain English to students … in person when they visit campus or call and in written explanations that are on the website & accompany the award letter … and in everything I send all summer long. I still have students who are upset that they didn’t “get” the FWS they thought they had coming to them … but they didn’t work the 10 hours a week on which the award was based (and yes, I explain that I base the award on 10 hours a week). AND … we have TONS of FWS job opportunities with no students to fill them. Lots of unused award money on our campus, but it is not for lack of jobs.

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and that seems to be the difference, that MHC knows they don’t have enough positions available to meet all the WS grants handed out to students expecting to make that money, but continues to make the awards.

Since MHC agrees to meet all need, I do think it has an obligation to make the awards achievable. Is it any different than the law schools who give scholarships to all students who get 3.5 gpa, and then make sure no one gets a 3.5? MHC should just be honest and tell new freshmen it is unlikely they’ll earn more than a sliver of their WS award.

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While MHC other schools promise to meet 100% demonstrated need no one promises that a student is not responsible for self help as part of their package. Many are very upfront that if you don’t meet your self help need that you will not get additional funding.

Remember some students are dependent on work study because their families can’t or won’t meet their EFC and want to use work study to fill that gap.

Brown used to provide additional funding freshman year so that students do not have to do work study. I do not think that is any longer the case.

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@kelsmom Do schools report what % of their FWS positions have been filled to any reporting body? (Or other figures that could help families sort this out.) It seems like a capacity issue. Students would have more confidence that they could earn their awards if the percent of unfilled positions at the college was higher.