<p>i have to earn $2100 this summer as my student contribution. i don't get it, though; if i make money, is that something i'll have to put into next year's fafsa/css profile as part of my ~assets? i ask because i know that those forms ask if students have a job and to put down how much they made. and if i make more than the student contribution, like, say, maybe $1000 more by working as much as possible, would that count as ~assets/income for next year's fafsa? or do you only have to list jobs you had during the school year on those forms? i just want to make sure that there's no need to worry about next year's EFC being higher because I get a job to help pay tuition and give myself spending money. does that usually happen?</p>
<p>No. You can earn up to about $6000 a year (a little more than that, I don’t have the exact number) before penny one gets counted towards your EFC as a dependent student. If you do work study, none of that income is counted towards that $6K. That $2100 is just a figure the college took off of what they figure you should be getting in aid and that you have to make yourself.</p>
<p>okay, so i don’t have to worry. thank you so much!</p>
<p>and also, i don’t really understand work study; does the money you earn from work study go straight towards tuition?</p>
<p>No. Work study awards mean that you get to go look at what jobs are available in the work study pool when you get to your school. You have to look at the offerings, see what fits your schedule, what you want to do, logistics, and hours and apply for those jobs. As a freshmen first time in the system, you may get the dregs or nothing. When you get the job, you work it, just like if you find a job there that is not work study. You generally get paid every other week, again like most jobs by pay check, payable to YOU. You can do what you please with the money. You can put it towards anything you owe to the school’s bursar’s account, or towards next term, or for your discretionary expenses, like supplies, toiletries, transportation, other bills and expenses you will have. It’s a paycheck The big difference is that you won’t be charged social security, most likely. </p>
<p>Be aware that you don’t have full control over when you start that work study job, get paid or even if you get one You will have to come up with seed money to pay the school if there is a balance upfront, for your supplies going to school your books, your transportation, deposits etc. You don’t get that money till you get the job, work the job, get that paycheck. </p>
<p>so they money you earn through work study isn’t really necessarily to pay tuition, it’s generally just a job to help with daily expenses?</p>
<p>The money you earn through work study, is to go towards your total Cost of Attendance (COA). Whether you put it towards your tuition or not is your business.</p>
<p>Unless all of your tuition/fees, and room/board expenses are covered by your financial aid package (minus the workstudy award which you DON’T get till you earn it), you will owe the bursar’s office some money for that first semester bill. You have to pay that or it will accrue charges and you may not be able to register for classes. You deposit check generally will go towards those costs, but you might owe more You can’t tell them you are going to come up with that money with your work study. Nope. You have to pay it. Also for first term, you have to get to the school, buy school supplies, buy books maybe buy a snack or some other daily expense. That money has to come from somewhere. So you do need some upfront money, starting with the deposits, then what you owe on your first term bill, and then just getting to the school with supplies, buying books All this before you even find a work study job IF you even find one, and long before you get your first check from the job.</p>
<p>
Uhhh . . . not sure that’s entirely true. The income won’t get counted towards your EFC, but assets are another matter entirely. If you have $6,000 sitting in your checking/savings account on the day you complete FAFSA, that will have to be declared as a student asset, and will likely increase your EFC. So, go ahead and earn as much money as you can - but use as much of it as possible to pay your expenses so that it isn’t just sitting around gathering dust on the day you file FAFSA.</p>
<p>If you actually end up with more income than you need to pay your expenses, you could deposit the surplus into a 529 college savings account, and it would be treated as a parent asset, rather than a student asset (so long as you’re still a dependent student for FAFSA purposes). That’s true even if you’re over the age of 18 and open the 529 account under your own name.</p>
<p>The advantage of work study is that the jobs are usually right on campus, they know you are a student so they cut slack in terms of scheduling and hours and when school is out. There is a list of the jobs you can check out and only work study kids can get those jobs (pretty much) so it’s a bit less competitive. It’s all set up for the student, though not given to you on a silver platter. Also the jobs do not count as pay for FAFSA purposes and you don’t pay social security. Otherwise it’s just like getting any job when you get there, and some work study jobs are also offered on a non workstudy basis. You can be stacking books at the library right next to a kid who is getting paid NOT out of the work study fund. My one son life guards and he gets paid out of the non work study fund, but there are kids paid out of workstudy too. Departments get the money and they do try to use the work study money first since it is subsidized by the govt so it saves them their money. But it’s just a regular job.</p>
<p>My niece could not find a workstudy job when she got to college as a freshman. She got a $1500 award and she really need more money than that, and none of the jobs there fit her schedule, nor did she like them. So she got a job at a yogurt shop that gave her more hours than work study for that term and that what she did all year, working about 10-15 hours a week. Then second semester, about midway through, she accidently came across a job that was workstudy funded in her academic depat and she grabbed it It was right where most of her classes were and the hours were flexible and it was just perfect. So she used up that $1500 at the tail end of the year, working 150 hours in three months, even after the end of the school year. She parlayed that into another opportunity for her next year and asked for more WS funds which they gave her, but she has been working 20 hours a week senior year and is paid non workstudy after the WS money runs out for her. She has been offered a job for after college by the dept which she is taking. So it can work out, but… sometimes not. </p>
<p>Does the WS program still include jobs off campus at non-profits approved by a school? Or, are all WS jobs now cited exclusively on college campuses? </p>