Thank you so much!
I’ve been most definitely leaning towards case, and I really hope and believe it will be fully worth for the money I will be paying.
I’m glad to hear about your son’s experience at Case!
I don’t believe work study is guaranteed. It’s a federal program - not sure if international is eligible or not. But the feds are paying a large portion. But I think $10K is not realistic for WS earnings. I’m not sure if they’re capped or not but that seems high - every high. The average, per US News, is just over $1,500 a year.
Federal work study is not available to international students. BUT some colleges have their own work study monies and they can do whatever they want with their own money.
I think this student needs to carefully think about the amount he will be allowed to work. Typically, work earnings are used to pay for personal expenses, books, etc.
Also, any potential earnings cannot be included in the certificate of finances this international student will need to complete.
@MYOS1634 or @kelsmom what are the work restrictions for students here on a student visa?
An international student on an F-1 visa can work up to 20 hours a week, working for their school only. If you want to work in summers, you would need to be approved for CPT or possibly OPT, then find a job. There are strict rules involved, which you can read about here: Training Opportunities in the United States | Study in the States. I worked at a grad school & handled visa applications. We did not allow CPT, because our programs did not require it or allow outside work for credit. Other schools in our area did allow it. Almost all of our graduates did OPT following graduation, but it was a graduate program. My advice is to contact the international student office or advisor to ask about the probability of working during and after your program. They will be able to give you advice specific to what is possible at their school.
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Completely agree. I also don’t think that this student realizes the impact of daily living costs in the US. Working on campus to save dollars would be great if this student does not have other non-academic expenses. Plus, if this student expects to maintain a strong GPA in the competitive Biology department, keeping work hours to a minimum would be expected.
Our daughter worked a lab job and was paid $20 per hour. She never earned $10K a year while on campus. She didn’t always work those 10 hours. Sometimes, it was 2-3 hours per week because of classes, meeting with professors or volunteering in clinics. At the grocery store, she used those monies to purchase laundry supplies, toiletries, fridge supplies (water, coffee, sandwich and stuff), cheapie headphones, batteries, etc.
When there were midterms, study groups and labs, she didn’t work, and fortunately for her, her supervisors were very flexible and loved her work.
If OP thinks that any on-campus work will turn into automatic savings for academic expenses, he/she is in for a shock. Tax deductions do occur on each paycheck. Living in the US is very expensive.
Some of my daughter’s friends, with cultural ties, did not like the meals provided in the common dining halls. They ate out or spent money at Safeway, buying groceries and making meals in the common kitchens. They used their campus job earnings to feed themselves and pay for minor expenses. Food is expensive but you gotta eat.
As an opinion, I believe you have under-regarded CWRU to an extent. This school would be excellent for any major in the biological sciences.
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Yes, I’m not eligible for work-study, but I am for on-campus employment.
I’m aiming for $5k/ year, which should be viable to an extent. Cwru expects me to make at least $2500/yr through employment as part of my financial aid package.
Cwru’s financial package gives me an option to earn at least $2500/yr through campus employment, which is different from work study. And this will, it seems, go towards my COA. Hence the reason I was asking if I could earn at least till $5k so I could have a bit left for personal expenses after giving the $2500.
Would this be deemed impossible after all?
I shall do that. Thank you for your advice
Thank you for the reassurance!
I was a bit uncertain about the school’s value for the cost I’ll be paying, hence I was looking for objective opinions. Many on the internet told me that the experience wasnt worth it for the price tag, which previously made me a bit discouraged
I understand, thanks for explaining
I was just looking to see what was the realistic amount to earn while working on campus, and was hoping that at least $5k would be viable. Case’s aid packages mention earning $2500 through campus employment, and I was trying to check if I could earn more to reduce my parent’s burdens.
I need to budget my expenses and find means to manage to pay the cost, and I don’t have anybody who has the knowledge to guide me. Hence I apologize for sounding too naive.
In your opinion, how much can I expect to make per year? Assuming I work only the minimum hours
Depends on the wage - but let’s say you work 10 hours a week and it’s $12 an hour (you need to find out) - that’s $120 x how many weeks? So no…
But it’s wage per hour dependent.
Other people can supplement with odd things- my daughter got $300 from letting the local medical school scan her brain after either - trying something with medical cannibis (or a placebo). Sometimes there are ways to pick up a few dollars - here or there.
Very hard to say because each job, wage, and “availability” to work will be different. Some campus jobs will “run out of work” so you might not get some hours. My niece has a campus job and works for a franchise in the “Commons” dining hall. During holiday breaks, the whole Commons building is closed and she doesn’t get any hours. I worked in the graduate school office and part of my job was to collect mail (US post office, as well as, student/prof mail). Sometimes, there was no mail, especially during midterms, holidays.
Remember that these campus jobs are generally used as low incidence expenses-daily living. I would say that earning $5K per year (spread out over 10 months ) would have been the maximum if our daughter had worked all of those 20 hours over the year. I think she earned about $900 per quarter. We supplemented SOME expenses for her (like expensive fuel and maintenance costs), so she used her $900 to buy daily living supplies. So she probably made about $2700 for the year, at her campus.
She came home for some summers and worked, full time, at the amusement parks, on the weekends, and at the Vet’s office during the week. That’s where she made her savings for her college contribution.
I guess i would say that there was just too much going on, within the campus, with her studies, office hours, tutoring, and maintaining a high GPA for med school, that she did not place a high priority on working. She wanted exceptional grades.
My son is at Case, and his experience has been great so far. I do not know about Biology, but Case is strong in BioMed (#12) and other healthcare related fields. The school also has close ties to University Hospital and nationally known Cleveland Clinic.
Before my son made his final decision we compared graduate placement for engineers who did not continue at their undergrad, and Case compared favorably to CMU, with students landing at top schools like CMU, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, MIT, UIUC, Harvard and UofM. I could not find a breakout for Biology, but the School of Arts and Sciences placed students at top schools like BU, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, U Penn, Johns Hopkins and MIT. In summary, strong students from Case do very well in graduate school admissions.
I am not sure how good a job you will be able to get with a BS in Biology. My impression has always been that one needs to go on for an advanced degree in a related healthcare field to get a high paying position. I could be wrong; others with experience in the area please chime in.
Biology majors can add some things in undergrad that can help.
@WayOutWestMom usually has good suggestions.
The good news here is that Case supports double majors or minors, so if there is a related second major or minor that would help with employment opportunities - say BioChem - then it would be doable. Working with his counselor, our son discovered that Case will let him take business classes to fulfill his humanities requirements (he’s MechE), which will get him a minor in business without taking additional classes.
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OP, if you don’t mind sharing, what was your decision?
To maximize employment opportunities for bio majors–the more math the better. Applied math is better than pure math. Data science. Computational biology. Biostatistics. Biotechnology Biomedical engineering. . Chemical systems processes (engineering). All good second major, minor ro supplemental course work areas for bio majors.
Unfortunately, paid summer internships for undergrad bio majors are all but non-existent. So don’t count on getting any of those @wishtea.
Admission to grad biology programs isn’t difficult. There are lots of programs that need the “free” labor grad students provide. If you apply widely, someplace will accept you, but getting into a top, well regarded program is extremely competitive.
And unfortunately, even in specialized biology fields, there is a huge glut of PhDs so finding a job, any job with a bio PhD is difficult. The US has been systematically over-producing bio PhDs for >50 years. I wouldn’t count on staying in the US even after finishing a grad degree.
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