<p>I am a parent and I want my daughter to start working part time. She is a senior. We do need an additional income. Does anyone knows how student earrings affect financial aid?</p>
<p>Will appreciate any info.</p>
<p>For FAFSA students have a certain amount of protected income. For the 2011-2012 school year it is going to be around $5250. Anything over that 50% goes to the EFC.</p>
<p>I hope you will explore this carefully. Part time work can exhaust a senior (who tends to be exhausted already). It may be a false savings. For instance, she gets a McDonald’s job and earns $500. Great, you think. But her grades suffer. So, instead of getting a President’s endowed scholarship at University of Wonderful for $5000 next April, she ends up being considered only a so-so applicant and gets to pay full tuition. Bummer. You are out $4,500. </p>
<p>College FA officers can also look at a student’s past earning record and use it to project into the next year. So, a kid who busts her butt and earns $2000 may be expected to contribute $2000 every summer – while the next kid over who earned just $300 is expected to earn just $300 for subsequent years. </p>
<p>Right now, I hope your daughter will really concentrate on earning the best grades she can, and scoring as well as possible on the SAT (if she still has to take it). She might also do well to skip the work hours and pour some hours into scholarship applications – particularly local scholarships like Rotary Club, Garden Club, etc. Three hours of producing a polished scholarship application might net her $1000. You can’t beat that as an hourly wage.</p>
<p>If your D can work part-time and not let it affect her grades, then great. That can be carefully managed by not letting her work too many hours and/or not letting her work late on school nights.</p>
<p>If she works 2-4 hours during the school week, and 6 -10 hours on weekends, she could earn enough to pay for some/most/all of her own personal expenses, which is probably what you’re hoping for. </p>
<p>She could work a lot over this Christmas break and T-giving break and have no effect on EFC since she is starting work so late in 2010.</p>
<p>Most kids (who aren’t already involved in a lot of ECs) can manage a part-time job and school. After all, many kids spend more hours on their ECs than other kids do at a part-time job. </p>
<p>She can also work a lot of hours over the summer. Submit your FAFSA as soon as you can so that it improves her chances for Work-study for college. Work-study earning don’t affect EFC at all. So, she could earn $5300 over a summer and breaks, and still earn work-study money.</p>
<p>Thank you evryone for info. She now works but doesn’t make a lot of money, so we were hoping she could work more hours and make more. So, now we know how much more she can work. All tests are taken and she does manage to be able to do everything.</p>
<p>My experience going through school is working for a living means you get little or nothing. She’s a woman so that’s one plus for free money. If she’s also a minority, she should have it golden to get free money and/or cheap loans to get through school… Contingent upon her not making a livable wage, so the moral of the story is don’t work too hard and you’ll be taken care of.</p>
<p>^^^
Bad advice…</p>
<p>*She’s a woman so that’s one plus for free money. *</p>
<p>??? Nonsense!</p>
<p>*
If she’s also a minority, she should have it golden to get free money and/or cheap loans to get through school…*</p>
<p>If you think that minorities have it “golden” to get free money, then you’re very naive.</p>
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<p>I don’t happen to agree with the above at all. I think it is very good for ALL folks to work and help to provide for their own financial support in some way.</p>
<p>Our kids worked in the summers AND during college. They worked to pay for all personal expenses and discretionary spending…and to buy books. If they hadn’t worked no one would have “taken care of them”. They needed to earn this money for these items.</p>
<p>I think it’s mighty selfish to say that you just shouldn’t work and “you’ll be taken care of”. Why not learn that you can help to take care of yourself.</p>
<p>OK…off of my soapbox…to the OP, it is fine if your high school senior works. Just be careful that the hours are not excessive and don’t interfere with her learning and grades. She will be able to use this money for college expenses. I would also urge her to get a job for up to 10 hours a week while in college. Both of my kiddos said they actually managed their time BETTER when they worked…and both did work all the way through school (wouldn’t have had spending money if they hadn’t…so it’s a good thing they did).</p>
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<p>First of all, no one is going to “take care of you” if you don’t work. That’s an absurd lie fabricated by bigots and morons and has nothing to do with reality, especially the reality of college financial aid where there isn’t enough money to help even attractive applicants. The only two options are learn to take care yourself or hope that you luck out, and the second option doesn’t necessarily work.</p>
<p>I fully agree with Gardna!!</p>
<p>Please be easy with words here. On many campuses, women make up over 50% of the student body. Finding a female for a female designated scholarship is easy now – particularly because there are so many more families in economic distress. </p>
<p>As always, the devil is in the details. Some kids DO become more focused with a job. Others become even more sleep deprived and grades suffer. A lot depends on the particular student and the particular job. </p>
<p>Final thought: one of my high school buddies got a before school job at the Donut Shop. He would open the shop at 5 a.m. and work until 8:30 a.m and then arrive at school at the second period at 9 a.m. – smelling like a fresh donut. All the girls thought he was the cutest guy on the planet. I always wondered if he was truly universally cute or if it was just the smell of donuts. So, it is possible that work can make you popular. . .</p>