Will getting a summer job ruin my financial aid?

Paying for College
1

<p>I want to get a summer job for personal reasons, and I figure I can make about 2k (maybe a little more) over the course of the summer. My mom currently makes 20-25k/year. Because of her low income, my first year of college is basically paid for with financial aid.</p>

<p>Would my extra 2k or so ruin my financial aid, or is there still hope?</p>

<p>My school covers tuition and fees as long as our income is under 40k, but I'm worried about state and federal aid (which will be covering a LARGE portion of my college expenses).</p>

2

<p>Your $2000 in summer earnings will NOT affect your financial aid.</p>

3

<p>You can earn up to around $5k and not have it hurt you FA. </p>

<p>And, if you do work study as well, that income won’t count at all…not even in the $5k limit. </p>

<p>So, conceivably…you could earn $5k over the summer, and $2k with Work Study and not have it hurt your EFC.</p>

<p>However, the trick is not to have that money sitting in an account next spring when you file FAFSA again. make sure it gets spent on whatever…</p>

<p>Someone here could chime in for student savings…if a student has $1000 in a savings/checking acct on FAFSA filing day, how much will it hurt EFC?</p>

<p>Do you qualify for Auto 0 EFC? If so, then I don’t think your assets/savings will get counted at all…so you could have your earnings in savings.</p>

4

<p>Thank y’all SO much. I was really worried about losing my aid. I really appreciate it. :)</p>

5

<ol>
<li><p>You can earn up to $5250 in the summer without having your EFC affected (not counting work-study; does work study even exist in the summer?).</p></li>
<li><p>You can earn up to $5,700 combined from Work Study, taxable scholarships, in the summer, etc. without having to pay taxes.</p></li>
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6

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<p>It doesn’t matter whether you earn your money in the summer or during the school year…the threshold for needing to file taxes is the SAME. Ditto the threshold for when you start to contribute 50% of your earnings (over that $5200 amount…only 50% of it is tapped for financial aid purposes).
Some schools do award work study in the summer. You need to inquire at YOUR school.</p>

7

<p>It is funny how I made a similar thread 3 hours earlier. :)</p>

8

<p>Bear in mind that those rules are only for FAFSA. Schools using PROFILE or their own forms can make their own rules, threshholds and percentages. You should know your school’s methodology so you can determine if working could reduce your aid detrimentally. As said earlier, it is unlikely, but there are scenarios where this is possible.</p>