<p>I was awarded works study but didn't print out my certificate since I don't leave for school for another month. I went on my schools employment website and they said the work study funds are exhausted for the 2013-2014 school year! I need to work and don't want to have a non work study job because they will require me to pay more for school and I can't afford it. Does anyone know how this works and if there's any way it can open up again? I'm planning on calling my school's financial aid office tomorrow because it's closed today, but I'm so stressed out so I'm asking on here.</p>
<p>I’m confused…why would a non- work study job cause an increase in your cost of attendance.</p>
<p>If you were reading about work study funds being exhausted for the upcoming year on the finaid website, this might just mean that there are NO more WS funds to AWARD to additional students for the upcoming school year. </p>
<p>If you already have a work study award, and accepted it, you should be ok. But to be sure, call your school and ask.</p>
<p>In most cases the WS monies for the 2013-2014 school year have NOT been used to pay anyone yet.</p>
<p>Okay, I think I realized what I did wrong. I never paid attention/ didn’t notice the “accept” button and I guess I never pressed it. I assumed that when they offered me work study, there wasn’t anything further for me to do. Ugh I don’t even know what to do at this point. Oh, and getting a non-work study job goes towards your EFC, so because you are making money, they increase what you have to pay. They dont count work stuy jobs towards your EFC. I just can’t afford it I don’t know what to do. I seriously am thinking about dropping out and going to community.</p>
<p>What are you talking about?</p>
<p>NEXT year when you complete the FAFSA, your work study earnings would not be used to compute your need based aid. Income above a certain amount from NON work study jobs would be. But really…you would have to earn quite a bit for any appreciable difference in your need based aid.</p>
<p>Work study funds are need based aid. They are NOT awarded to fund your EFC. They are awarded to fund part of your costs above your EFC. </p>
<p>Yes, some students do have their WS earnings sent directly to the bursar’s account to help pay for billable costs. But most don’t do this. Your work study earnings would come to you in a paycheck once you worked to earn the money…and you could either use it for billable costs or for other expenses (books, personal expenses, transportation) which are also part of your cost of attendance.</p>
<p>Since you did not accept the WS award, it may very well no longer be available to you. Call and ask.</p>
<p>If you had other need based aid, I sure hope you accepted those awards!</p>
<p>When you get to campus, look for a non-WS job to help pay for your college expenses.</p>
<p>When you look at your finaid award in the school portal, are you saying it no longer shows up? Or is it still there with the option to accept? If so, just accept it now. A non-work study job won’t affect your efc for this school year. It could for the 2014-2015 school year but only if your total income in 2013 is above about $6100. It could also affect your efc for 2014-2015 if you have saved part of what you earn.</p>
<p>And yes, definitely call the finaid office.</p>
<p>@annoyingdad: yep, it no longer shows up because I didn’t accept it. I thought there was no further action required when they put it in my estimate, but there was. </p>
<p>@thumper1: I have no choice but to get a non work study job. I was just saying I believe non work study jobs will count as a student asset and make me pay more for my school.</p>
<p>Actually as long as you make under $6k, there will be no change to your EFC. Even if there was a change to your EFC, anything over 6K, would be $50%. If you need the money for school, you have to worry about what you are going to do to make the here and now work out. If you make more than 6k and your efc goes up, it is a bullet that you will have to bite.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I don’t think you understand work study. Having work study affects where the funds come from to pay you and that there are some jobs on campus that only go to work study students. But mostly it doesn’t look any different to you – you still get a paycheck for the work and have to pay the same amount to the college. It is still income in the same sense (for taxes and for FAFSA, etc) regardless of whether you have a work study job or just get a “regular” job on or near campus. Now, you may have to hustle to find another job, depending on your school.</p>
<p>Did you have any other components of your FA that you did not “accept”? That would be a bigger concerned if you missed accepted online or via paper signature other components of your FA package.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks guys. I guess it’ll just be a little tougher to find a job, but I’ll mange.</p>
<p>@intparent: that was my first thought when I realized I didn’t accept my work study, whether or not I accepted my other awards. I went on the page and it says they are accepted although I don’t remember doing so. I guess the system did it for me because they aren’t really first come first serve like the work study is. thank goodness.</p>
<p>Well, you might want to call tomorrow and talk to them anyway… maybe you can still get the work study. If you are really worried about a job, you might check on food service jobs. They always seem to be looking on campus, and they are not always WS jobs. Although it isn’t the most glamorous work, hours are usually pretty flexible.</p>
<p>Intparent, while work study has to be included on fafsa with income from work, there is another question, 43c, that asks for income from need-based employment. The amount in 43c is subtracted out in the fafsa formula.</p>
<p>fyi - the same thing happened to me. There wasn’t really anything to ‘accept’. I printed
out the certificate to see what it was. It had a 1 month expiration date. If you don’t
find a work study job in that month, you just go online and print it again for the next month.
I just thought I would start looking in August like the Op. But when I went back in to
reprint, it didn’t show uo anymore. I called the FA office and learned the hard way
that as people get jobs, the fiunds get used up and it is first come, first served.
She said I should have started looking immediately because as soon as the funds were
gone, it would disappear from my screen.
But to reiterate, the only advantage to a work study job is that the campus has
a separate list of those jobs and it MIGHT be easier to get one, but you still have to
apply, interview, and get selected.</p>
<p>^^^Interesting. Shows how much it varies by school. At my daughter’s school they only awarded WS $s up to the amount they had and a student had to actively accept the WS. If they did not accept it, they lost it. But once they accepted it, the funds were allocated to them and they had to turn round and say they would not be using it before it was available for anyone else. </p>
<p>At her school, the aid that was automatically accepted by the school on her behalf was grant aid like Pell, SEOG, and a small State grant. Loans and WS had to be accepted. Perkins loan and WS also had a deadline as they were limited funding.</p>
<p>Every school does it differently.</p>
<p>Our DDs school awarded federal work study exactly as Swimcatsmom’s kid’s school. </p>
<p>Wondering if the OPs school is not federal work study. Some are not.</p>
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<p>And if the OP is at a FAFSA only school, that might make a difference. I wonder if they treat it differently at a CSS Profile school, though…</p>
<p>The OPs work study award was likely not more than $3000. Some of that would be 2013 and some 2014. I seriously doubt that the amount in each of those years would have much impact even at a Profile school.</p>
<p>The feds reduced work study awards to schools by quite a bit this year as a result of sequestration. My school’s award was chopped by a lot (and it was small to start with). I think schools are having to really manage their work study funds very carefully.</p>