<p>The work study expectations at the schools my son’s been admitted to range from $1,500 to $3,000, with most falling somewhere in the middle. I’m just wondering what a reasonable commitment is for a first-year student . . . is 12 hours/week too much for the first semester? And how many weeks can a student reasonably expect to actually be able to work? I’m guessing that exam weeks are out . . . but maybe not? Should he also allow a week or two at the beginning of the semester just to find a job, or can that sometimes be arranged in advance?</p>
<p>8-12 hours is pretty average. </p>
<p>Many (most?) jobs will require you to work exam weeks. It’s usually not a big deal. I know even the easiest of easy jobs at my U (caf workers) had to work during finals week or they would lose their jobs (but they got to pick their shifts on a first-come, first-serve basis). </p>
<p>Many colleges have jobs listed on the website ongoing or I have seen dates some colleges open up the listings, like Aug 1 was one I looked at recently. I think you want to pick as early as you can to get first choice of the type of job you want. When my daughter went to Brown, they used to give grants to cover w/s for first years so she didn’t work the first semester but the second semester she decided she wanted to. For the positions she picked she had to interview because it was assisting professors, so some jobs you may not be able to lock in online. The easiest of easy jobs I knew of was her bf who worked an evening library job he could mostly study during. He held on tight to that position till he graduated. Hers were mostly challenging–work with prof, or TA, and best paid was the call center to make the calls for alumni donations. I’m sorry I don’t know about hours but that seems reasonable to me.</p>
<p>It depends upon the job. If the job is one that requires constant focus to do, if it doesn’t have flexibility, it can be a problem A job checking IDs or helping at the univ tutoring center or other such positions where there is a lot of down time can study time as well. My one son had such a job, and I think it really helped him with his courses, because he’d study most of the time as he had nothing else he could do. He had to just be there. My other son had to give up his job, and he really liked it, wanted to keep it, really wanted the money, but the shifts were not allowed to be broken down and it was not the type of job where one could study at all. When he started having some problems with his courses and tried to reschedule his work shifts, there was no flexibility and there were conflicts with the extra help time he needed for couple of his courses. Throw in a time consuming group project, and he simply could not work that job. But it’s a great type of job for someone who has, say days pretty much free and could just work 6-8 straight hours and then not worry about work for the rest of the week, and son had had a schedule like that first term when he took the job, and then had scattered courses and commitments second term which made integrating that job in with his main purpose–school, was not possible. </p>
<p>So he should look at the offerings and see how they fit with his schedule and what kind of jobs are available when he gets to the school. Some campuses have a lot of jobs available, and many non work study as well which might work better for some students. A niece got $1000 in WS money, could not find anything (plus for her it was too little–she needed more money than that, and so she found a job non WS the first term that fit her needs perfectly. Then second semester, she fell upon a WS opening that was right where several of classes were held, and that could be done in small increments, and had down time as well, plus was related to her field of study and what she wanted to do. Perfect! She was able to get all of the money for the year in that term and some as they kept her on after the allotment ran out and put her on departmental payroll and she works there about 20 hours a week now, and may be joining them full time after graduation. Some such gems may pop up, and they may not.</p>
<p>Both of our kids worked about 10 hours a week. That was very manageable for them. It actually helped them budget their time well. Freshman year, both worked jobs in the evenings which worked out well for them.</p>
<p>DD upped her hours to 15 hours a week as an upperclassman. She was also able to work full time at her job in the summers. (Not with WS funds…her job used both WS and university funding).</p>
<p>DS worked off campus.</p>