<p>say you got offered $2000 for workstudy for the year. are you allowed to keep the work study job after you make $2000? or do they fire you?</p>
<p>After you hit $2000, most places that only pay with work study will not employ you anymore. The school pays the work study employers 60% of your salary with work study so it is quite important. It'd be okay for a 5 or 6 hour weekly job to go in with $2000, but the usual amount needed for 10 hour+ a week jobs is $4000. You can either work without work study or try to request your work study amount to be increased. If you have any unsubsidized loans that you're not taking out, that money can be turned into work study. I don't get work study, but I get these type of loans which can be converted.</p>
<p>Are there on campus jobs that are not work-study?</p>
<p>Yes, and not all work study jobs will fire you once you've reached the cap (though it's true that there are many which won't hire you if you don't have an award high enough for how much they want you to work). </p>
<p>Check workstudy.berkeley.edu for work study jobs and callisto.berkeley.edu (actually go all the way to CalJobs; there's just no good way to link to it) and do a search, restricting "Position Type" to "Campus Jobs" to see what else is available.</p>
<p>Campus jobs that don't require work study are at the student store and libraries just to name a few.</p>
<p>I was offered Work-Study but don't know if I want to work my first semester. I'm a transfer student and I feel like at CalSo the theme was "you may think you can balance the worlds of work and school, but you won't be as successful at it when you get to Cal." I kept getting "Don't work your first semester" vibes.
Are the work-study jobs a strain on your life? Are they demanding? I'm kind of torn as to whether or not I should start looking for a job my first semester.</p>
<p>It really depends on the employer and the job description. My boss is really chill. I worked 6 hours a week last year and could basically come in anytime I wanted. However, some jobs are different. If you want money and the experience on your resume, I would suggest that you do work study especially if you have sizable gaps in your school schedule to fit work. The great thing about work study is that you can work in fields that you wouldn't normally get to as a young adult without connections. Berkeley work study has a lot of opportunities to work in business offices, research labs, etc.</p>
<p>As long as you aren't taking TOO intense a course load your first semester, you should be fine doing work-study. I would recommend keeping hours low, though. Definitely not more than 15 hours/week. I worked around 10 hours/week my first semester, and it worked out fine. Actually I think it helped my time management skills more.</p>