<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Our EFC is 31K for a state school with a COA of about 20k so my son won't get any grant money, which is fine as I believe that money should go to those with greatest need. My hope is that he'll still be eligible for work-study b/c those jobs tend to be on campus and have limited hours. Does anyone know how likely it is he'll get work-study? Will he be offered loans?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Others will know more, but my D goes to a state school and this is how it works for her:
if we do the FAFSA, she is offered unsubsidized Fed loans. We filled FAFSA out last year in case she needed a loan. This year, because of some savings we know we won’t need for her to take a loan, so we did not have to file the FAFSA.</p>
<p>Her school’s Financial Aid office told me that if we aren’t needing any loans, we need not file the FAFSA. Next year she will probably need, and we will file again then.</p>
<p>Have you filed FAFSA at the school your son is attending? There may be a deadline…</p>
<p>At D’s school there were 2 big job fairs at the start of the school year, one for Work/Study students only, and one for anybody. Only students with financial need will be offered Work/Study jobs, which are subsidized. But most campuses have other jobs as well.
(D ended up getting a part-time job off campus, not through the job fair, but she could’ve gone to it if that hadn’t worked out).</p>
<p>Thanks, Paperplane</p>
<p>Yes, we filed a FAFSA and met the deadline at my son’s school. We also checked the box that asked if he would be willing to accept work study.</p>
<p>Work/study is federal student aid program. W/S is generally offered to students who have demonstrated need according to their FAFSA. If your EFC is higher than the COA, your student will not be eligible for the federal work/study program.</p>
<p>However, this doesn’t preclude him from taking a non-work/study on campus job. The availability of non w/s jobs (and w/s jobs, for that matter) varies widely by college.</p>
<p>* My hope is that he’ll still be eligible for work-study b/c those jobs tend to be on campus and have limited hours. *</p>
<p>NO.</p>
<p>You’re son isn’t eligible for work-study since he doesn’t have demonstrated need. </p>
<p>My children were able to get campus tutoring jobs (those aren’t work-study), so they have limited hours. Find out if his school hires student-tutors.</p>
<p>Your child can borrow $5500 in unsub loans as a frosh.</p>
<p>i know of two SUNYs this year that did not have enough qualified work-study kids to man the computer help desk. So they hired regular kids.</p>
<p>On the other hand, some schools don’t have enough jobs for all the students who are eligible for work-study–and non work-study jobs can be rare. OP’s son may need to find employment off campus.</p>
<p>With an EFC higher than the cost of the school you are ineligible for federal work study. Federal work study is a need based program where the jobs are partially funded by federal funds. To be eligible the student must have financial need as calculated by the COA less the EFC.</p>
<p>Whether the school will have other non work study jobs available will depend on the school. At my daughter’s school it is very hard to gain on campus employment without a work study award. Other schools may have more availability.</p>
<p>If you are offered Work-Study as part of your financial aid package, but you don’t use it the first year, will they NOT offer it in the next year’s FA package? I don’t want my daughter to work her first year.</p>
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<p>Then the school must have had funding to pay for these employees. Federal work study money is for students with financial need.</p>
<p>Keetermom - I would not make the assumption that a student should not work freshman year. I did say that for the very first semester - but by second semester - my son felt he was able to include a work-study job in his schedule - it’s only 10 hours per week and most jobs are quite flexible in the scheduling of hours. Of course, every student is different - but I would not necessarily assume that a freshman should not have a job.</p>
<p>Keetermom–School policy on whether or not a student will be offered work/study as on sophomore if she originally refuses it as freshman depends on the school. </p>
<p>Some schools will; some schools won’t.</p>
<p>You should ask (and get it in writing) before refusing work/study for a freshman.</p>
<p>Agree - ask the school. </p>
<p>My daughter had an outside job already and asked her school if she would be penalized for turning WS down- her school said they preferred a student to turn it down so they could reallocate it. They did not penalize her the next year and she got a good WS job.</p>
<p>But there was a student who posted a while back who said their school would not consider them for WS in subsequent years because they turned it down in the first year.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>