<p>what is work study and how big of a time investment is it usually for freshman?</p>
<p>Work-study is usually a federal program that gives colleges some funds to go towards the employment of that student.</p>
<p>Say you are awarded $2500 in work-study.</p>
<p>Contact your school to find out how to find a w-s job…often the school requires w-s students to attend some kind of seminar where they find out about various jobs.</p>
<p>You are not guaranteed a job.</p>
<p>You do not have to earn all your work-study…but if you don’t, you get less money. So, if your work-study amount is equivalent to about 300 hours of work, but you only work 200, that is often ok…depending on what you work out with your job.</p>
<p>Work-study paychecks often come twice a month.</p>
<p>W-S is not a big time commitment. College students usually have plenty of time to work their W-S hours because College classes aren’t all day long every day.</p>
<p>You might want to keep in mind that some schools will take away WS if you dont participate freshman year. Before you turn it down, try to find out, and/or get reduced hours.</p>
<p>is it something where i can cancel it whenever i want or i do i have to be fully committed for a year? because i have to choose to accept or decline the work study money</p>
<p>…i dont want to accept it if i have to make a full commitment to it</p>
<p>I think at most schools you can cancel, but then you may not get the followoing year.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Great advice!</p>
<p>Another thing…one of the main purposes of work-study income (paid like a job over the school year as you work), is to provide you with an income to pay for the “day to day” expenses that college kids often face. It’s pretty hard to be a college student with an empty wallet, while everyone else is going out for pizza on a Friday night. </p>
<p>Work-study income can’t often be used towards tuition because that is often due at the beginning of the semester. But, some families pay monthly and w/s money is sometimes used to help with that if what the family owes is not easily affordable.</p>
<p>The number of hours you work depends on the job. The amount used for fin aid is just an estimate and what you actually earn depends on the pay rate and hours worked. Most WS employers will work around your school schedule and you only have to work the number of hours you feel comfortable with. The reason employers are so accommodating is they only have to pay half your salary as the federal gov’t picks up the other half of the wages.</p>
<p>soooo i should just accept because i can decide how many hours i want and if i dont, i may not get offered it again after freshman year…?</p>
<p>I know this isn’t really what you’re asking, but I say do it. It can potentially give you connections, which’ll be important for future careers or grad school. Here’s an example; My boyfriend found one as errand boy for a physics professor at his college. This professor happened to end up liking him so he’s helping with the experiments with grad students from Duke at the professor’s labs at one of UConn’s regional campuses and Yale. Trust me, it didn’t ruin his academics or social life, so I’d say go for it. : )</p>
<p>Zoid…how much were you given in W-S?</p>
<p>Anyway…Each W-S student has some control over how much they want to work. After all, they have to work around your work/study schedule. So, if you say that you’re too busy on M, W, F to work because of your school schedule, but you have afternoons free on Tues, Thurs, then you could work then. And, of course, the following semester, your schedule could change again.</p>
<p>It sounds like you’re concerned about the hours. What is your worry? Why do you think that you might not be able to work a few hours per week?</p>
<p>However, this whole conversation begs the question…if you don’t do the work-study, how will you replace those funds? Where will you get your pocket money?</p>
<p>D1 did work study in the campus library. She fell in love with library work, went to grad school and got her MLS, and is now director of a mid-sized municipal library. Rich she’ll never be, but she loves her profession and looks forward to going to work every day.</p>
<p>Yes. Accept the work study award. It will give you the potential option of a part-time on-campus job. No one will force you to work or force you to work enough to earn your whole work-study award. In fact, you can accept it, and then never get a job at all. (As others have said, you may not get it in subsequent years then… but that’s another issue.)</p>
<p>So, yes, preserve your option to work by accepting the work study award.</p>
<p>its $2200, and i have no idea how many hours WS entails so thats why im worried. i’ve never worked before so im not sure how i feel about it. relatively speaking, WS put a pretty small dent on the cost so i guess if i did decline, the funds would come out of my parents’ pockets.</p>
<p>You don’t need to accept a job (or even apply for a job) that requires more hours than you want to work. As a person who has not worked before, this can be an excellent way to get some work experience.</p>
<p>My son works only 4-6 hours a week, my daughter works 7 most of the time, I think.</p>
<p>That might be 8 or so hours a week (more or less). Other than the year my daughter was a Macaulay student, all of my kids have worked work study every semester of college.</p>
<p>I strongly suggest you accept the work study. It is a very manageable number of hours and as others have said, you might not be able to be awarded it again if you turn it down.</p>
<p>Work Study jobs typically pay minimum wage. Do you know what the minimum wage amount is where you will be attending school? For example, if you are allotted $2200, at $8 an hour that would be 275 hours.</p>
<p>I am guessing that is over the entire school year. </p>
<p>Assuming 30 weeks in school (2 - 15 week semesters or 3 - 10 week quarters, not working during finals week) that is just under 10 hours per week. </p>
<p>I believe there are studies that show students working 10-15 hours per week actually get better grades because they manage their time better.</p>
<p>I know students who have had jobs “manning a check-in desk” and had lots of “slow time” where they could read or study since they just had to sit there and be available. Other jobs will give you great experience for your resume.</p>
<p>*ts $2200, and i have no idea how many hours WS entails so thats why im worried. i’ve never worked before so im not sure how i feel about it. relatively speaking, WS put a pretty small dent on the cost so i guess if i did decline, the funds would come out of my parents’ pockets. *</p>
<p>Well, before you decline it, have a talk with both of your parents. You may think that 2200 per year isn’t much, the extra $9k over 4 years that your parents would have to pay may be significant to THEM.</p>
<p>I have talked to them, and they’ve said it’s up to me. But yeah I’m pretty sure they’d want me to accept it.</p>
<p>Minimum wage in Washington DC is $8.25. Do you have a link to that study?</p>