<p>Hello I recently got admitted to San Jose State University and was offered $5,000 of work study.
Now does accepting work study guarantee me a job?
And by accepting is the $5,000 deducted from my remaining cost of attendance or must i pay the $5,000 and by working be reimbursed?</p>
<p>You are not guaranteed a job. You will have to find one and apply for it.</p>
<p>The amount of WS is not deducted from your cost of attendance. Once you find a job, you will work just like any other job and be paid based on the hours you work. (my daughter’s WS job paid every 2 weeks. She used her WS for living expenses. In her case, her direct fees had to be paid in the first few weeks of school, long before she received her WS earnings. That is probably the norm, though some schools may differ). </p>
<p>WS has some benefits. Usually the employer is more flexible about hours than a outside employer would be. While WS is taxable income, it does not incur FICA taxes. And it does not negatively impact your next year’s financial aid.</p>
<p>And if you don’t work enough hours to earn the full WS amount, you will leave money on the table, resulting in a higher COA.</p>
<p>You will have to find a work study job on campus and some might even be off campus in like nonprofit or community organizations. Some colleges post listings of these jobs and you apply. </p>
<p>Work study usually covers spend money.</p>
<p>$5,000 also seems like a rather high amount . . . how many hours per week are you expected to work?</p>
<p>That is a lot of work study. That’s 500 hours on a 12 month year. </p>
<p>If you want to see what kind of “seed money” you need to have, take your college’s tution and room/board costs, halve them, add the full fees that will be charged including health insurance if the school requires it and you don’t have it already. Subtract out 1/2 your financial aid award excluding the work study. That is what you will ikely have to pay the bursar’s for the fall if your school is on a semester schedule. In addition, you need funds to get to the school, buy the necessary supplies for your room and your classses, as well as books, maybe calculator, computer, as well as toiletries, laundrey funds and some pocket money.</p>
<p>All the work study award does is entitle you to look at what positions are available and apply for the jobs there… Once you work the hours, you get a pay check, usually every two weeks just like any other job, and you can use that for those living expenses, repay your parents if you borrowed from them, and put some towards what you owe the school, if there is a balance, or save some for the second semester bill. I suggest putting yourself on a payment plan with the school; there will be a fee involved so that you can pay what you owe the school in monthly payments instead of trying to pay each semester amount if those amounts are large and your parents are going to find it difficult to come up with the money. I also suggest you and your parents start stockpiling some money NOW in anticipation of these bills and expenses. You should be looking for a weekend and summer job.</p>
<p>In California, this would be about 20 hours/week over the course of 30 weeks. Less if the pay is above min wage (which many WS jobs are IME). </p>
<p>ento, I don’t understand what you mean by “a higher COA”. The COA remains the same, you just don’t earn all of your WS amount. </p>
<p>OP, you do not have to earn your full WS amount. You work as many hours as you want (and can work through your job). If you don’t earn your full WS amount, your WS award might be lower next year.</p>
<p>It looks like the WS amount is supposed to cover personal expenses and books according to the COA break down on their website (which add up to ~5k).</p>
<p>Hey guys I wonder if international students can work outside College?</p>
<p>No, a student visa doesn’t permit you to work - on or off campus. (Work study is a federal program for which you wouldn’t be eligible.)</p>
<p>Ah I’m an international student 
too bad</p>
<p>Question from a clueless parent here… my son (a HS junior) works part time right now to pay his car expenses and to have spending money. His plan was to do the same thing when he goes to college next year. That won’t even be possible without every FA dollar we can get. It seems the more I read here about WS the more confused I get… </p>
<p>I thought that if they did WS, their paychecks just automatically went to the school. If a FA award from the school includes WS, does that mean they assume that all the money earned will be going towards paying the school bill? Would he be better off if we say no to WS on the FAFSA and he just keeps working like he is now?</p>
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No, it goes into the students bank account like any other job. The funding is usually used to pay for the monthly living expenses that are listed as miscellaneous. The advantage of WS is that it won’t count against the student’s FA if it is saved.</p>
<p>Here is the thing about federal Workstudy: Your student only gets Workstudy if your Family EFC by FAFSA shows need after all of the awards and unsubsidized loans are applied. He is NOT eligible for workstudy unless there is need as defined by COA (cost of attendance) minus the EFC. So the money does go towards need, NOT towards the EFC. </p>
<p>But campus jobs are often out there for work study and non workstudy students alike. The difference is that the pay that the work study student gets, comes out of the federal pot that the school subscribes to. But he gets a pay check or has it auto deposited to his account just like a fellow worker who may not have any work study. And if his work study money runs out, he can just be shifted on paper as to where the funds are. But really he is getting paid the same way as any one else. If such a student wants to put that money towards his school bills, he has to specifically do so, most likely deposit the pay check into his personal account and then write a check to the school.</p>
<p>Work study is a mixed blessing. The good part is that it’s an award that is funded by federal funds, social security is not withheld, the amounts do not count towards next years financoal aid applications, and gives the student a list of campus based job to pursue wth first or only crack at those jobs where work study funds are sitting there to be used. The bad part is that the money goes towards the financial aid package instead of grants. So those hours that a student might have worked towards the family EFC have to be used towards the financial aid instead. </p>
<p>In the OP’s case, he has $5K of works study money. He doesn’t see penny one of any of it until he applies for a job by going to the fin aid/work study office and looking for one, picking one that fits with is schedule and he has to be accepted for the position. He then has to work the hours and depending on when he starts the job, he will get a pay check as late as 3 weeks thereafter, depending on when he started work and how the pay schedule works the school. He would be exactly in the same shoes as anyone getting that job. He’ll only be paid for the hours he actually worked. He will have to report the pay for tax purposes and if he is over the exemption in total earnings, will owe taxes on it. In the mean time, the OP has $5K of unmet financial need, and has to come up with that money if it’s reflected in the bursar’s account as such, and he will also have to come up with money for travel to the school, supplies for school and for personal things, books, pocket money since he won’t be seeing any of the work study money until he actually gets the job and puts in the time and gets his pay check.</p>
<p>All of my kids worked university jobs where they were side by side with work study kids, and my kids were not work study. Everyone got paid the same way. The money went towards my kids’ incidental expenses so that we did not have to give them as much or any money during the school year. Some work study kids were working to pay off balances due at the Bursar’s office, since their financial aid was short on paying tutiion/fees/room/board and other direct billed things. They had a negative in those balances and they had to come up with the money. If those kids or their parents were able to everything owed directly to the school, the work study money went directly into the kids’ pockets for paying for things like sundries, supplies, laundry, transportation home for the holidays. </p>
<p>The first year is a bit more confusing because most all kids are on the meal plan and in a dorm room, and those charges are billed directly by term by the school… At many schools, kids go off campus after that year, and then their rent/utilities become due on a monthly basis as do their food needs and other supplies. Then the work study checks are used for those purposes, as living expenses are no longer supplied or directly billed by the school.</p>
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<p>The odds of a school replacing a WS award with a grant are just about 0 at the vast majority of colleges. If it weren’t for the WS, it would be “student employment” or a gap.</p>
<p>I know you consider WS a “mixed blessing” but for the life of me, I will never understand why.</p>