Work-study

<p>Hi all, </p>

<p>I'm an incoming freshman to Penn and I have the International Work-study program included in my financial aid. Should I apply for jobs right away? Are the positions gone very soon? Or should I adjust to university for the fall and apply for a job in the spring?</p>

<p>I'm looking at some sort of library or office job right now. Are they easy to get and is it easy to fit in with everything else that is going on? Do these jobs require a lot of prior experience? (I've been shelving books for years, but I've only done one summer office job.)</p>

<p>Positions for libraries are taken up relatively quickly since everyone wants them. You get paid and most of the time, you're just doing homework or stalking someone on facebook.
Not much experience required.</p>

<p>If you feel you'd rather adjust to the university, then do so. Or you could just wait 2-3 weeks and then apply for a job - you'll still be able to find something similar to a library job.</p>

<p>yes, apply at the beginning of each semester and keep your eyes peeled.</p>

<p>i've had a few admin. jobs over the years (I did a lot of photo copying, delivering packages, etc). </p>

<p>They were all pretty cool. At the upper levels of 'research' work study like in bio or wharton, you can end up with a ton of tedious research (which you may prefer). but there are tons of jobs that just require basic skills for anyone with a pulse. often, if your office has Aubon Pain parties once a week like mine did, that can be a treat too. To conclude my nearly-shameful amount of experience with workstudy, you can even have a favorite prof set you up a workstudy job so you can help him with work you are interested and get paid</p>

<p>Should I be getting in touch with the job coordinators right away or is it worth waiting for a few weeks?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/seo/forms/IntlStudentWS2008-09.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/seo/forms/IntlStudentWS2008-09.pdf&lt;/a>
Student</a> Employment Office
Have you completed this process as a starting point?</p>

<p>Depends on how badly you need the money. There's a hiccup period in the first few weeks of school where every freshman on work study applies to jobs and there aren't as many spaces. After a month or two, jobs open up again and things shake out all right. Remember that this isn't a career - there are lots of similar workstudy jobs out there, and if you don't like one you can always find another.</p>

<p>hey so the JAF form is up now but i guess we have to wait until we get to penn to get the other forms? who do we go to to fill everything out or do we directly contact the ppl that listed the jobs on the site? </p>

<p>i have no idea where or when to begin</p>

<p>also, on a diff note, do most students wait until they get to campus to get their textbooks? if so, is the penn bookstore the only place?? i would get mine off amazon but im afraid they might take too long to ship after i take the placement tests during nso and find out what my real schedule is</p>

<p>after you find out what courses you're taking, its best to look around the facebook market for penn books.
If you changed Amazon to expedited shipping, the extra costs incurred would still be a lot less than the money you saved by avoiding the Penn Bookstore (generally).</p>

<p>Contact the ppl that listed the jobs on the site. Then you usually give the JAF to them or their assistants. Don't worry, very easy process.</p>

<p>the bookstore's preorder thing on campusexpress is extremely convenient, and can save you some money too if you get used copies. it's a good place to start as an incoming freshman as it will save you a lot of time and worry and isn't that much more expensive.</p>

<p>the best way to get books is to buy them off of friends. otherwise amazon is good (amazon prime does 2-day shipping for free), and the rest of the internet is good. you can often get really really cheap international editions over the internet but they can take forever to ship.</p>

<p>don't worry about really getting your books in time - remember that everyone has 2 weeks of add/drop so you can afford to wait a little and not get horribly behind</p>

<p>I think I'll stick with the Penn Bookstore, because I can bill it to my SFS account. I know I won't be saving, but in my tuition breakdown $1,000 was alloted for books. Might as well use it.</p>