<p>So my parents are strongly considering checking me off for work/study on the FAFSA, despite the fact that my family is upper/middle class. I was curious if there was anyone with any experience doing this, what it's like, is it worth it, would you recommend it, etc.</p>
<p>At this point, I'm against it, because I would like to get my own job off-campus, and reap the employee discount at a place like the Apple Store or RadioShack, instead of folding t-shirts in the bookstore.</p>
<p>You are not committing to a campus job when you say that you are interested in work-study on your financial aid application. That's a decision you have to make once you arrive on campus.</p>
<p>I personally find on-campus jobs more convenient than off-campus jobs. I can easily reschedule my shifts every semester so that they fit around my classes and I don't have to worry about breaks. (Would off-campus employers expect you to be there on Black Friday or during christmas break?) Transportation is not an issue either.</p>
<p>I'm a freshman, and I love my work-study job. It's definitely not too much of a time commitment (2 hours every day M-F is not going to prevent you from studying), and I not only get some spending money, but I've learned a lot about how graduation works, what the Registrar's Office does, and my boss is a source of knowledge about anything in the university.</p>
<p>Check the damn box. You don't have to use your work-study allotment if you get one, but if you don't qualify you'll be shut out of some on-campus jobs, some of which (at least at my school) are much better than both folding t-shirts or the Apple store.</p>
<p>I did work study for my first semester and it good and bad aspects.</p>
<p>Good-
1) Got a campus job in the library. Able to check out resources and do hw in free time. </p>
<p>2) All of my co-workers, besides the other work-study students, were librarians. Able to offer great advice about library and other things about the school. </p>
<p>3) Able to take days off without my supervisor getting mad. Since they were librarians, they would ask me in advance if I was coming in next week due to midterms or finals. I could always take off days if I had a huge essay to work on and they would be understanding. Off-campus employers usually care less about this issue.</p>
<p>Bad
1) Most work-study jobs pay minimum wage. Off-campus jobs tend to pay more.</p>
<p>Personally, I'd recommend the work-study. Though the pay probably wouldn't be as good, it's much easier to balance work-study with studying, plus work-study jobs tend to be more flexible for students' busy schedules (where I work, the on-campus vet clinic, my supervisors made finals week shifts optional). As others have said, though, you don't need to take a work-study job if you check it off for FAFSA.</p>
<p>They more than likely aren't even going to offer you work-study if you aren't low-income. I have an EFC of 0 and they offered me a loan before they offered work-study.</p>
<p>My daughter has an off campus WS job which pays better than most of her friend's non WS jobs ($9.24 an hour). The great thing compared to non WS jobs is that they are very willing to work with her as far as hours are concerned, and are very flexible when it comes to times such as finals etc. Also WS earnings are not held against you in subsequent year FAFSA EFC calculation. Non WS earnings over the protected student income will impact your EFC (50% of earnings over the protected income will be used to increase your EFC).</p>
<p>
[quote]
I have an EFC of 0 and they offered me a loan before they offered work-study.
[/quote]
At my daughter's school the max WS is offered first, while they have any WS money left, before any loans.</p>
<p>My school doesn't offer off campus WS jobs, just on-campus. There are many many places off campus which hire students and are fairly flexible solely because most of their workforce IS students (off-campus bookstores, restaurants, clothing stores, etc). Most of the on and off-campus jobs pay minimum wage or close to. My WS job on-campus that I have now is special in that I had to put in a special application and interview for it before I was granted it, and I make $8/hr instead of $6.55 or whatever min is now.
(my previous ws job, I was just given it and it paid minimum wage back when it was $5.15... eurgh).</p>
<p>definitely check it off. you have nothing to lose, and no commitments to make.</p>
<p>work-study is great for a few reasons:
1) you don't have to travel far.
2) it might be something you can still put on your resume depending on what kind of career you're looking for.
3) most bosses in charge of WS student workers seem to have a policy that puts school work ahead of the job work. i know this from having had about 4 different jobs already at my school (only one of them was workstudy, but the others were no different than that the fact the money wasn't from the govt).
4) the money you make in WS doesn't count against you in your re-application for fin-aid the next year.</p>
<p>the only bad thing is the bad because you won't be making much. at my school they make it so that you work at a certain hourly rate for X amount of hrs to make up the award money for the WS. and each year they may decrease the weekly hours and/or increase the hourly rate depending on your time doing WS. so far i've gotten a $.25 raise every year. i like the place i work at though. i've met some pretty cool people and got to know more about the school and it's bureaucracy.</p>
<p>Our son worked this year in the tutoring center on campus and had a great time. You have to have a very high GPA to work there so he was hanging out with a lot of very bright kids. The manager was very much in-tune with the university calendar so she was able to make arrangements when most tutors were busy with exams or career days. They held a few parties for the students and tutors kept the information from previous classes current.</p>
<p>When things weren't busy, students could work on their homework and even ask other tutors for help if needed.</p>