<p>Could anyone explain or give some examples of their experiences with work study?
How does it work??
I only have to do $1800 a year....lol</p>
<p>the 1800 a year is the MAXIMUM you can earn. technically, you dont even have to take the award if you dont want to.</p>
<p>Actually…if you have an award for $1800 in work study monies…that is all you can earn and be paid out of work study monies the school receives. Some (not all, but some) jobs are both regular campus jobs AND work study so that you can use up the work study money…but if continue to work and earn university money after that. Some jobs are work study only. Some are campus jobs only (but that doesn’t prohibit you from getting one of those!!). </p>
<p>You need to find your own work study job once you are on campus. Some schools do post w-s jobs online and you can apply that way. </p>
<p>My daughter has had work study for three years. She was fortunate to fine a job she both likes…and that pays well…and has been able to earn most of her yearly allotment each year. As it happens, her job is also a campus job so she can keep it even IF she exceeds her work study allotment. </p>
<p>The nice thing about w-s jobs (or any on campus job) is that the employer KNOWS you are a college student and is usually accommodating with regards to things like exam schedules and the like.</p>
<p>1800 is not the maximum, i got a 3.2k award and i’ve heard of people getting over 5k at some colleges.</p>
<p>"I only have to do $1800 a year…lol "</p>
<p>You don’t “have to do” anything.</p>
<p>It’s just an invitation to apply for a federally subsidized job, many of which are on campus, to help pay for your expenses. They include it in the financial aid packages, and there are some benefits to work study jobs over regular jobs, but we take it out of the mix when we’re comparing financial aid packages (assuming that our daughter will work part time and make about 2,300 per year to contribute toward her expenses, regardless of whether it’s work study, or not).</p>
<p>WS income doesn’t get counted in next year’s FAFSA calculations, which can be a plus of the student also works over the summer, and exceeds the student income allowance.</p>
<p>I’ve got one for $4000</p>
<p>$4K sounds like a lot. If you figure 35 weeks at $7 per hour, that’s 16 hours per week, more than some students will want to take on.</p>
<p>^ thats for the year not per semester.</p>
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<p>$1800 is the maximum for the student whose award letter lists “Federal Work Study, $1800.” Your maximum is $3,200; that’s the amount of work study money that’s been allocated to whatever WS job you’ll get.</p>
<p>Yeah-- Icedragon, 4K per year translates to about 16 hours per week, which is a lot for a student. You might not want to assume that you’ll be able to max out on the work study, for planning purposes.</p>
<p>So, if i wanted to i could do just half of it or something like that?</p>
<p>Sure. Or none of it.</p>
<p>But WS is usually a pretty good deal-- often on campus, and very accommodating to students’ schedules. But if you don’t plan on working, don’t plan on those funds as part of your financial planning for college.</p>
<p>Generally, best to accept the WS portion of the package, then work as much as you’re comfortable given your other commitments. No problem if you just work enough hours to get 2K, so long as you weren’t planning on getting 4K.</p>
<p>I was actually planning on doing it anyway, for the experience and something other then school work. Do they pay you or something?</p>
<p>Yes, you are paid for your work. The $4K isn’t deducted from your tuition and does not go to pay school bills. You earn the money by working, and use it for the parts of the COA that don’t go directly to the school: books, transportation, your running-around money, extra food, tissues and toothpaste, and so on.</p>
<p>You need to find, apply for, and get the work study job, just as you do any other job. My understanding is that many schools have a list of work study jobs that you can use to get your search started; this may be on their (internal) website.</p>
<p>can you use WS for personal expenses? or it has to go directly to pay the school?( my D has $2000 WS)</p>
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<p>Depends on the amount per hour. DD earns $12 per hour and uses ALL of her W-S award. She also works full time during school breaks. She has no trouble using the full $4000 allotment.</p>
<p>“can you use WS for personal expenses?”</p>
<p>Yes-- that’s fairly typical- the student works at a work study job on campus (in the library, or at the front desk of the dorm, for example) and makes around 2K per year. That money goes to the student, who can spend it as he chooses. It often is about enough to cover books and miscellaneous expenses.</p>
<p>I’ve got a question, can you do some of your schoolwork while doing the work study jobs? I mean if you sat at the front desk of the dorm and it was a very slow time, would they hold it ageinst you?</p>
<p>Depends on the job, but I’ve read posts from kids who were able to do that. My WS job years ago involved driving a university van, so studying would have been a bad idea. :)</p>
<p>I got a $1,500 work study</p>