I was wanting to get advice and insight on trying to work part-time during college and trying to retain scholarships at the same time. I currently have the Presidential Scholarship and Engineering Leadership Scholarship and will be majoring in Mechanical Engineering. I am coming in with 40 credit hours towards my degree and will start out with 15 credit hours my first semester. I am tempted to work about 15 hours a week (hopefully) at a job that combined with hourly wages and educational reimbursements, I can effectively make $19+/hr on average. Is the part-time gig worth it or is it risky to put those scholarships in jeopardy, especially if work asks for more than 15 hours/week? Any insight will be appreciated!
I told my D not to work her first semester. I wanted her to get settled and give her classes the focus they might need, yanno? Her main “job” was keeping that scholarship. There was no job that could replace it if she lost it.
If you find that your GPA is doing fine and you have plenty of free time, you can always reconsider the job later. That will be safer than overcommitting at the start and having to quit the job and repair your GPA.
I agree with @flatKansas . I told my DS who is starting at UA this Fall in Chem E that his “job” is to do well in school. He was also talking about a part time job and I said the engineering curriculum can be very difficult.
I told him we would revisit the discussion after the first semester. My DS and DD, twins, are both coming in with AP Credit from the Calc BC test and are starting in Calc III. I do not want them getting in over their heads with time commitment.
Many students find that they do better when they’re busy with a part-time job or extracurricular activity. They’re forced to hone their time management skills. You probably know from past experience whether you’re one of those people. I see no harm in working, as long as it’s not a lot of hours and you’re prepared to drop the job if it gets to be too much. If you’re worried about the transition to school, hold off on the job until spring semester.
First, where the heck did you find a job that pays $19+/hr . . . and do they have any more openings?
Second, plenty of kids have work-study as part of their financial aid packages (including Presidential Scholarship kids), and they have to work to make ends meet. And, guess what? They manage just fine. 15 hours/week isn’t that much, and most kids find it a refreshing break from their studies. The one advantage to an on-campus job, though, such as work-study, is flexibility - you can cut back on your hours temporarily when you need to, like when you’re prepping for exams. If you don’t have that flexibility, that could make things difficult.
Thanks everyone for the answers. @dodgersmom my job at Chipotle offers education reimbursement up to $5,250/yr for students who have worked for the company over one year. I found out that even though I have my educational expenses covered by scholarships, I met someone who was able to exploit the company benefit policy with the same scholarship situation in Alabama and got the full $5,250 anyways. Right now I make $10/hr and doing casual math I figured that my “effective” pay rate would be close to $19/hr average if counting the educational reimbursement on top of my base pay.
This is why I am having a huge dilemma. To have a job that gives me $10/hr and $5,250 in “free” money for working there for a year is a tempting offer. However, the only issue is that Chipotle has a tendency to require MORE than 15 hours a week to stay hired…at least in my store and other stores they don’t like you going under 22/week. I’m worried that to chase the $5,250 educational benefit would mean having to work more hours than I can handle. 15 hours is ideal, at least that’s what my pre-med girlfriend with a part-time job recommends to me.
It seems petty I guess to complain about this opportunity since so many people would take this opportunity if they could. On the other hand I don’t want to damage my GPA and jeopardize my scholarships for making some money on the side. Plus the other thing is that since I am a GAP year student it’s been a long time since I have been in a classroom that I don’t know how I will transition with everything and working on top of it.
Sorry for the rambling. Just getting things off my chest.
If you already have the Presidential Scholarship and Engineering Leadership Scholarship at UA you’ll have your tuition covered and most of your books and fees so if I’m reading this correctly there won’t be much in the way of qualified expenses left for Chipotle to reimburse. You might be better off working during the summer for additional money to help cover living expenses.
@AlbionGirl the way UA applies scholarships, the OP should be able to receive the additional funds from Chipotle.
@atomicPACMAN07 the fact that you have done this research and are asking this question makes me think you should be able to work 15 hours per week without issue. There are many students who do not have the choice but to work (and for more than 15 hours) while going through college. I would try it and see how it goes. Best of luck to you.
^ Further to #7 post, YES, the UA scholarship is very flexible in that if you receive funds elsewhere (especially scholarships targeted specifically for tuition only), you can still apply both sources of funding towards your UA bill. For tax purposes, you can apply the outside funds towards your tuition first, and your UA ‘tuition’ scholarship towards others things like fees, football tix, dorm and meal plans. If the sources of both UA scholarship and additional, outside scholarships exceed your UA bill expenses (that would be rare for a FR living on campus with a meal plan, but it could happen), you will receive a refund from UA for anything left over.
Billed expenses are not all qualifying educational expenses, however. You will at the end of each financial year, receive a statement from UA listing all of your qualifying educational expenses (usually only tuition and fees on the UA bill - books do not appear on the UA bill), and this statement is reported to the IRS. It is up to you to figure out if you owe taxes on anything you receive above the UA scholarship(s). I have heard that AL does not tax scholarship ‘income’, but my S never established AL residency, so I am not 100% sure of the tax implications in this instance.
So, the way I see it, atomicPACMAN07 CAN (and should) take advantage of his employer’s tuition reimbursement plan, even if he receives the full-tuition Presidential UA scholarship. And I also agree with beth’s mom in that a busy student will find a way to succeed because they are usually better at time management than a student who has too much idle time.
My guess is that if you’re working at the Chipotle closest to the campus, they’ll be used to accommodating student schedules - and if all you can handle is 15 hrs./wk., they won’t expect you to do any more than that. Give it a try, and see how things go.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I will give it a shot to see if I can can challenge it with my schedule. If it doesn’t work out most important is that I can get out of it if it’s too much to handle
Yes, please do Not forget the tax bill, there are states that not only require you to file taxes but also require you to pay taxes on anything above the tuition/qualified expenses. You also have to file Federal taxes. If you are filing FAFSA you will need all your tax info and your parent’s tax info.
So I just had an in-store interview for a job and the requirements for the job was kinda a turn off…2 long shifts a week (6-7 hours) and 2 short shifts (2-4 hours). That pretty much takes up all my time to do anything besides school and work…I am not sure if the work is worth it. Don’t get me wrong money is good but I am having second doubts now. If it was just 2 days a week I would be happy. 4 days a week is another story…
@atomicPACMAN07, it is very commendable that you want to work, but this does not sound like a good thing in your situation.
I have seen your advice to other posters and you mentioned that you thought you couldn’t afford to go to college, but you got the full tuition scholarship at UA, and now you have this chance to get an engineering degree.
The work hours at Chipotle do not sound compatible with your demanding major and I don’t think it’s worth jeopardizing your studies by taking this job.
You can get an on campus job, something that might let you study in less busy times.
Also as an engineering student you can do coops and earn money that way, correct?
Would Chipotle let you work summers and add all the summers together for the year working there?
Also, yes, all scholarships that exceed tuition, fees and books are taxable income.
Two 6-7 hour shifts per week? NO WAY!!! Sorry, I know the money’s great, but you need more flexibility than that. My son has worked 15 hours/week since he started at UA two years ago - and there have been weeks when it was easy . . . and weeks when he couldn’t work at all. But because it was a campus job, they were willing to accommodate his schedule. And I don’t think he’s ever worked more than five hours a day. So, take your two 7-hour shifts, then add in another two 4-hour shifts, and you may as well drop out of school . . . that’s just too many hours.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I talked with my dad for advice and telling him the situation he was pretty nervous of me losing my scholarships so he said to just avoid working for now. It just seemed to him that they were milking students for hours and not willing to let up on commitment to other things. Plus I have no idea how demanding college is (let alone engineering) so I don’t want to overplay my cards and wound up losing my education in order to work. It’s a nice opportunity don’t get me wrong but it just seems too much to me and that’s why I’ll be turning down the position tomorrow.Thanks everyone for the help
Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb here . . . I agree that you’ve made the right decision, but I also feel that simply declining the job offer isn’t enough. Obviously, it’s your decision, but if I were you, I’d write a letter to Steve Ellis and let him know why you’ve decided to turn down the generous educational benefit offered by the company. To offer a “benefit” that employees can’t actually take advantage of . . . well, it’s possible that it’s a deliberate strategy to save money, but it’s also possible that company management really isn’t aware of how individual stores are preventing student employees from utilizing the benefit. It can’t hurt to write a short letter saying “thanks, but no thanks,” and explaining why.
