What is the benefit of "work study?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that work study jobs are not assigned/guaranteed and your child still needs to apply and interview for the position. Also, I understand that schools might offer work study to more students than they have jobs available. Plus, the parents still needs to front the money that the student is expected to make from work study. Also, some jobs may not be desirable for a student - i.e. it might be a janitorial position that the student doesn't want. So what is the benefit of work study? How is it different from getting any "non-work study" job on campus? The only positive thing that I heard about "work study" jobs is that they are on-campus jobs that seem to accommodate a student's schedule. Any thoughts?

I have never, ever heard of a work study job being a janitorial position. Only in John Hughes movies from the 80s maybe, but not IRL.

I did work study all 4 years of undergrad at UNC. I worked for the head of a department in basically an admin role and my main point of contact was his executive assistant. A lot of computer work, coordinating meetings, etc. If I didn't have anything to do, they let me study. It was a great opportunity and easy money. I ended up using that department head as a grad school reference. The job was on campus, easy to get to, paid a decent wage, and was a win-win all around. I don't understand why you're spreading misinformation. Why not call the school in question and ASK THEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that work study jobs are not assigned/guaranteed and your child still needs to apply and interview for the position. Also, I understand that schools might offer work study to more students than they have jobs available. Plus, the parents still needs to front the money that the student is expected to make from work study. Also, some jobs may not be desirable for a student - i.e. it might be a janitorial position that the student doesn't want. So what is the benefit of work study? How is it different from getting any "non-work study" job on campus? The only positive thing that I heard about "work study" jobs is that they are on-campus jobs that seem to accommodate a student's schedule. Any thoughts?

I have never, ever heard of a work study job being a janitorial position. Only in John Hughes movies from the 80s maybe, but not IRL.

I did work study all 4 years of undergrad at UNC. I worked for the head of a department in basically an admin role and my main point of contact was his executive assistant. A lot of computer work, coordinating meetings, etc. If I didn't have anything to do, they let me study. It was a great opportunity and easy money. I ended up using that department head as a grad school reference. The job was on campus, easy to get to, paid a decent wage, and was a win-win all around. I don't understand why you're spreading misinformation. Why not call the school in question and ASK THEM.

OP was just asking questions. No need to get so upset. All you need to do is clarify/correct something that you think is incorrect and move in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that work study jobs are not assigned/guaranteed and your child still needs to apply and interview for the position. Also, I understand that schools might offer work study to more students than they have jobs available. Plus, the parents still needs to front the money that the student is expected to make from work study. Also, some jobs may not be desirable for a student - i.e. it might be a janitorial position that the student doesn't want. So what is the benefit of work study? How is it different from getting any "non-work study" job on campus? The only positive thing that I heard about "work study" jobs is that they are on-campus jobs that seem to accommodate a student's schedule. Any thoughts?

I have never, ever heard of a work study job being a janitorial position. Only in John Hughes movies from the 80s maybe, but not IRL.

I did work study all 4 years of undergrad at UNC. I worked for the head of a department in basically an admin role and my main point of contact was his executive assistant. A lot of computer work, coordinating meetings, etc. If I didn't have anything to do, they let me study. It was a great opportunity and easy money. I ended up using that department head as a grad school reference. The job was on campus, easy to get to, paid a decent wage, and was a win-win all around. I don't understand why you're spreading misinformation. Why not call the school in question and ASK THEM.

OP was just asking questions. No need to get so upset. All you need to do is clarify/correct something that you think is incorrect and move in.

I'm not upset. Where would you get that? Hope your day gets better.

[Anonymous]

I mean, the benefit is the money and the fact that it’s very flexible and many of the jobs allow you to do your homework on the job. not sure what you mean by parents advancing money? I got a biweekly paycheck I used for food etc.

[Anonymous]

In my experience work study jobs also tend to pay better than other jobs. Work study is a great opportunity. I filled out the fAFSA in large part in hopes of getting access to work study for my kid. Don’t know that we will, but if he does I hope he takes advantage of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that work study jobs are not assigned/guaranteed and your child still needs to apply and interview for the position. Also, I understand that schools might offer work study to more students than they have jobs available. Plus, the parents still needs to front the money that the student is expected to make from work study. Also, some jobs may not be desirable for a student - i.e. it might be a janitorial position that the student doesn't want. So what is the benefit of work study? How is it different from getting any "non-work study" job on campus? The only positive thing that I heard about "work study" jobs is that they are on-campus jobs that seem to accommodate a student's schedule. Any thoughts?

I have never, ever heard of a work study job being a janitorial position. Only in John Hughes movies from the 80s maybe, but not IRL.

I did work study all 4 years of undergrad at UNC. I worked for the head of a department in basically an admin role and my main point of contact was his executive assistant. A lot of computer work, coordinating meetings, etc. If I didn't have anything to do, they let me study. It was a great opportunity and easy money. I ended up using that department head as a grad school reference. The job was on campus, easy to get to, paid a decent wage, and was a win-win all around. I don't understand why you're spreading misinformation. Why not call the school in question and ASK THEM.

+1 schools have actual janitors. Student don’t perform that work.

[Anonymous]

[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that work study jobs are not assigned/guaranteed and your child still needs to apply and interview for the position. Also, I understand that schools might offer work study to more students than they have jobs available. Plus, the parents still needs to front the money that the student is expected to make from work study. Also, some jobs may not be desirable for a student - i.e. it might be a janitorial position that the student doesn't want. So what is the benefit of work study? How is it different from getting any "non-work study" job on campus? The only positive thing that I heard about "work study" jobs is that they are on-campus jobs that seem to accommodate a student's schedule. Any thoughts?

Some colleges don't offer work-study to high family income students so its not even an option.

Work-study is a form of need based aid. It's offered by the federal government who identifies students who qualify, and then gives money to the colleges so the college can employ those specific students.

Students who don't get work-study, because they have less need than tuition, either because their family has high income, or because merit aid covers their full need, have fewer jobs to choose from on campus.

I wonder if they changed it. We have a HHI of 300K and my DD was offered work study at Syracuse (plus a student loan).

Did you fill out FAFSA? What was your family contribution?

We did fill out the FAFSA. Got nothing except loans my DD could take out - 5k ish or something like that

[Anonymous]

My work study job was in the library reserve room. They kept a copy of all the materials for every class on the shelves, but you could only use them in the room.

I never bought a book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that work study jobs are not assigned/guaranteed and your child still needs to apply and interview for the position. Also, I understand that schools might offer work study to more students than they have jobs available. Plus, the parents still needs to front the money that the student is expected to make from work study. Also, some jobs may not be desirable for a student - i.e. it might be a janitorial position that the student doesn't want. So what is the benefit of work study? How is it different from getting any "non-work study" job on campus? The only positive thing that I heard about "work study" jobs is that they are on-campus jobs that seem to accommodate a student's schedule. Any thoughts?

Some colleges don't offer work-study to high family income students so its not even an option.

Work-study is a form of need based aid. It's offered by the federal government who identifies students who qualify, and then gives money to the colleges so the college can employ those specific students.

Students who don't get work-study, because they have less need than tuition, either because their family has high income, or because merit aid covers their full need, have fewer jobs to choose from on campus.

I wonder if they changed it. We have a HHI of 300K and my DD was offered work study at Syracuse (plus a student loan).

Did you fill out FAFSA? What was your family contribution?

We did fill out the FAFSA. Got nothing except loans my DD could take out - 5k ish or something like that

Federal work-study is a federal financial aid program and sometimes students can flip work-study and loan awards. By that I mean that students who have been awarded loans can sometimes call and ask for part to be awarded as work-study and vice versa.

Schools have different philosophies regarding work study. For example, one of my kids attended a ‘no loan’ college - but they believed all students should work and contribute to their degree so they did award work study to kids on financial aid. Another one of my kids attended Univ of AZ — and back then, they awarded more work study than there were jobs and students in the know went early (hard for us to do out of state) to apply for jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my college, the work-study jobs were always directionally better than the non-work study jobs. They weren’t all great. But they were definitely better.

This is how it was a my college. If you weren't work study the only jobs seemed to be food service or campus store

They’re not all amazing resume builders. My freshman year roommate’s work-study job was food service.

Even work-study jobs that do not sound amazing like Facilities Assistant can show positives. Like the ability to reliably and responsibly working on your own without supervision.

[Anonymous]

Work study jobs is about not giving free money to poor students who need to learn the value of a dollar. It’s just like work is tied to any other entitlement program.

Obviously, a student studying engineering needs to clean toilets in a part time job so she doesn’t graduate as a lazy freeloader. The rules are different for poor people.