Work-study confusion, how does it work?

The purpose of work study is to give you money to cover housing, food and personal expenses. It is not designed to cover all of this, plus tuition. If you have good enough grades, you may be able to get a scholarship or bursaries to help pay for tuition fees.

Don't you have other sources of financial aid? Grants, scholarships, loans?

Work study is just one of the types of federal financial aid. When you do the FAFSA there is a question if you want work study. You can say yes but if you change your mind later you can. So when you do your FAFSA, you would list if you want federal work study. You also list on there the colleges you might attend. Your answers on your FAFSA will be put into a formula they use which will determine you/your family's financial strength. The result of this formula is your EFC. This will be put into a report called SAR, student aid report. It will be sent to all the colleges you listed on the FAFSA. Only those colleges that you listed on the FAFSA that you applied to and want to offer you acceptance will even look at the SAR. Those colleges will then using your EFC create a financial aid award for you based on the funds available (file early to maximize your award). Here is a sample award: http://www.triptocollege.org/paying_colleges/figure_out/sample_letters.cfm You look over the award and accept and deny which ones you want. For example my daughter was offered grants, student loans and federal work study. She denied some of the loans because in her financial aid budget or cost of attendance they had budgeted for 3000 for travel expenses. Well we live 45 minutes from the university so she will not need any money to get to and from college like there and back and also during breaks and we can afford her gas. So we denied 3000 loan. So if you notice the FWS was 750.00 per semester. So if you accept this. You will not get the money upfront. You need to earn this money. The college will have a job listing of FWS jobs. You pick ones you want to interview for. If you get the job you will make at least minimum wage, they work around your schedule and its not too many hours to interrupt your studies. Once you earn 750 during that semester the job ends and you do the same thing for the second semester, work until you earn 750. You will get paid at least monthly. You can do whatever you want with that money. Note, any federal aid loans and grants you accept will usually get deposited into your college account on the scheduled disbursement date (ask your fin aid office when yours is) and it is usually by semester, so half of your aid at a time. The college will charge your account for tuition, fees, housing (if you are dorming) and meal plan (if required and/or if you chose this). When the grants and loans get deposited they will take out that money for those charges. Any left over will be refunded to you to buy books, etc. If the federal aid loans and grants, scholarships are not enough to pay the charges to your account, then you need to put money into the account and pay for books etc by yourself. So you can use the FWS money however you want and need to use it. If you dont want to do work study you can get a job near the college. That is what my daughter did. She had signed up for work study but then denied it and decided to get her own job. You can make 6000 at your own job before it effects your federal aid http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/student_guide/index.html http://bellarminearc.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/file-your-fafsa-early-this-year-and-heres-why/.

The purpose of work study is to give you money to cover housing, food and personal expenses. It is not designed to cover all of this, plus tuition. If you have good enough grades, you may be able to get a scholarship or bursaries to help pay for tuition fees.

Don't you have other sources of financial aid? Grants, scholarships, loans?

You can't put work-study funds towards your tuition. It's meant for students to earn extra spending money during the school year. The jobs are easy and flexible- your supervisors will understand you're a student and will work around your schedule, unlike most jobs. Let's say you're awarded $5000 in work-study for the school year. You'll get a job on campus and each week your paycheck will come out of that $5000- you'll just keep working until you use up the $5000 or you reach the end of the school year, whichever comes first. If you don't work enough hours to earn the whole amount, you lose whatever's left over. If you work so many hours that you earn $5000 before the end of the school year, you can't work any more. Then you start up again in the fall with a new pile of work-study funds. The only financial aid you can put towards your tuition are grants, scholarships, and loans. If you qualify for work-study you'll most likely qualify for a Pell grant (maximum $5,500 a year). Pretty much everyone gets Stafford loans.

Work study is just one of the types of federal financial aid. When you do the FAFSA there is a question if you want work study. You can say yes but if you change your mind later you can. So when you do your FAFSA, you would list if you want federal work study. You also list on there the colleges you might attend. Your answers on your FAFSA will be put into a formula they use which will determine you/your family's financial strength. The result of this formula is your EFC. This will be put into a report called SAR, student aid report. It will be sent to all the colleges you listed on the FAFSA. Only those colleges that you listed on the FAFSA that you applied to and want to offer you acceptance will even look at the SAR. Those colleges will then using your EFC create a financial aid award for you based on the funds available (file early to maximize your award). Here is a sample award: http://www.triptocollege.org/paying_colleges/figure_out/sample_letters.cfm You look over the award and accept and deny which ones you want. For example my daughter was offered grants, student loans and federal work study. She denied some of the loans because in her financial aid budget or cost of attendance they had budgeted for 3000 for travel expenses. Well we live 45 minutes from the university so she will not need any money to get to and from college like there and back and also during breaks and we can afford her gas. So we denied 3000 loan. So if you notice the FWS was 750.00 per semester. So if you accept this. You will not get the money upfront. You need to earn this money. The college will have a job listing of FWS jobs. You pick ones you want to interview for. If you get the job you will make at least minimum wage, they work around your schedule and its not too many hours to interrupt your studies. Once you earn 750 during that semester the job ends and you do the same thing for the second semester, work until you earn 750. You will get paid at least monthly. You can do whatever you want with that money. Note, any federal aid loans and grants you accept will usually get deposited into your college account on the scheduled disbursement date (ask your fin aid office when yours is) and it is usually by semester, so half of your aid at a time. The college will charge your account for tuition, fees, housing (if you are dorming) and meal plan (if required and/or if you chose this). When the grants and loans get deposited they will take out that money for those charges. Any left over will be refunded to you to buy books, etc. If the federal aid loans and grants, scholarships are not enough to pay the charges to your account, then you need to put money into the account and pay for books etc by yourself. So you can use the FWS money however you want and need to use it. If you dont want to do work study you can get a job near the college. That is what my daughter did. She had signed up for work study but then denied it and decided to get her own job. You can make 6000 at your own job before it effects your federal aid http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/student_guide/index.html http://bellarminearc.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/file-your-fafsa-early-this-year-and-heres-why/.