Barnard vs. Wellesley and Smith

calmom
Sun, 27 Mar 2011 22:38:40 +0000

Is Smith’s STRIDE the best work-study you could get?

STRIDE is NOT “work-study” – it is a paid research position, which is pretty cool – but “work-study” is a program for financial aid recipients that provides a paying on-campus job. That job can also be a research position (depending on how broadly you define “research”), but it is far more likely to be something else, especially during your first year.

Barnard students are eligible to take work-study jobs at Columbia as well as Barnard; the Columbia positions tend to pay a little more.

My d. also did a little bit of work via Barnard Babysitting and a whole lot of work through Barnard Bartending. (lots of work, excellent pay, occasional good tips, free food, free food leftovers, and every once in a while an inside view of a really awesome party).

If you are not eligible for work study (the financial aid kind) – then Barnard wouldn’t offer you anything comparable to STRIDE. There are campus jobs available for non work-study students, but they are harder to come by and usually the work-study students have preference. It’s a funding thing – work-study money is a federally funded program – I believe that the government pays a certain percentage of the hourly salary.

If you are receiving financial aid, then you could expect a work-study grant – but you would have to find the job and work to earn it on an hourly basis. Sometimes, depending on the job and the student’s schedule, it can be hard to find the time to work all the hours needed to earn the full grant amount. I think the Smith STRIDE money is in the form of a stipend, which means it is probably paid out as a lump sum.