well that is true … a more complete version might be … So in reality: My cost of attendance is the same, but my aid is lower, my outside scholarship is higher, and my out-of-pocket expense is exactly the same. </p>
<p>PS - If at the end of the day the total any money designated for you (loans, grants, outside scholarships) that is paid to the bursar actually is greater than your bursar’s bill you can receive a check for the balance … to be used for expenses like books, travel to and from school etc … this is quite likely to happen if you live off campus and your room and board charges are not part of your bursar bill.</p>
<p>One point I don’t believe has been mentioned is that it is highly unlikely that your outside scholarship will be applied all at once. It will likely be split evenly over both semesters, even if the award is sent in a single check to the school. A $4500 scholarship will show up as a $2250 credit on your fall tuition bill and another $2250 on your spring tuition bill.</p>
<p>^^standrews - I don’t believe that is always true. My son’s scholarships were sent by single check from the granting organization and arrived and were credited to the account one time per year The school did not “hold” 50% of check amount in their pocket for disbursement later. I CAN see if the scholarship is merit or institutional aid from the college and they choose to disburse the money in two payments. Other people/organizational checks…not sure that’s kosher to split them like that or hold back a percentage, but in this day and age of fancy accounting perhaps there are colleges that would do just that. I found your comment interesting.</p>
<p>My kid’s outside scholarships are split into two semesters, even though the (public) school receives it all at once, before the first bill is due! Not sure why this is, I suppose we could request it be applied to a single semester…</p>
<p>Same with my son’s outside scholarship. It is sent to the school before the start of the first semester, but is split up equally between the two semesters.</p>
<p>Let me explain what work study is. The government can give you a grant of $4000. Instead of that what the offer is workstudy. What that means is that you go to the coffee shop on campus (or the library, the physics department or whatever …) and ask for a job. Let us say the Coffee Shop offers $10 an hour (being simplistic). What the government (through the FA office) tells the Coffee Shop owner is, “Please higher Jo for 400 hours over 1 year and you pay him $4000 for 100 hours, we will give you $3000 and you have to pay only $1000 out of your pocket”. So instead of giving the money to you, they are giving it to an employer to employ you and get you to earn some money. This is very advantageous to the employer, they have to pay only 25%. But the government limits how much you can earn through work study, a maximum of of say $4000. If you work 410 hours, the employer has to pay for the 10 hours fully himself. The government will not subsidize him beyond that amount, so the employer may not want you to work for more than 400 hours but instead get another work study student. </p>
<p>So work study means you have to work for it, and the government makes it easier for you to get a job as the employer pays only a small amount of your wages. In your case, the scholarship pays for your need and you do not have to do work study. So you do not have to work for the amount of the scholarship. As mom2collegekids says, why would you want to turn down free money and work instead when you can be studying, which is your primary purpose of going to college.</p>
<p>Now you may have some questions about work study and let me answer them in anticipation.</p>
<p>[ol]
[<em>] why cannot I get work study in this case also? The reason is simple, the scholarship has meet your demonstrated need. What you are asking for is $4000 more, of which the government (taxpayers) have to pay $3000. This the government will not pay as you do not need that subsidy from the government.
[</em>] Can I still get a job on campus, if I don’t have work study? Yes you can but you may not be as attractive as another student who has work study. That said, there may not be enough work study candidates, so the employer is forced to take you and pay the wage himself. You can also get a job off campus. So if the McDonalds on campus does not hire you, you can go to the Burger King on the other side of the road and get a job.
[li] Does having a job affect my FA next yer (either on campus or off campus)? It could, if you earn that money, you have to report it on FAFSA and CSS and especially if you have saved some of the money, it could count against you slightly next yers.[/li][/ol]</p>
<p>Again this is a simplistic explanation of why you should take the scholarship and not the work study but I think it explains the point.</p>
<p>Also, to add to my previous posting, The work study money may go to another student, the school does not keep it. Work Study is a federal grant, it comes from the tax payer and so if it is not used, tax payers do not get charged. It is not as if the school is taking your work study money and using it themselves. Be glad that you did not have to work for money. Many students would be grateful to get a scholarship that will make work study unnecessary.</p>
<p>Just because you got a work study award does not necessarily mean you will find a job that fits your schedule and hours. I have seen a number of cases where kids could not get the hours to use their work study. In many cases, it is easier to find a non work study job instead.</p>
<p>All ws awards do is make you eligible for whatever is left on the list when you get to it. You still have to get the job, work the job and fit it into your schedule. </p>
<p>Work study is a pool of money the federal government gives a school. The pool is finite. Unfortunately, because schools do not know who will attend, who will accept work study if offered, who will actually find a work study job, or how much the student will actually earn through work study (can’t be more than offered, but could be less) … it is a real balancing act to award work study funding. Schools award more than the pool they have been given by the feds! Sometimes they end up with unused work study funding at the end of the year, but they don’t get the money until it is spent, so they don’t actually have to “return” anything. However, if they don’t use all the pool of funding, it is possible that the pool may be smaller next year as a result. But if they spend MORE than their allotted funding, the school has to pay the difference to the student. So you see … it’s an art, not a science … and reducing a particular student’s work study funding really doesn’t necessarily mean that the school has any more to award to anyone else (although they may find out midyear that they DO have some more they can award).</p>
<p>My sons whose friends had work study had trouble finding the jobs that best fit their allocations and their schedules. A number of them ended up working non work study jobs in the computer dept that paid a lot more. Yes, it goes towards your EFC which work study does not, but getting 3 jobs to add up to 12 hours a week was just too much of a pain, and none of the jobs were what they liked anyways. At my current son’s college, one of the more lucrative positions is being a departmental course tutor, and it is not funded by work study, but a lot of work study kids want it because of the flexibility, pay and stature of the position. At his school the WS positions tend to be shelving library books, checking ids, answering the switch board and most often are in small clumps of time. But I have seen schools that have some great ws job opportunities that are tantamount to an internship with pay. It depends on what you can snag.</p>
<p>My son’s college ran out of work/study money this year. First time that anyone in finaid can remember. My son was bummed because he had planned on it for his walking around money this summer. He found an off campus job, but it’s an interesting situation and speaks to what’s happening in the world these days. Work/study is great and I would never advise someone to turn it down but the onus is on the student to find the job and on the student to figure out how to balance the available hours vs. what is awarded and to remember that the rug can be pulled from under your feet (another real world lesson) and things can change.</p>
<p>We have VERY little work study left to award for summer semester. We usually have a lot more students working in the summer than we do this year … work study was so popular this year that the funding was gone early.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, are those students taking classes over the summer to shorten their time at college? My son contemplated staying at his school, but the problem was that he would not make as much money there and have to pay living expenses which would reduce anything that could be saved.</p>
<p>I work at a college with a lot of commuter students, so living expenses aren’t an issue. And there are NO jobs in our area, so work study jobs are about the best students are going to get!</p>