The work study money is no different than any other ‘to be earned’ money. If the school has covered everything else, you can use the work study money for incidentals, for extras, or not earn it at all. Up to you.
WS is a way to pay for things. You still have to get a job and work the job, but the school is saying “Hey, here is a way for you to earn $1500.”
If the school sends a bill and everything is covered by grants and scholarships (or loans), you don’t have to have any money on day one to pay the school. If the bill isn’t fully covered by grants, scholarship and loans, but WS is part of the award, you have to pay the bill and then earn the WS funds to replenish your savings (to pay next semester?)
If StO comes in with good aid, perhaps none of this discussion matters for OP, but I feel like I should jump in on this issue of retention. Earlham does take a hit in the rankings because of retention. It has for many years.
Just echoing @Midwestmomofboys, this is almost certainly affected by the demographics of the student body. Earlham has long worked to ensure broad socioeconomic representation at the college. Looking at the equality of opportunity data from Raj Chetty and colleagues for the most recent cohort (http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/data/) it’s clear that Earlham has way more students in the bottom two economic quintiles (21%) than StO (6%). Representation of this group at StO is in line with Carleton (8%) and Kenyon (5%) in the Midwest, Eastern LACs like Hamilton (6%), Colgate (5%), and Middlebury (7%), or the Claremonts (6-10% range) on the West coast.
There are multiple challenges these students face that increase the chances they will not finish. One way to boost your retention is to give big scholarships (and thus attract) more advantaged students who are more likely to finish. From the data, it seems that Earlham generally eschews this strategy, and is very good about supporting less advantaged students. Even doing so, they still punch in the same class with these schools in terms of percentage of students who go on to receive the PhD. Sorry for the long post, and my Earlham evangelism.
@microbial40, Earlham is a great school and story, and I am certain that its a great fit for many. That said, it shares many characteristics with Haverford in Pennsylvania (both are very small, both are Quaker, both produce a huge number of PhD’s as a result of some great programs). The issue with these schools, at least in the case of Haverford as we are nearby and know students there, is that one either likes it or they don’t - these types of schools aren’t middle of the road in vibe and so a visit and speaking with students is a must.
A little update, as I have to tread carefully with my daughter and she was feeling overwhelmed. This is not speculation, this is what she said to me.
I called her, she taking it easy today, she’s exhausted after her IOC…I said “let’s do something I think will make you feel better. Let’s narrow your list, take off schools you don’t want to go to, withdraw the applications and acceptances.” I know that most of you disagree with this approach, but this is what needs to happen for her.
I was surprised about who she said to leave on.
St. Olaf
Coe
Earlham
Kenyon
Knox (despite the gap)
Smith
BMC
KSU ( she said this was just in case she changed her mind at the last minute, even though we requested a refund on her deposit.)
Remove
Drake
Truman
Beloit
Drury
She’s thinking about a few others. I don’t know if that gives anyone any insight, but it’s sure curious to me. I didn’t think she was into Kenyon, and I thought BMC and Smith were going to be outside her comfort level. I thought she would take Coe off the list. We had already talked about needing to remove Knox due to cost, but she thinks they might come back with a better offer.
But for us and for her, you have to know her, she was overwhelmed and we needed to take some out of the equation now that we knew we had an affordable option. I couldn’t believe the ones she wanted to stay on.
And again I know everyone is going to say not to eliminate anything but she needed to.
That was a good way to approach it and I could hear the relief in her voice when I said “let’s take some off”.
I don’t know why she talks about distance but she left some of those on there?
She’s overwhelmed. It’s too much. She has to take some off. She needs order. I didn’t want to see Beloit come off either, I would have thought it would be Coe. @OHMomof2 I suppose it could be a mental list…but the email is overwhelming. Again that’s why I’m surprised she left some on that we added last minute.
I wouldn’t take Beloit off either, it has an increasingly impressive reputation. She doesn’t gain anything turning places down before she needs to. Can’t she just ignore the emails, and don’t let her see any snail-mail that comes to the house.
She can unsubscribe from all the marketing email lists without that affecting her app status. Just let them do their thing in the background, at least until you hear from St. O.
@Dancingmom518 and @OHMomof2 but the gap there is going to be large, I’m sure. As with another that she left on the list. But since I know there is no way we’ll be able to swing that gap and she wants to take them off, I’m okay with it. She just had a little bit of a breakdown. She seems to be communicating and articulating her thoughts a little more. She went from relief to tears. I’m going to see if we can work through what she’s feeling. Ultimately I’m going to let her steer the ship. But maybe I can figure out why she choose the schools to keep and why she choose the schools to let go. It’s certainly not geographical…I am perplexed.
“The email is overwhelming” is a ridiculous reason to drop a school that you haven’t even seen the aid package from. If you have the package and it is completely unworkable, that is a different story now that she has an affordable option. But I agree, it should be pretty easy to (1) unsubscribe from the marketing emails (there should be an option at the bottom of the emails), and (2) route the remaining ones into a folder.
Several of the schools on the list have their own “flavor” – she may have sime tough choices if she gets more acceptances. I will say that Smith isn’t a great fit for a kid with OCD tendancies. I’d sub Beloit for it if I were her if the Beloit package is good.
I’ll dissent here and say it’s fine for her to drop some schools and smart of her to keep the state school on the list. Then again, I’m not that familiar with Beloit. Is there a particular reason why she isn’t feeling it there? I will say St O is a very specific type of school, and Earlham is quite small, so maybe it is a good idea to keep a more middle of the road school on the list
Keep in mind, withdrawing the apps does not necessarily stop the emails. My daughter had eleven schools to withdraw apps from when she got into her ED 2 school. Most still sent emails for several weeks after.
I agree – it is hard to read the tea leaves from afar. And the D sounds like she has strong opinions. Some kids can ease in anywhere and make the best of it. Some can’t. (I had one of each, but even the “easy” had schools that seemed good on paper that she did not like upon visiting)
Beloit is pretty special, if you can pull the Mom card to save it I would suggest that too.
But as an alternative to pulling apps would it be possible to just take a little vacation from college talk at your house? You are in a little bit of a lag anyway…great news from Earlham, won’t hear from St. Olaf for a couple of weeks, and others not till mid March. I remember hearing from my own kid that it started feeling like every single conversation with me would eventually turn around to college talk…it’s just like a drumbeat in the background and it’s stressful. For us a small moratorium was helpful. Throwing it out there in case it might be useful for your D too.
Agree that this is the hardest time in the whole process, the waiting time after apps are in. Don’t feel obligated to take action. Distraction is good. It just ramps up the stress to keep taking about it.
Smith is need aware. And also intense. I second what @intparent said. And I will if your D is overwhelmed with this then you should really think about having her closer to home. This is nothing compared to what college will look and feel like. Lots of things to manage besides classes there are roommates, finances, work study etc.