When a college asks an incoming freshman to pay $2,500, and specify it’s to be from student work, does that mean that the student pays for the college BEFORE entering or WHILE he’s there working? If the latter, does that mean the student pays at the end of the first semester, first year, or is there kind of a flexible pay plan?
Are you sure that they’re not offering you a salary of $2500 for a work-study job?
No. It’s just that the college I have been admitted into meets 100% of need, and thus I am offered to pay $2,500 due to my financial situation.
The way I read it, the college expects you to earn and save $2500 from a typical teen job and use that money to pay your college bill, or what is left of your college bill after grants, scholarships, loans and what not. You get a bill each semester and you pay it then. It might be split on the bill between the two semesters. Of if it isn’t on the bill, the school expects you to use approximately this amount to pay toward the rest of the non-billed COA expenses.
MIT, for example, might list $2500 for work study and they guarantee that the student will be given lab opportunities that pay them (UROPS) that amount. So they earn that while at the school. They get a pay check which they can use for tuition, room and board or books and such.