When schools include work study awards in their packages, are they under any obligation to make sure that there are enough hours available for the students to actually earn that money? There is a discussion going on at the parent FB page for D’s LAC. It looks like it is very difficult for many students to actually get enough WS hours to reach the amount the school “awarded.” The jobs just aren’t there. My D was not awarded work study, but we assumed she would be able to pick up work for spending money; from her perspective the jobs all go to WS students (who have priority as they should) but it sounds like a significant number of those students can’t get the hours they need. It is a fairly rural location, so off campus work is limited as well. Have others had this experience?
Schools award WS dollars that are allotted to them from the federal government. You’d think that the school would make sure there are enough jobs to use up that money. Maybe some students don’t want to do the jobs that are designated WS? Cafeteria, lab assistant, grounds keepers?
It is the student’s responsibility to apply for and get hired for a work study job. It’s like any other job, except the money is provided by the federal government to the schools for federal work study. Some schools also have their own work study monies.
If a student doesn’t find a job…that is not the fault of the college.
My kid worked a job that was work study for some students…she worked in the call center. It was NOT a glamorous job by any measure or means…making calls soliciting money. And the hours were not terrific either. But it was an on campus job…and that’s what she wanted.
She knew kids who said they couldn’t find WS jobs…and she says…that was garbage. The just didn’t want to work in the cafe or call center.
This college requires first year WS students to start working in the Dining Halls. According to an article in the student paper, WS recipients line up physically to sign up for one shift, then go to the back of the line to pick another shift and so on. There are not enough shifts so some students only get one shift which can be as little as one to three hours per week. All of the students quoted in the article were first years, so it’s possible that more jobs are available for upper class students (but, anecdotally, those jobs seem to be very scarce as well.)
@thumper1 , I guess, but if they award 80,000 hours of work study to first years and there are only 40,000 hours of dining hall shifts available, I don’t see how you can blame the students who are required to work in the dining halls before they can apply for any other jobs. It may be that the students are being too careful about following the rules? Maybe they could skip straight to lab jobs and no one would stop them? And maybe more lab jobs exist? The article, and the parent discussion imply that it is a problem.
I’m wondering how common this is for small rural LACs and if the school could be expected to change something about their financial aid process.
But if the government is paying, why wouldn’t the schools make more jobs? The chemistry prof gets a student to clean the lab, the history department gets someone to answer the phone, every library book is sorted and re-shelved by a student. It’s free money for the school and the school wants to get the students jobs. As we all know with government budgets, use it or you won’t get it next year.
My daughter ‘couldn’t find a job’ last fall and didn’t use her WS award. That was her fault. There were jobs working the football games or working food service. She didn’t want those jobs and never applied. There were other jobs she could have followed up on. I was really mad at her and I’ve made it clear that next year she has to have a job before school starts or she’ll take one she doesn’t want.
I’m wondering if the issue is the “you must work in the dining hall before you can get another job” rule? It sounds like there are students who would be happy to have more hours there, but can’t get them. Is that normal? It seems like an artificial bottleneck to me.
We had this problem. DD got a great job but at the end of the day there wasn’t enough work. The department just miscalculated the hours needed. Also she was not allow to take another WS job since she was committed to this one. Personally, I feel they should have released her but it probably didn’t matter since by that time most of the WS jobs were full. This is way, I often post that WS is not always a sure thing.
If it was me, I would call the school or have my D call the school and just ask things like
“Is it correct that all freshman WS students have to start out in the dining hall?”
“If I can’t get enough hours in the dining hall, can I add a second WS job?”
There does not seem to be this problem at my D’s rather small LAC. I’m not even sure they use WS students in the dining hall. They have an online job board with quite a few jobs. I was on my D’s case to get a job lined up before arriving on campus, which she didn’t do, and then I felt she was way too lackadaisical in submitting applications, but after a few weeks she landed a very nice job in the school store.
They like her work & work ethics so she gets invited to work special events and extra hours that don’t seem to be offered to others. She was worried about doing WS her first year and initially signed up for only 5 hours a week but they made a mistake so right away it was more like 6 or 7 hrs plus special events. This term I think she’s closer to 10 hours a week plua occasional extra shifts (always optional).
It’s in the building next to her dorm, so couldn’t be more convenient. There have been more interesting jobs open in other areas and when I suggest she check them out, I get “Ooooh I’d have to walk all the way across campus…”
The pay rate at her school is pathetic, however, much less hourly than she made last summer, so I’m not sure she’ll actually earn her whole “award.”
Sometimes kids post here with aid packages that have $4,000 to $5,000 a year of work study. I don’t think that is very realistic, especially at a small rural school. Normal awards if you work 10 hrs a week and get $8-$10 an hour would be closer to $2,000-$3,000 a year.
Also, students often consider work study to be part of grant aid, that they will get that amount. But it is a maximum amount, the actual amount is limited by the jobs available and hours worked. Some schools limit the hours one can work as well.
And since work study is not a big amount it should not be considered as a sure contributor to the college budget, rather used for student’s personal expenses during the semester.
No, I don’t think so. Each department only gets x number of dollars. There’s no way of knowing which kids will apply for their jobs and I’d hate to see kids turned down for a job they want because the office doesn’t have enough hours to max out their WS dollars.
My son qualified for a few hundred dollars of WS his first semester at a state school, but they didn’t have enough to offer him any until the 2nd semester. He had to research jobs and apply. The hours are spread out among the students hired for the department, and the offices are open for a limited number of hours each day. If a student’s class times conflict with most of the available hours, there’s not much the department can do.
I don’t know if students can take more than one work study job. My son uses his WS job for spending money. Students who need more may need to look for an additional job either on or off campus. If none are available, they may have to work more in the summer or choose a less expensive school.
I know it’s in a rural area, but are there any off-campus WS jobs? I worked both of my WS jobs off campus- one at a local elementary school and the other at an IPV shelter.
But no, I don’t really think it’s the school’s job. I think it’s their job to make sure they have the funds available but beyond that, nope.
I can see this, but if a school requires all first years to work in the Dining Hall before they can apply for other WS positions, shouldn’t they either limit the number of first year awards to reflect the available hours or tell the students that they are free to apply for other positions? The number of hours available in the Dining Halls must be very well defined (unlike lab or admin jobs.)
I’m getting the impression that this is a very strange standard and that is why no one here seems to be addressing it directly.
Are we talking about work study or federal work study? While the terms are used interchangeably there is a difference between the two. It is federal work study that is subsidized. For example if a FWS job pays $9.00 or whatever the minimum wage is where you live, $2-3 is being paid by the school and the balance is being paid by the federal govt. to give a student $3-4000 in FWS IMO is crazy because unless the school has very few Pelli eligible or otherwise low income students you are using your limited budget on a few students where you can give $1500-2000 FWS awards and service twice as many students. I think on the school’s part it may be easier to allocate the FWS funds to food service because they always need the help and can employ students outside of the regular 9-5/ Monday- Friday shift.
All other work study positions are usually funded by the department. Unless a department is pulling in major grant money to support the hiring of students ( this is probably more likely at we’ll funded research Universities), I don’t see how a student is going to make their w/s allocation. Yes some of the Ivies and schools with deep pockets may be paying w/s students more per hour, but that is the exception not the rule.
The responsibility for work study falls with the student. Just like you will tell them junio/senior year of college it is a job getting a job. They are responsible for being on their grind looking up jobs crafting resumes and applying. My D had her work study jobs lined up before she got on campus because her school posted and she applied in the summer. She worked for alumni relation, the study abroad office , at an after school reading program, at a lab and was an RA
This is why I advise my students to get some sort of part time job/ internship and build work experience while in high school. Because you are applying for jobs. The more experience you have the better shot you have at getting a job. If all of the jobs are in food service the kid who has that Mickey D’s / fast food /retail job will most likely get the job and more hours because
They will have a shorter learning curve. The kid who had the office aid internship during their free periods will build skills to get a clerical position in one if the departments. The kid who brings other kids together, peer counsels/mentors organizes activities has a better shot at getting the RA position.
Re: work study. Best to think of it as a job where the student earns their spending money. The more they can work…the more they can spend. Just like any other job.
Different schools do it different ways. At D2 large school, you had to check job postings and apply for jobs. At D1 small LAC, you filled out a form with top 3 choices from a list and they placed you in a job - so that if you had WS and wanted to work you had a job. Probably not practical for larger schools.
Now a friend has son at small LAC where you have to apply. Now 2nd semester sophomore and has been applying for jobs since he got there. Gets interviews but no position. School in middle of nowhere so no other work opportunities in community. There’s no way he’s not qualified for the jobs he’s applying for (shelving books?) so they must have more students with WS than jobs which for parents that count on that money for some of kids expenses, seems like a bait and switch.
@sybbie719 , thank you for joining in. I don’t know if the issue is with FWS or college provided WS, I will check. My D doesn’t qualify for WS so I am watching this unfold from two steps away.
I agree with the multiple posters above who say it is up to the student to look for the jobs and apply. My point (and few people seem to be hearing me) is that IF there are not any where near enough jobs for all of the students who have been “awarded” WS as part of their FA package, does the school bear some responsibility to address this? I gave a very concrete example above.
This particular school seems to tell students that they will be able to earn their spending (or travel or even tuition) money as long as they are willing to work for it and some students are trying very hard to do that, but the shifts simply do not exist. The students apply diligently for posted positions but they have already been filled. It’s not a matter (from what I understand) of students being picky or not checking the listings often enough. There are not enough hours on campus for the students who have been “awarded” WS to come any where near earning those “awards.” It seems to me that a FA office is responsible to do a little bit of math and to find out if the award dollars connected to the students coming in bear any resemblance to the number of hours the employment office will advertise. Am I wrong?
I totally understand that some students will be lame and will not get a job. I also understand that departments might not get around to spending their FWS dollars. My point is that if truly diligent, responsible, poor students who have been “awarded” $2K a year in work study apply for every position they can see advertised and get no response, is some professional standard being violated? Or is that just fine and the students shouldn’t have been tricked into thinking they could count on WS?
This isn’t about your kid??
@thumper1 Nope. I am trying to be of service to students at my D’s LAC who were counting on work study. I said that in the original post (interesting how many people assume that every parent is only interested in their own kid.)
Hmmm. It sounds like this information is then second or third hand. The kids are telling their parents who are voicing concerns on the FB page.
That’s a lot of layers.
I didn’t want to work in the dining hall when o was in college either. But I did.
I have to wonder…are some of these student just disgruntled because the dining hall is the first stop for WS at this school?
The next thing I would want to know…so how many of those dining hall workers then find great jobs in subsequent years.
I would like to know some of those things as well. But there is no way for either of us to know. That is why I am soliciting other families’ experiences here.
Why don’t you judge based on something more than what I have shared?
I’ll note that the article seems to focus on first years, but that is what I have tried to focus on here as well. And yes, I recognize that stories are not data.