I expect the dropout rate for students who qualify for work study is higher than that for those who don’t, but it’s easy to attribute that to other factors. I don’t think MHC (or other schools this applies to) just hand over $2500 to students who can’t find enough WS hours. I expect the students who stay end up borrowing more money or forego extras like going home for breaks, buying coffee and clothes, getting their hair cut… They also probably give up opportunities over the summer or winter break that would advance their career or educational objectives and just earn as much as they can. And they don’t think about going abroad.
Many of you (us) did that when we were students. Many of our students made trade-offs like that. I’m not complaining about students making sacrifices. The point (and original question) is: do schools bear some responsibility in being honest with students about how easy or difficult it will be for them to earn their work study “awards?”
There may be students at MHC (or another school) who were admitted to Bryn Mawr or Connecticut College or UVA with packages they thought were equivalent to what MHC offered. But if those schools make it easy to earn $2500 and MHC or that other school honestly cannot offer enough hours for all of the admitted students to earn their “awards,” the packages aren’t equal at all.