How do colleges calculate if you qualify for work study? P..

Hi,

Hopefully someone out there can help me answer this question, as I
really need to find out if I will qualify for work study or not soon.
The answer could change my life.

I was wondering if anyone know, SPECIFICALLY, how colleges calculate
if a student will qualify for any work study hours or receive none.

-Yugo

Yugo River wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Hopefully someone out there can help me answer this question, as I
> really need to find out if I will qualify for work study or not soon.
> The answer could change my life.
>
> I was wondering if anyone know, SPECIFICALLY, how colleges calculate
> if a student will qualify for any work study hours or receive none.
>
> -Yugo

First you have to qualify for financial aid in general, then the college
decides what financial aid you will receive, possibly including work-study.

You start by filing a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Aid). Based on
the information provided, an EFC (Expected Family Contribution) is
calculated and reported to you and the college on a Student Aid Report.

If that EFC is less than the total cost of attendance, you have "need",
or eligibility for aid. The difference between the cost of attendance
and your EFC is your maximum need. If you have no need, there will be no
need-based aid.

If the cost of attendance was say $23,000 and your EFC is $10,000, then
you are eligible for up to $13,000 in aid. The college will decide how
much of that aid they will actually fill, and what resources they will
tap for you. The better the student, the more they are likely to fill up
to your full need.

Your aid, however much it may be, can be in the form of gift-aid
(scholarships, grants, awards), loans, or work-study.

The financial aid office decides how much and from which categories you
will receive aid. Work-study is an allotment to the school from the
government, and each school has it's own method of deciding who will get
a piece of it.

So if you qualify for aid you might receive work-study, but the only way
you'll know if you are actually getting work-study (or any other type of
aid) is when the college tells you so - after you have both been
accepted and filed your FAFSA. If you are entering as a new student for
Fall 2004 you should have already heard.

If you are a continuing student you will either have heard already or
should within the next month or so.

I'm trying to picture how work-study will change your life. Work-study
is good to get, but if you mean that you need it to pay for the coming
tuition bill, then you better be aware that it won't. Gift aid and loans
are credited against your bill and reduce what you have to pay up front.

But work-study is only paid to you as you work throughout the school
year. If you got work-study of say $1,000 per semester, and it was the
only aid you got, you've still got to pay the tuition in full for the
coming semester. The money you get paid as you work during the semester
will either help pay other expenses, or can be saved to use against the
second semester bill.

--
Steven B. Blank
College Financial Aid Consultants
29 Ives Hill Court
Cheshire, CT 06410
(203)250-7761