Federal Work Study

There’s A LOT of confusion around student work study awards. Let’s talk about it.

A Federal Work Study award is awarded to you by filling out the FAFSA and is a way to make you more attractive when you’re applying for campus jobs as a student. Because the federal government will cover part of your pay rather than the university having to use their funds, you become low-cost or free labor for the office that hires you. What this means for you, is you only get the money you were awarded IF you get a job on campus. If you choose not to work while in school, then you will not get access to the funds awarded to you via federal work study.

Let’s break it down.

Let’s pretend you have a $1,000/semester work study award and you get hired to work for $10/hour as a campus tour guide. Your employer will use your award in 1 of 2 ways.

Option 1: They don’t have any of their own budget for workers, they will allow you to work 100 hours/semester. You earn $1,000 (aka get your award amount) and they get 100 hours of free help (aka they don’t have to use any money from their own budget to pay you).

Option 2: They have a $2,000 budget of their own money they can use for a student worker. You have a $1,000 work study award. You work 300 hours and get paid $3,000 and they get 100 hours ($1,000) of free help.

You will still get a normal paycheck that you can use however you’d like and your employer gets help they don’t have to pay for (because the government is paying for it) a win-win for you and your employer.

That’s all for now, folks! Talk soon.

-Veronica