Fema Employment

federal work study vs regular employment? wats good and bad concerning both?

Public Comments

1. If you are under 24, you need to just do work study because you are only allowed to earn right at 3k and any money over 3k can be counted against you when you fill out the FAFSA. If you are over 24, you can do whatever you bloody well please because that is the age (according to the FAFSA rules) where one is considered a total Independent Student.
2. I've never done the work study thing...not yet anyway. So I'll tell you some good and bad about regular employment. Good: - the medical benefits if you're able to keep full-time hours - the real world experience Bad: - if you work full-time during the day, and can only go to school part time in the evenings, it's difficult to get all the classes you need. Some classes never offered at night...or certain classes are spread out over 4 nights, and you can't fit other classes in as a result. For me, it got to be a big issue not being able to get the classes I wanted at night...so my education would end up taking longer to get done. And since the jobs I had weren't offering medical benefits, they weren't worth sacrificing my education for.
3. Work study jobs are usually on campus and they don't pay well. Regular employment will pay better, but it may be harder to keep your work and school schedules from conflicting. I chose work study because there were no regular jobs available near campus (where I lived without a car) and because I was able to get a work study job in my field. Also, they were also willing to employ me after my work study ran out and they actually had to pay me. I have many friends who kept their off campus jobs because they paid much better, and a few friends who did both.
4. Work study doesn't get counted on your Fafsa and when I was doing work study it was tax free (still had to chip in for social security though). Plus your employer will work around your schedual. Not all work study jobs pay poorly either.