Federal Work-Study from start to finish

Where the money sits

Congress funds Federal Work-Study, but each participating college receives its own yearly allocation and decides who gets a share. The aid office offers it to students with financial need, based on the FAFSA, and the amount it lists is the most you can earn under the program that year.

Because the college's budget is limited, offers often go to students whose FAFSA arrived early. Some colleges do not take part at all, and others offer only a few positions, so ask the aid office how its own program works before you count on it.

From the award to a job

An award on your offer does not come with a job attached at most colleges. You look for a position through the student employment or career office, which posts openings in libraries, labs, offices and dining halls, and sometimes with nonprofit and public agencies off campus that work with the college.

Many colleges also place work-study students in community service jobs, such as tutoring children in local schools. The employer interviews you and sets a schedule around your classes, and the aid office or the employer may cap your weekly hours.

How the pay arrives

Work-study pays only for hours you actually work, at an hourly rate no lower than the federal minimum wage. The money comes as a regular paycheck, by direct deposit or check, and it is not taken off your tuition bill automatically.

You decide whether that money goes to the bill, to rent or to groceries. If you reach your yearly earnings limit, the work-study funding stops, and any further hours depend on whether the employer can pay you from another source.

What happens at tax time and on the next FAFSA

Your wages count as taxable income, and the employer sends a W-2 at the start of the following year. The FAFSA you file later asks for the amount you earned through need-based work programs, and that amount is left out of the income used to work out your aid.

Keep your final pay stub or the W-2 so you can enter the right figure. Work-study is not renewed on its own, so the college looks at your new FAFSA each year before offering it again.