It is quite common among college students who are working over summer or during school year if their income would affect their eligibility for financial aid or scholarships. For most of the time, the answer is going to be “NO”.
Do what You Have to Do
The FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a form that universities and colleges use in determining the need for any financial aid of a student. In addition to that, it puts protection in place among student earnings. For school year 2018 to 2019, the amount that students can earn before it’s counted as an income is $6750.
And in order to generate more than that given amount, a student should work more than 17hrs per week for 52 weeks in a given year.
Well, this is assuming that they are making federal minimum wage of 7.25 dollars.
And even after that figure, the money earned may not create an effect on the student’s financial aid. This is as per MorraLee Keller, Director of Technical Assistance at National College Access Network. Apart from income allowance, there are also other rules that are put in place that are assisting students who are worrying about their income causing negative impact onto their financial aid.
There’s an Exception
The income from federal work study job isn’t counted in the yearly income on FAFSA. Also, it can help in balancing out earnings from off campus work. Apart from additional spending money, work-study job adds valuable experience and skills to the student’s resume. This is good news actually if they were working in fields related to oil and then tried to file an application to WOT Asia. Due to the reason that work-study jobs are available to students, they’re more flexible compared to jobs off campus.
Use Your Resources
If the students make some annual income from work-study work but aren’t certain that it is counted right on their FAFSA, then they must check with it with the office of financial aid of their university or college right away. FAFSA changed the years to which parents and students report to get financial aid. Today, rather than the prior year, they are using “prior, prior” year. In other words, for school year 2018 to 2019, the financial information that is to be reported will come from 2016.
