TL, DR - I've been given almost $3,000 from Uncle Sam to work at MSU, but MSU is only going to pay me $2,500. If you are in the FWS program please do the math yourself and figure out if they are holding anything back.
I'm in the Federal Work Study program at MSU, and as the year draws to a close I've noticed that these numbers don't add up.
Total Authorized Available: $2,994.25
Total Work Study Earned: $2,001.00
Remaining Work Study Balance: $993.25
Remaining Percentage of Work: 33.17
Total Hours Remaining to Work: 137.0
as of Mar 12, 2010
That's for last pay period, so as of tomorrow it should look like this.
Total Authorized Available: $2,994.25
Total Work Study Earned: $2,145.00
Remaining Work Study Balance: $819.25
Total Hours Remaining to Work: 113
I've been authorized by the Financial Aid Office to work for 12 hours a week, and classes end in 3 weeks, and finals are over in 4, so at most I can work 48 more hours, leaving a total of 65 hours that I won't be able to work. At the end of those 48 hours I will earn $348, only $2,493 of the promised $3,000. That 65, at minimum wage, comes out to $471.25. Of course that still leaves about $30 unaccounted for, but I’m ok with that.
I noticed some discrepancies earlier this year, but I didn't sit down and do the math until today, but I still can't figure out how they are dividing up the money.
If they, the people in the financial aid office, simply divided the award amount ($2,994.25) by the amount of full weeks from the start of school, Aug. 19, to the final Friday of finals week, May 7, (38 weeks)the amount of money per week comes out to $78.95. Again divided by minimum wage (7.25) that comes out to working 10.889 hours a week. Since that is an hour less than what they told me to work then they were expecting some weeks I would not be able to work. So therefore we take out the 3 weeks of winter break (Dec. 19 to Jan. 10) and the 1 week of spring break we are left with 34 weeks, and at $88.07 a week we get 12.15 work hours a week, paid for by Uncle Sam.
But I don't work 12.15, I work 12, and get $87 for it. 87*34=2,958. That's still more than I will currently be getting. I didn't work the first full week of classes (I hadn't found this job yet) but that would still come out to $2,871. Now let’s do all the calculations again but start with $2,871.
Total Authorized Available: $2,871
Total Work Study Earned: $2,145.00
Remaining Work Study Balance: $729
Total Hours Remaining to Work: 100.55
We still have 4 weeks left in the semester, taking another $348, but still leaving $381 unclaimed dollars for 52.55 unworked hours.
I've been told by bosses around campus that they don't have the money to pay students, that they are getting less money from the government to pay students, that they have to have matching funds to pay students, etc. so they are cutting hours. It's a good cost cutting measure, but some students rely on these jobs so they don't have to go out and find ones at WalMart or McD's.
If you are getting FWS funds, sit down with a calculator and double check the numbers available to you on MyGate. If you find something go down to the office and ask them about it. It's probably too late in the semester to do anything, but be sure to check next semester as well, and make sure they don't pull this again.
