You can be doing anything from working in your dining hall to researching (or more accurately researching = washing test tubes), and some of the jobs can look great on resumes or bring you into contact with people in your department/field of interest. Another pro is that they are very flexible. You can pretty much get away with lots of laziness that wouldn’t be allowed at a normal job.

However, if you are interested in medicine, are in a really accelerated program, or are a student with poor time management skills, work study is probably not for you. It’s for students who manage their time better or have more time to devote to non-schoolwork related things without harming their GPA.

The purpose of work-study is to earn money while working, but also being able to study when you have “down time” on the job. Students should try to get a job within their department or major area of interest to help boost the resume.

It is definately worth it – you can work around your class schedule.

Good luck.

It is usually included in a financial aid package and is a good alternative to taking out another few thousand dollars in loans. The only time it might be a bad idea is if you can get a better-paying job elsewhere (work-study doesn’t pay a huge amount; at my grad school right now it is $12.25 per hour, I think it is less for college).

Also, if you accept work study as part of your financial aid package and then later decide you don’t want to work for whatever reason, notify your financial aid office so they can recalculate your aid package (and probably will offer you more in loans to cover the difference).