FEDERAL WORK STUDY LOANS
The Federal Work Study Program (FWS) is an employment program that requires students to earn their award amount through work. Funds are limited and awarded on a first come, first serve basis each academic year. The FWS program is a way for students to gain work experience while earning money to help pay educational expenses. Since FWS is a federal program, income from FWS will not affect student’s financial aid eligibility for the next academic year. In other words, earnings are not considered when calculating financial need for the following academic year.
FWS reduces federal need and affects the cost of attendance for the current academic year. For this reason, a student must demonstrate financial need and have room within their cost of attendance budget in order to be eligible. Once the FWS award is accepted, it affects a student’s eligibility to request additional loan funds later in the academic year. See the example below for an illustration of how this works.
FWS is not a loan and all recipients’ wages are paid and taxed as a regular job. The U.S. Department of Education allocates the funds to the school. FWS students receive their paychecks every two weeks based on the number of hours worked and their hourly rate of pay. The student’s employment ends after he/she earns the full FWS award unless the IIT department offers to pay the student’s wages from the department's budget account.
Students are eligible to work in FWS jobs at the law school and any other IIT school/department that has been allocated FWS funding. FWS employment opportunities at the law school will be published in the Record; FWS employment on IIT’s main campus will be published on the Career Management Center's (CMC) website at: www.cmc.iit.edu and students can inquire at the Stuart School of Business by emailing careers@stuart.iit.edu.
Example
| Your Cost of Attendance Budget |
| LESS: |
| Expected Family Contribution |
| Scholarship |
| Subsidized Stafford Loan |
| Unsubsidized Stafford Loan |
| Graduate Plus Loan |
| Current Remaining Financial Aid Eligibility (without work-study) |
| Work Study Amount Offered |
| Remaining Financial Aid Eligibility with Work Study |
|
| $51,366 |
|
| $2,678 |
| $2,500 |
| $8,500 |
| $12,000 |
| $20,000 |
| $5,688 |
| $3,000 |
| $2,688* |
|
*In this example, if the student needs additional loan funds during the academic year, he/she is only eligible to increase the Federal Graduate Plus loan by $2,688. If the Federal Work Study award were not offered, the student would be eligible for an increase of up to $5,688.
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