Columbia University Student Financial Services

A Student’s FWS Award

An earnings limit is established by the student’s financial aid office for each eligible student.  The student and the employer are responsible for monitoring the student’s earnings.  The FWS Payroll Office will assist in this process by providing bi-weekly reports to the employing department that show each student’s cumulative earnings. The department will also receive a bi-weekly report of students that have $1,000.00 or less remaining of their award to assist in monitoring  earnings.

Once the student’s FWS award limit is reached, the student will not be paid through FWS unless the award is increased by the financial aid office before the payroll due date.

Departmental FWS Allocation

The Office of the Provost places a limit on each department’s use of FWS funds.  Related communications from that office will establish the department’s 100% earnings limit.  The 40% share of FWS earnings paid by the department will be shown on the FAS statement under sub-code 1570.

Departments may choose to monitor the allocations in different ways.  Two possible approaches are:

• To monitor the allocation using FAS statements, compare 40% of the approved FWS allocation with the monthly FWS earnings that are posted against the FAS statements.

• To monitor the allocation using the Office of the Provost’s allocation letters (100% share), compare the allocation with the gross earnings that have been authorized for the FWS students on the timesheets. 

Non-FWS earnings should not appear on the 1570 sub-code.  Students may only be paid through FWS if the department and the student have not exceeded their FWS allocation.