Colorado Mesa University offers students four types of work-study funding:
- Federal Work Study
- Colorado Need Based Work Study*
- Colorado No-Need Work Study*
- MAVworks
* State work-study is limited to in state Colorado residents.
These programs provide funding to qualifying students to work to earn an hourly wage through part time employment in a variety of on-campus jobs. Students earning work-study are paid semi-monthly through direct deposit to a personal banking account not their CMU Student Account.
All work-study funds are awarded through the Financial Aid Office.
General Qualifications Work-Study
These are the qualifications that students must meet in order to be awarded all types of work-study funds offered at CMU. MAVworks funds have additional award criteria.
- Complete the FAFSA/CASFA
- Qualifying In-State-ASSET students may complete the CASFA and will need proof of eligibility for US employment
- International students who cannot qualify for Federal or Sate Financial Aid will need proof of eligibility for US employment
- New CMU Students and New Student Employees must also complete the MAVworks Application
- Application opens August 1 and January 1
- Based on eligibility the MAVworks Application awards students all types of work-study
- Awards are offered on a first come first serve basis, as long as funds are available
- Be enrolled in at least 12 credits
- Be meeting Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress
- Not serving as a GA on campus
Additional MAVworks Qualifications
Students must meet general work-study qualifications, listed above, along with:
- Be ineligible to receive a Federal Pell Grant
- Have a GPA of 3.0 or better
- New students will be evaluated based on HS or Transfer GPA
- Not have been awarded State or Federal work-study within the same academic year
2024-2025 Work Study Changes
The redesigned 2024-2025 FAFSA/CASFA no longer asks students, “Are you interested in work-study?” This will means that students can no longer be automatically considered for work-study funding like in previous years. In response, the CMU Financial Aid Office has had to adjust our awarding strategy beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year.
Learn more about these changes and the new process:
To best serve our students and the departments they work for, the Financial Aid Office will be launching a new process to roll over current student employees work-study offers from the 2023-2024 academic year.
Current student employees are:
- Students who have an authorized campus position prior to May 15, 2024 for 2023-2024 academic year
- Not petitioned to graduate May 2024
The Financial Aid Office is aware that Student Assist funding (department funds) is a top priority across departments. To best support students and departments the Financial Aid Office will also be awarding work-study to eligible current student employees who were paid out of Student Assist during the 2023-2024 academic year.
These students must have a completed FAFSA/CASFA on file and meet the eligibility requirements for work-study funding.
Possible, awards will include all types of work-study funds (Federal, State, and MAVworks).
For current student employees to be included in the rollover process we must have their 2024-2025 FASFA/CASFA* completed and submitted to CMU.
- * Current international student employees with MAVworks, who cannot qualify for Federal or Sate Financial Aid will not need to complete a FAFSA/CASFA
Please encourage your student employees to complete their FAFSA/CASFA by April 19th 2024!
New students and first time student employees will need to submit their 2024-2025 FAFSA/CASFA and then apply to the online MAVworks application that will open on August 1st 2024.
- Based on eligibility the MAVworks Application awards students all types of work-study (Federal, State, or MAVworks)
- Awards are offered on a first come first serve basis, as long as funds are available
Student employees can check their work-study award status and amounts in their Financial Aid Offer in MAVzone in the "My Account" tab.
Due to federal regulations supervisors will not have direct access to see this information on behalf of a student.
No, this change only affects the re-award process for fuding through Financial Aid.
Supervisors will still need to complete the Returning Student Employee Worksheet (RSEW) with CMU Payroll to ensure that your student employees' positions is authorized for the 2024-2025 academic year.