Entry-level student workers at Yale University can expect to make $3 per hour more and work an average of 3 hours per week less than their counterparts at Brown. Meanwhile, first-years on work-study at Princeton University have no choice in the jobs they receive. Although student employment is a common feature across the Ivy League, the jobs students hold, hours they work and wages they receive vary widely from school to school.
Financial aid packages at most universities and the other Ivies include a "self-help" component that asks students to foot the bill for books, travel and other personal expenses, usually by working. Students are expected to provide $2,300 for the academic year at Brown, $2,500 at Princeton, $3,650 at Harvard University and $4,400 at Yale. Students sometimes fulfill this obligation with additional loans or outside scholarships.
Brown is unique among the Ivies in releasing first-year students on financial aid from any work obligation - a policy that began with the Class of 2006, according to Director of Financial Aid Michael Bartini. Instead, the University awards a "work scholarship" to fulfill the self-help portion of a first-year's financial aid package.
Bartini said President Ruth Simmons pushed hard for the program. "When President Simmons came around, one of her concerns was the transition from high school to college and the ways in which students invest into the academic environment," Bartini said. "By releasing them from the work, we released them from 10-12 hours a week."
The types of on-campus jobs are similar across the Ivy League, although the popularity of certain jobs varies. At Princeton and Brown, for example, dining services is one of the largest employers, while at Harvard, dining services employs no work-study students and few students at all.
"We really abide by the federal guidelines that students' work-study jobs should be meaningful, worthwhile positions for them from an academic perspective," said Harvard Director of Student Employment Marcy Homer. "We've never really felt that dining hall jobs have served them in an academic way."
Students on work-study can also be paid for community service jobs. Federal law now requires that seven percent of federal work-study money be spent to employ students in what are usually considered volunteer jobs. Interested students must apply at the beginning of a semester.
At Brown, such positions include tutoring through programs like English for Action, helping at the Black Repertory Company and researching at local hospitals. Most Ivies have similar programs.
While 43 students at Brown received federal funds for community service last year, 100 were paid for volunteer jobs at Princeton. Yale and Harvard both allot about 20 percent of work-study funds for community service; last year, 410 students were part of the program at Yale.
"I think we are making an impact in the New Haven community because of (our work-study service program), and I think that's something that should continue," said Matthew Long, Yale student employment manager and federal funds coordinator.
Homer said work-study can open doors for students. "I think work-study does make good community service and research jobs more available," she said.
Students typically work an average of eight to nine hours per week across the Ivy League. Brown and Princeton students typically work closer to an average of 10 hours, while Yale students work closer to seven hours per week, according to administrators from the schools.
Wages also differ across the Ivy League. Minimum wage for Brown on-campus student jobs is $7.50, according to Bartini, while the Rhode Island minimum wage is $6.75.
Minimum wage for on-campus student jobs at Yale is $10.50 and the average pay is $12.50, according to Long. The minimum wage in Connecticut is $7.10. Yale provides subsidies to on-campus employers to enable them to offer higher wages and ultimately spends about $1 million for wages not covered by the federal work-study grant.
"(Yale has) made it a priority to provide high-paying jobs and keep students on campus," Long said. "The university sees the value of student employees in general. Certainly in my office I see them as vital ... I don't think we could function day to day without them."
Average pay is $9 to $10 at Princeton and $10 at Harvard, according to school officials. Minimum wages in New Jersey and Massachusetts are $6.15 and $6.25, respectively.
Students throughout the Ivy League now find jobs largely through online postings. Brown's student employment Web site, JobX, was created by Chad Billmyer '01 and Ray Prisament '01 and provides a forum to match employers with employees. Employers both on and off campus can post job descriptions as well as contact information. Students can also sign up for JobMail, a service that e-mails students when jobs matching their specified wants and needs are posted.
Yale also uses the JobX software, which is now commercial.
At Princeton, first-years on financial aid are assigned jobs randomly, almost always in dining services or at a library. After a student's first year, the student employment office helps match work-study students with departments of interest or need.
Princeton Assistant Director of Financial Aid Betty Ashwood said she would like to see Princeton's job posting system improve and become "streamlined and more user-friendly."
At Princeton, no student is required to take out a loan for undergraduate study, as the school replaced all loans with grants in 2001. The program, however, has not affected the number of students who work.
The number of students working regardless of financial need varies across the Ivy League. At Princeton last year, 46 percent of students worked, according to Ashwood. Over 50 percent of Yale students and between 65 and 70 percent of Harvard students have a job during the academic year, according to university officials.
"Most students, by the time they've been here for a year or two, figure out that you get an awful lot from a job, and no matter how affluent your family is, you still need a few things to put on your resume before you graduate," Homer said.
Bartini also touted the educational value of work. "The process should be educational: the process of getting a job, the process of understanding incremental in-creases, the process of having performance evaluations," he said.
Brown's Office of Financial Aid does not keep track of how many students not on financial aid work. Out of the 2,500 undergraduates receiving financial aid, about half have jobs and earn an average of $1,400 to $1,500 per academic year, Bartini said. Students who choose not to work or who do not earn all $2,300 of their self-help portion use outside scholarships or additional loans to complete their package.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Brown all had more positions available than workers to fill them. Most officials interviewed said that this doesn't usually present a problem for employers.
"I think it kind of works itself out throughout the course of the year," Bartini said. "I think the employers who really need employees get them. ... Dining Services is very creative. They do a bunch of things to attract and retain students."
Officials at the schools said the work experience of incoming first-years varies widely.
Said Tracy Watts, Brown's assistant director of financial aid: "There are some students who come here and the concept of work is so foreign that they can't believe that someone would expect them to belittle themselves (by working). But then there are other students who can't imagine not working because they've always worked. ... There isn't anybody who's typical."
