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Work study student education requirements

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read

There are several educational requirements to become a work study student. Work study students usually study business, psychology, or criminal justice. 47% of work study students hold a bachelor's degree, and 27% hold an associate degree. We analyzed 16,160 real work study student resumes to see exactly what work study student education sections show.

The most common colleges for work study students are the California University of Pennsylvania and the California University of Pennsylvania.

There are also many online work study student courses to help get the education required to be a work study student.

There are certain work study student certifications that you should consider. These work study student certifications include Certified Medical Administrative Assistant (CMAA) and Certified Medical Office Manager (CMOM).

What education do you need to become a work study student?

What degree do you need to be a work study student?

The most common degree for work study students is bachelor's degree, with 47% of work study students earning that degree. The second and third most common degree levels are associate degree degree at 27% and associate degree degree at 16%.
  • Bachelor's, 47%
  • Associate, 27%
  • High School Diploma, 16%
  • Diploma, 4%
  • Other Degrees, 6%

What should I major in to become a work study student?

You should major in business to become a work study student. 17% of work study students major in business. Other common majors for a work study student include psychology and criminal justice.

Most common colleges for work study students

Work study students often get their degrees at California University of Pennsylvania, Johnson & Wales University, and University of Scranton. Here are the most common colleges for work study students in the US based on their resumes.
Work study student common collegePercentages
California University of Pennsylvania8.71%
Johnson & Wales University7.32%
University of Scranton6.45%
Radford University6.10%
Pennsylvania State University6.10%

Best majors for work study students

RankMajorPercentages
1Business16.6%
2Psychology11.0%
3Criminal Justice9.9%
4Biology6.5%
5General Studies5.8%

Best colleges for work study students

The best colleges for work study students are Boston College, Northwestern University, and New York University.

A work study student with advanced education typically earns a higher salary and has access to better jobs. That's why Zippia looked into the best colleges for work study students. We based this list on several metrics: admissions rate, retention rate, mean earnings of graduates, the ratio of working vs. non-working students ten years after admission, the average cost of attendance, and median debt for graduates who become work study students.

1. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$9,808

Enrollment

13,990

2. Duke University

Durham, NC • Private

In-state tuition

$55,695

Enrollment

6,596

3. Howard University

Washington, DC • Private

In-state tuition

$26,756

Enrollment

6,166

4. California State University - Bakersfield

Bakersfield, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$7,309

Enrollment

9,142

5. Western Carolina University

Cullowhee, NC • Private

In-state tuition

$3,926

Enrollment

9,835

6. California State University - Long Beach

Long Beach, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$6,798

Enrollment

31,503

7. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-state tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

8. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI • Private

In-state tuition

$15,262

Enrollment

30,079

9. San Diego State University

San Diego, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$7,488

Enrollment

30,018

10. Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA • Private

In-state tuition

$55,464

Enrollment

9,639

20 best online courses for work study students

Advertising disclosure

1. Preparing for Graduate Study in the U.S.: A course for international students

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Preparing for graduate school in the United States can be nerve-wracking. Many international students have questions about what the programs are like and what resources they can use to excel in their studies. This course allows potential and incoming international students to practice their communication skills, identify tools that support academic success, and gain confidence as they prepare for their advanced degrees. Alongside advancing your English skills, get the chance to hear from...

2. Sort students marks using bubble and insertion algorithms

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The learner will create two sorting algorithms in Java programming language. The learner will create an optimised bubble sort function that sorts students' marks in ascending order by repeatedly swapping adjacent elements within an array if they are in the wrong order. The learner will also create an insertion sort function that sorts students' marks in ascending order by building a sorted array, one element at a time...

3. Productivity for Students: Study Smarter, Not Harder

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Powerful learning strategies to increase your personal productivity: Studying SMART with Project Elon founder Mike Elon...

4. Law: A Comprehensive Summary for LLB Students

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An essential 24 hours of Video Lectures, Spider Graphs and Case Summaries made to guide LLB students preparing for exams...

5. Unleash Student Creativity with Buncee

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By the end of this project, you will be able to use Buncee to unleash your students’ creativity. Buncee is “a creation and communication tool… to create interactive content, allowing those of all ages to visualize concepts and communicate creatively.” With Buncee, learning becomes more personalized as students are able to share through engaging multimedia projects using Buncee’s templates, stickers, and animations. Throughout this project, we will work together to ensure that you are confident...

6. Enhance Student Learning through Kahoot

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By the end of this project, you will have created a Kahoot collection that will engage your students during virtual learning or as a more engaging way to encourage practice and review at home or in the classroom. Teaching is constantly evolving. As we learn more about our students, we uncover new ways to ensure that they are not just learning - they are thriving. When we can connect our tech-savvy students to tech-connected learning, our students are more likely to enjoy learning. We can also...

7. Thermodynamics for Engineering Students

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A Detailed Introduction to Thermodynamics...

8. MS Office Course Bundle- Word , Powerpoint , Excel & Outlook

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MS Office Learn and Polish the Most Desirable Office Courses at work , MS Word , MS Excel , MS Powerpoint and MS Outlook...

9. Student Self-Assessment with Microsoft Word

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By the end of this project, you will have created a self-report card and a behaviour reflection form for student self-reflection. You will also be equipped with suggestions for how to use these documents with students. Encouraging our students to reflect on their learning is one of many goals we have as teachers. One valuable way to do this is by allowing our students to share their perspective on the school year. What areas are going well for them? What areas do they see where they could grow?...

10. Create a Record of Students using Arrays in Java

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This project provides a step-by-step approach in instruction and will equip you with fundamental concepts of creating arrays and array lists in Java programming, from the ground up. Using jGRASP development environment, you will create a Java project that records and processes students’ data. The data includes name, mode of study, and marks. Using this data, you will output the student details, compute the total marks per student, determine the average mark, and the highest mark for the class...

11. Cisco Troubleshooting Labs For CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE Students

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TSHOOT Labs in Routing, Switching, BGP, IPv6, IP Services, MPLS, and Security for CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE Students...

12. Business English Course for ESL Students

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Learn essential Business English vocabulary for presentations, meetings, negotiations, phone calls, e-mails, and more!...

13. Creating a Student Profile in Google Docs

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By the end of this project, you will have created a Student Profile in Google Docs that will allow you identify student needs and differentiate instruction. We will work together to learn how to use Google Docs as we create a Student Profile template and complete it for a particular student you have in mind. You will be provided with additional resources that will help improve your teaching practice through identification of students needs and ensuring that the appropriate accommodations are...

14. A Law Student's Toolkit

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Whether you are an advanced law student looking to review the basics, or an aspiring law student looking for head start, this course will help you build the foundation you will need to succeed in law school and beyond. This course will introduce you to terminology, concepts, and tools lawyers and legal academics use to make their arguments. It will help you follow these arguments—and make arguments of your own. This course consists of a series of short lectures and assignments. A reading list...

15. Data Entry Skills: A Complete Data Entry Course from Scratch

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A Complete Guide to Data Entry Skills: Learn Data Entry Skills and become a Data Entry Pro & Get a Online Data Entry Job...

16. Encouraging Student Collaboration with Padlet

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By the end of this project, you be able to use Padlet to create a collaborative classroom fostering interactive student engagements, creating virtual lessons, and more. With Padlet, teachers and students can collaborate in real time on lessons, projects, and anything else you can imagine. Together, we will learn how to use Padlet to connect with students during virtual learning, for in class collaboration, and discover ways to improve our ability to differentiate instruction using Padlet. The...

17. Engage and Assess Students with Quizizz

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By the end of this project, you will be ready to use Quizizz with your students to create gamified quizzes, polls, and lessons. Whether you are teaching online or in the classroom, Quizizz allows you to gather valuable assessment data while your students are actively engaged in a friendly competitive game. Throughout each task, we will set up your Quizizz account and learn how to create your own quizzes as well as use the reporting feature to see how your students are progressing. Engage your...

18. Increase Student Buy in with Google Slides

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By the end of this project, you will have created a student punchcard that will engage your students during virtual learning or as a more engaging way to encourage buy in during classroom learning. Teaching is constantly evolving. As we learn more about our students, we uncover new ways to ensure that they are not just learning - they are thriving. Using a punchcard will not only provide your students with more choice and independence, it will also provide your classroom with the procedures and...

19. Using Google Forms for Student Success

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By the end of this project, you have used Google Forms to create several tools to use with your students and parents in order to ensure a successful school year. With volunteer sign-up forms, you can simplify your volunteer process within your classroom and across the school. Through exit tickets and assessments, you will be able to check your student’s understanding of the content taught that day or during a unit so that you can adjust instruction to address misunderstandings or gather...

20. Study Skills for University Success

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In this course, you’ll learn about many important skills to support your study, including time management, discovering your own learning styles, and reading more effectively and increasing your vocabulary. You’ll hear some guidelines for studying effectively in online or remote classes, which are becoming more and more popular in university-level education. You’ll also improve your skills in listening to lectures and taking good notes to help you as you study for tests. Finally, you’ll hear...

Top 10 most affordable universities for work study students

The most affordable schools for work study students are California State University - Bakersfield, california state university - long beach, and suny farmingdale.

If the best universities for work study students are out of your price range, check out these affordable schools. After factoring in in-state tuition and fees, the average cost of attendance, admissions rate, average net price, and mean earnings after six years, we found that these are the most affordable schools for work study students.

1. California State University - Bakersfield

Bakersfield, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$7,309

Cost of attendance

16,714

2. California State University - Long Beach

Long Beach, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$6,798

Cost of attendance

18,306

3. SUNY Farmingdale

Farmingdale, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$8,306

Cost of attendance

16,091

4. Baruch College of the City University of New York

New York, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$7,262

Cost of attendance

14,046

5. California State University - Dominguez Hills

Carson, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$6,942

Cost of attendance

14,469

6. Minot State University

Minot, ND • Private

In-state tuition

$7,064

Cost of attendance

15,576

7. University of South Florida

Tampa, FL • Private

In-state tuition

$6,410

Cost of attendance

20,456

8. Brigham Young University

Provo, UT • Private

In-state tuition

$5,620

Cost of attendance

18,136

9. Clayton State University

Morrow, GA • Private

In-state tuition

$5,419

Cost of attendance

17,697

10. Florida International University

Miami, FL • Private

In-state tuition

$6,556

Cost of attendance

19,434

Top 10 hardest universities to get into for work study students

The hardest universities for work study students to get into are Boston College, Northwestern University, and New York University.

Some great schools for work study students are hard to get into, but they also set your career up for greater success. The list below shows the most challenging universities to get into for work study students based on an institution's admissions rates, average SAT scores accepted, median ACT scores accepted, and mean earnings of students six years after admission.

1. Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA • Private

Admissions rate

28%

SAT average

1,429

2. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

Admissions rate

8%

SAT average

1,508

3. New York University

New York, NY • Private

Admissions rate

20%

SAT average

1,419

4. Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD • Private

Admissions rate

11%

SAT average

1,513

5. Duke University

Durham, NC • Private

Admissions rate

9%

SAT average

1,516

6. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

Admissions rate

40%

SAT average

1,376

7. George Washington University, The

Washington, DC • Private

Admissions rate

42%

SAT average

1,380

8. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

Admissions rate

8%

SAT average

1,492

9. Boston University

Boston, MA • Private

Admissions rate

22%

SAT average

1,420

10. Northeastern University

Boston, MA • Private

Admissions rate

19%

SAT average

1,466

Top 10 easy-to-apply-to universities for work study students

The easiest schools for work study students to get into are Bluefield College, gwynedd mercy university, and wayland baptist university.

Some schools are much easier to get into. If you want to start your career as a work study student without much hassle, check out the list of schools where you will be accepted in no time. We compiled admissions rates, average SAT scores, average ACT scores, and average salary of students six years after graduation to uncover which were the easiest schools to get into for work study students.

1. Bluefield College

Bluefield, VA • Private

Admissions rate

95%

SAT average

980

2. Gwynedd Mercy University

Gwynedd Valley, PA • Private

Admissions rate

92%

SAT average

1,031

3. Wayland Baptist University

Plainview, TX • Private

Admissions rate

98%

SAT average

1,003

4. Curry College

Milton, MA • Private

Admissions rate

93%

SAT average

1,026

5. Felician University

Lodi, NJ • Private

Admissions rate

81%

SAT average

999

6. Nyack College

New York, NY • Private

Admissions rate

98%

SAT average

999

7. Notre Dame College

Cleveland, OH • Private

Admissions rate

90%

SAT average

994

8. Kean University

Union, NJ • Private

Admissions rate

86%

SAT average

991

9. Oklahoma Wesleyan University

Bartlesville, OK • Private

Admissions rate

68%

SAT average

964

10. Holy Family University

Philadelphia, PA • Private

Admissions rate

72%

SAT average

1,017

Average work study student salary by education level

Work study students with a Master's degree earn more than those without, at $28,110 annually. With a Bachelor's degree, work study students earn a median annual income of $27,351 compared to $26,099 for work study students with an Associate degree.
Work study student education levelWork study student salary
Master's Degree$28,110
High School Diploma or Less$25,273
Bachelor's Degree$27,351
Some College/ Associate Degree$26,099

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Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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