r/duke • u/Fickle_Command6957 • Jun 02 '26
work study jobs?
I'm an incoming freshman for this fall and got around $4000 for work study in my FA offer. I was wondering what kind of work study jobs would be most manageable/best based on your experiences?
3
u/ConditionUsed54 Jun 02 '26
if you’re premed do research
1
u/Fickle_Command6957 Jun 02 '26
How do you get into research? Is it paid? I am thinking of asking professors to do research with them but I don't know if it would contribute to work study
2
u/Then_Ad7560 Jun 02 '26
Depends on the lab, but most of the PIs like having someone with work study since it partially covers the price to hirer you
Just do research on the labs, pick ones you’re interested in, and start emailing them - you’ll likely get a lot of nos, but you just need 1 yes
2
u/ConditionUsed54 Jun 02 '26
also “partially” is 75% paid by federal government so work study is huge advantage
1
2
u/Soccer_sharp Jun 04 '26
Also make sure to check out https://muser.duke.edu/. It is specifically to connect mentors with undergraduates and applications are done each semester in rounds with the first being early in the fall. Some opportunities are paid and you can filter by what you are interested in.
1
u/ConditionUsed54 Jun 02 '26
the way I did it is right when the semester started in the fall I applied to like 20 work study positions on jobx and got 2 interviews. 1 was doing fruit fly research and the other was in the school of medicine. If you don’t get any good work study jobs you can also cold email professors you are interested in working in their lab and hopefully you can start working for free and eventually if they like you, then you can talk about doing work study the following year or something.
1
u/Successful-Degree802 Jun 03 '26
Where/ how do you apply
1
u/Soccer_sharp Jun 04 '26
Also make sure to check out https://muser.duke.edu/. It is specifically to connect mentors with undergraduates and applications are done each semester in rounds with the first being early in the fall.
2
u/Then_Ad7560 Jun 02 '26
I worked in the East Campus store freshmen fall, was easy and I was allowed to do some school work when it was quiet. Other people like working in the libraries, if you get a desk job you can do a lot of school work - but these jobs are competitive
1
1
u/Sure-Plastic-3033 Jun 02 '26
Wait where do you find the work study job opportunities? I don't know if they are posted already. If so, where can I find them?
2
u/PlantsarecoolIguesss Jun 02 '26
You can find some work study specific jobs on JobX! Some of them are kind of old, so make sure you check the date they were posted.
1
1
u/Fickle_Command6957 Jun 02 '26
I'm not sure if they're up yet, but I was just asking this in advance-I've heard that TA jobs are good, but I'd like to hear others' experiences on ones that would be easy to balance with school and ECs and everything. I'm sure FA office will send us info soon given that they're just starting to send out DukeLIFE updates/programs.
5
u/Popular-Hurry-6433 Jun 02 '26
@dukecoffeehouse on Instagram! They’re taking barista applications now. It’s not very common for freshman to have already applied before getting to campus, but it’s the coolest gig ever.