Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Students may work on campus in positions paid by Boston University or off-campus sites that are authorized in advance by ISSO. On-campus employment is limited to 20 hours per week, but may be full-time during break periods referenced above (Winter Intersession, Spring Break, Summer Break if the student will return in fall). Certain positions, including Resident Assistant positions and Teaching Fellowships, are considered a 20-hour per week equivalent and students may not take another on-campus job.

• Engaging in employment without the appropriate ISSO or USCIS permission is a serious violation of immigration status which can have steep penalties. International students are advised to speak to the ISSO well in advance of accepting any employment in the U.S., as your work permission is tied to maintaining lawful status.

Access to job listings and employment is limited to Boston University students who meet certain eligibility criteria. Make sure that you meet this eligibility criteria to view job listings, especially as an incoming student.

New International Students must also complete Initial ISSO check-in BEFORE gaining access to the job board.

International student employees are required to obtain a Social Security Number for tax purposes. Due to each student’s country of origin and financial circumstances, students are asked to update Student Employment with their SSN either in-person or through secure electronic submission. The process to obtain a Social Security Number begins after a student has obtained a job offer.

Once you receive your Social Security card and number, it should be updated with Student Payroll using the options below. Any government identification should not be shared through regular email or phone.

• To submit in person, you should go to the FirstPoint counter at 881 Commonwealth Ave, 2nd floor with your Social Security Number card and BU ID.
• To submit electronically, you should send a secure email with the subject “SSN Submission”. If the hyperlink does not work, the full link is: https://securecontact.me/seo@bu.edu. Please use your BU email. The email message must include full Social Security Number and UID.

• Access to job listings and employment is limited to Boston University students who meet certain eligibility criteria. Make sure that you meet this eligibility criteria to view job listings, especially as an incoming student.
  • New International Students must also complete Initial ISSO check-in BEFORE gaining access to the job board.

• Consider expanding your search. Look at what jobs are still available and applied to as many jobs as possible. Opportunities that you may not have consider ideal or in line with your preferences may turn out for the best. You may build relationships or learn different skills set that could benefit you in the long run.
• Take advantage of the tools and resources available at the Center for Career Development. Consider re-evaluating your resume or cover letter. Learn more about the interview process and ways to approach them.
• Don’t restrict yourself to on campus jobs. If you are eligible to work off campus, go for it. Student Employment is continuously doing outreach to have local business post on our job board and help our students academically and financially.

• Students working in hourly paid position should click here to learn more about completing timesheets.
• Students working in weekly salaried position are paid a fixed amount for the duration of their employment automatically. Timesheet submission is not necessary.

• The Policy on Student Work Hours for Employment at Boston University applies to all student employees regardless of program, wage funding source, citizenship status or method of payment, who are employed by Boston University.  It does not apply to employment outside of Boston University.  International students must also adhere to all limitations and requirements relating to on-campus student employment required by their particular immigration status and obtain ISSO work authorization if required.
• Students may work up to 40 hours per week during official University break periods. Below is a list of the break periods and specific dates. Work hours are based on department need and availability. Students and supervisor must come to an agreement on an appropriate work schedule during these periods.  Students should not work more than 40 hours per week. 

Break Period	Starting date	Ending Date
Intersession	12/16/2024	Pending Spring 25 Schedule
Spring Break	Pending Spring 25 Schedule	Pending Spring 25 Schedule
Summer Break*	Pending Summer 25 Schedule	Pending Summer 25 Schedule

 

• Go to Student Earned Sick Time Eligibility for more information.

• Got to Unemployment Eligibility for more information

• Federal Work-Study is a federal financial aid program administered by Boston University. It is designed to promote access to employment to help students meet educational expenses.

• Federal Work-Study funding is limited, it is not included in all student awards. Priority is given to students with higher calculated financial eligibility who indicate on the FAFSA that they are interested in student employment.
• If you are eligible for a Work-Study funding and awarded you will find information related to your Work-Study award displayed on the “Employee information” page of your “Dashboard.” on the JobX Job Board.

• Students can access the Job directory by navigating to their MyBU Student Portal, selecting the “My Job and Career” tab and then clicking on the “Job Listing” tile.
•  Supervisors/Departments seeking Work-Study eligible students will add a Work-Study preferred indicator to the position. An easy way to look for these jobs is to select the “Work-Study Preferred Jobs” quick search function on the “Find a Job” page.

• Yes. Work-Study funding is available for two program periods. The first program covers the academic year, including Fall and Spring semesters. The second program period covers Summer only. Students with remaining award balances from one period can not carry over to another program period.

• Students who do not earn the full amount of their award are not penalized and are not expected to pay back the difference.

• Federal Work-Study funding is limited, it is not included in all student awards. Priority is given to students with higher calculated financial eligibility who indicate on the FAFSA that they are interested in student employment. As students earn their award, they will have the opportunity to appeal for additional funding when their balance is low. Go to Appealing for Work-Study Funding for more information.
• What happens if/when my Work-Study award is depleted?

   If you deplete your Work-Study award you will have an opportunity to appeal for additional funding.

  • • If you receive approval, your award will increase and you can continue working.
    • If you are not eligible for an increase, you will need to communicate with your supervisor to determine in you can continue employment.

Will I receive notification about my Work-Study award?

Yes. When you are running low on Work-Study funds, less than $500, you will receive an email notification. We encourage you to notify your supervisor and discuss what would happen if your funds were to deplete and you were not eligible for additional funding.

• There are opportunities to utilize a work-study award off campus. Go to Off-Campus Work-Study Program for more information.

 

• You may have more than one on-campus Work-Study job, but only one off-campus Work-Study job.
• If you have more than one Work-Study job you should:
  • Notify your supervisors that you have another Work-Study job.
  • Agree upon what portion of your award (dollar amount) will be earned in each job. If the positions have different hourly rates, this will affect the hours you work for one job over another.
  • Agree upon the number of hours that you will work each week.
    • Students cannot exceed a total of 20 hours per week while classes are in session, but can work more than 20 hours per week during official University breaks.
• Carefully monitor your award balance using the Fiori Application, to insure that you do not work beyond your award amount.

• Pay day is Friday. After you’ve been hired, you should receive your first payment on the Friday of your second week of work.

• Go to Stop Payment and Reissued Check Requests for instructions. Student Employment strongly encourages students to set up direct deposit to avoid delayed or lost check payments. Click here for more information on setting up direct deposit.

• You can view your salary statements through the Employee Self Service. Please see Employee Self Service instructions for more information.

• Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate, is generally completed at the start of any new job. This form tells your employer how much federal income tax withholding to keep from each paycheck.

• Massachusetts Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate Form M-4. This form tells your employer how much to withhold for state income taxes from each paycheck.

• Go to Employee Self-Service (ESS), select “Pay”, “W-4 Tax Withholding” and choose “Edit” to make changes to your Federal or State Withholding, allowances, marital status or to request additional withholdings.

• A W-2 tax form shows important information about the income you’ve earned from your employer, amount of taxes withheld from your paycheck and other information for the year.

• W-2 forms for the prior calendar year will be available before the end of January of the new calendar year. Go to Taxes Information and Procedures for more information

• Go to Taxes Information and Procedures for more information on how to access the W-2 form.

• An incorrect address does not invalidate your W-2; you do not need a corrected W-2 for this in order to file your tax return. However, it is important to maintain a valid address in BU’s student employee database for important communications that may be sent to you.  If you are an active BU student employee, you have the ability to verify and update your home and mailing addresses via Employee Self-Service. If you are no longer an active BU student employee, please contact the payroll office by email at bupay@bu.edu.

• If you believe your W-2 is incorrect, please contact Payroll immediately at bupay@bu.edu.

• The Form 1042-S, Foreign Person’s U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding, is issued to non-resident aliens who receive reportable compensation from BU. For more information, please visit Understanding your 1042-S.

• The 1042-S forms will be mailed no later than March 15 (or the next weekday if March 15 falls on a weekend), as required by the Internal Revenue Service.

International student employees are required to obtain a Social Security Number for tax purposes. Due to each student’s country of origin and financial circumstances, students are asked to update Student Employment with their SSN either in-person or through secure electronic submission. The process to obtain a Social Security Number begins after a student has obtained a job offer.

Once you receive your Social Security card and number, it should be updated with Student Payroll using the options below. Any government identification should not be shared through regular email or phone.

• To submit in person, you should go to the FirstPoint counter at 881 Commonwealth Ave, 2nd floor with your Social Security Number card and BU ID.
• To submit electronically, you should send a secure email with the subject “SSN Submission”. If the hyperlink does not work, the full link is: https://securecontact.me/seo@bu.edu. Please use your BU email. The email message must include full Social Security Number and UID.

• All income as a direct exchange of compensation for services rendered is taxable. This includes Work-Study earnings.
• Service stipends are considered earned income for tax purposes and the University will withhold and report the earnings per IRS guidelines.  You will receive form W-2
• Non-service stipends are funds used to support a student in their course of study. The IRS considers these amounts to be taxable income and you are responsible to report them on your tax return, regardless of your citizenship. The University does not withhold taxes for U.S. citizens & permanent residents and they will not receive a tax withholding statement. International students have 14% withheld in taxes and will receive form 1042-S, unless they can claim tax treaty exemption. International students with questions about tax withholdings should contact nrapay@bu.edu.

• This consists of multiple weeks of payments combined into one check. There are many reasons why students could receive a bulk payment. Feel free to contact Student Employment to learn more about your specific situation.

Each time you are paid, in accordance with tax regulations, your earnings are projected across a 52 week period to project what your earnings would be for a year. That total is then used to determine where your income would fall into the overall tax table to determine the rate at which you should be taxed. Since your earnings in the week’s pay was greater than the amount you received previously, your earnings projected into a higher tax bracket which means a higher percentage of tax was withheld.

When students file their taxes the next calendar year, it is possible to receive a portion of these earnings back.

If you were not promoted, it is likely your FICA rebate kicking in from the summer.

FICA rebates for students who worked over the summer and met the enrollment standards to qualify for the FICA exemption will be in checks as of Oct. 1. Students can tell that they have a rebate by looking at their salary statement and they will see in the tax column Social Security and Medicare deductions with a minus sign in front of them.

Otherwise, if you made no changes in your federal or state tax withholding certificates, we recommend checking with your supervisor to see if the amount or hourly rate you are being paid changed.

• Neither Student Employment or the Department are able to tell you how to complete tax
  documents or file your taxes. Students are encouraged to seek seek out assistance from a parent/guardian or tax advisor. Alternatively, the Internal Revenue Service provides tools and other information to assistance individuals.

Free Tax Help

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