"Being granted work-study status really has no bearing on me because I am a senior," said Sarah G. Ellis '99.

"I really love my job at the admissions officeand the only thing that could get me to change nowwould be significantly higher pay," Ellis said.

Rhea C. MacDonald '99 agreed that being asenior makes her new work-study statusunimportant.

She, like many other seniors, said she thoughtthe changes in financial aid came too late toaffect her.

"I am not going to change jobs in my last yearhere," she said.

"But I think that having work-study statuswould have helped me out earlier on in finding ajob," McDonald said.

"I would have been able to have more jobopportunities that weren't available to mebefore," she added.

Miller said the students were initially giventhree weeks to make their decisions.

However, Miller added, because of mailingcomplications, the Office of Financial Aid wasforced to extend the deadline by another twoweeks.

Of the approximately 3,000 students given theoption, less than 100 students did not respond tothe survey.

For those students, the Office of Financial Aidrandomly assigned either option in a 50/50 ratio,as administrators didn't know what theirpreference would be.

"We weren't exactly sure which of the twooptions students would favor," Miller said.

"I can think of plausible explanations foreither option being more popular," he added