How Starbucks College Achievement Plan Helps You Graduate Debt-Free

At my favorite Starbucks today, I was greeted cheerfully by the usual baristas. This is one of the many times I have walked into the cafe and been greeted the same way every single time. Today, I had to inquire about the steady cheerfulness which meets me every morning regardless of what the weather looks like outside of the cafe. One of the employees told me Starbucks college achievement plan seems to be one of the reasons.

This is besides the usual gratefulness people feel for waking up alive every morning.

Anyways, I decided to look into it and what I find about the Starbucks college assistance program was quite amazing. Since I have been in a run about tuition assistance these past two months, I decided to include Starbucks amongst the jobs young working adults could do to get a tuition assistance with their college.

I never knew prior to this week that Starbucks got its workers like that. But knowing what I know now, you would be amazed at what these benefits could do for young working class adults trying to get an education. I will talk about how to get this education assistance, who is qualified for it and how long you need to work for the employer to be able to do it.

Does Starbucks Pay For College?

Starbucks pays for college. The best part of it, is 100% of your college tuition can be paid by the employer. Besides Chipotle college tuition assistance, it is different from other tuition assistance programs I have written so far. I do not know whether you have read them yet.

Have you read the other tuition assistance articles yet, my good reader?

While some of the jobs I wrote about offer tuition reimbursement, Starbucks college program is not a tuition reimbursement as in you getting your college tuition refunded at the end of a semester. Rather, the tuition applies directly to a Starbucks university-partner at the start of a semester.

This is what I like about it. There is more to it though. Although Starbucks pays 100% of tuition, not everyone eligible employee is going to get the 100% tuition. Yeah, I know it is contradictory but I will explain everything.

Additionally, Starbucks gets to say where you go to school. Not sure if you mind, but personally I like to have a variety of choices when it comes to education. It is true does not matter where you go to get education, because what matters is what you could do with it. But, I do not like to have limited choices.

Are you like that too?

Anyways, I will elaborate more on this Starbucks limitation in this article. This is because I know not everyone likes to be told where to go to school. We, the young working class, like to go to our own ideal schools. God knows I would have gone to MIT or Harvard if I could, but hey I do not have that kind of money.

How Starbucks College Program Works

Do you remember when I mentioned about the Starbucks college program paying 100% of your college tuition, dear reader?

You will definitely get close to half of it. But, the remaining depends on your FASFA qualification. For those of you who do not know what FASFA means, it means free application for federal aid. It is the federal student loan application process.

So in the Starbuck tuition assistance, qualifying for federal student loans or grants help our tuition get paid by Starbucks 100%. Actually, the Starbuck tuition benefit is grouped into three stages. I will break it down for you below.

42% CAP, FASFA And Starbucks Tuition Benefits

Firstly, we get what is called a College Achievement Plan scholarship. This is 42% of whatever our tuition is going to be. It is paid to the school at the start of the semester. Yes I know, we do not get access to it.

That is fine though.

Next, you have to fill out a FASFA form and qualify for federal student grant. This could be Pell grant or any other kind of grant. Once this is disbursed to you, Starbucks tuition benefits come in and pay the rest of the remaining debt. It is worthwhile to mentioned a FASFA based scholarship will not reduce Starbucks tuition contribution.

To simplify, whatever the FASFA contributes, the company still pays whatever remains. This is regardless of how much debt remains. I had to mention it, because I know federal student aid tends to give little sometimes. Especially when your income is a certain amount per year.

Now, the question at hand is what happened when a young working class adult does not qualify for FASFA?

Well, you will not receive 100% of the Starbucks tuition benefits. However, I want you to know unless you have a history of screwing your FASFA, you will be approved to receive federal aid. This is regardless of your income or parents’ income.

I wrote a detailed article on what could disqualify you from getting FASFA. I want you to read it, so you know things which could stop you from getting approved for federal financial aid. Otherwise, you are good to go once the Federal Student Aid office approves you.

Who Is Eligible For Starbucks College Achievement Plan?

Not every Starbucks employee qualifies for its college assistance program. Starbucks is clear about it. Only certain approved store locations qualify for these college benefits. What do I mean by this, my good reader?

Here is a list of eligible employees to participate in the Starbucks college Achievement Plan program below.

• Active Starbucks employee in a US company-operated store location. This is whether you are part-time or full time. I will talk about which of the stores shortly, so you know whether yours qualifies for it.
• We have to work 240 hours within 3 months of employment. This simplifies to working 20 hours per week for 90 days or three months.
• Non-Batchelor employees trying to get one.
• US residents working for Starbucks.
• High school diploma holders

As long as we are one of the above, we meet the Starbucks SCAP program requirements. Once we are in the program, we need at least 20 hours per week of work. This is how we maintain eligibility, while in school.

What Starbucks Licensed Stores Are Not Eligible For SCAP?

I mentioned earlier not all Starbucks stores qualify for the tuition assistance. If you work in the following stores below, Starbucks is not going to pay for your college tuition.

• Starbucks locations in the airport, book stores or other stores in partnership with Starbucks.

Basically, stores owned and operated by Starbucks qualify for its SCAP. So, stores just selling Starbucks cafe products do not qualify. Working for one automatically disqualifies you from getting your college tuition assistance.

Yeah I know, it sucks but I see why it is like this though. Starbucks benefits for Starbucks active employees. It is a good plan to retain staff from leaving the company.

How Long Do You Have To Work For Starbucks For Them To Pay For College?

As I previously mentioned above, Starbucks tuition reimbursement policy wants you to maintain at least three months of employment. Not only just being with Starbucks for three months, but also maintaining a 240 hours within the time period. As soon as you work this number of hours and been with the company for three months, you are automatically eligible for Starbucks tuition reimbursement program.

What else do I want you to know about the timeline for eligibility?

Starbucks runs a routine compliance for members who are eligible for its tuition coverage. What this means is if we are not maintaining the minimum 20 hours after eligibility, we will lose the Starbucks tuition benefits. So, let us make sure we structure our study-work-class balance in a way which does not affect our work schedule.

How To Apply For the Starbucks College Achievement Plan

Once you meet the Starbucks SCAP program requirements I mentioned above, the next thing is for you to apply to ASU. Usually, jobs whose tuition reimbursement programs partner with a college or university will have an enrollment coach to help you out with the application process. Starbucks is not an exception to this rule.

Here is how I want you to go about it though.

• Go to the Arizona State University. Then, fill out the inquiry form. It will help you get someone to help you with the application process as an active Starbucks employee.
• Or, you could just submit your application on the ASU website. You can start this process a month after your employment. Your assistance program won’t kick in till three months, but it is always a good idea to start the application process early. Be sure to track you are hitting your hours, so you can get to the 240 hours I mentioned earlier by the end of three months.
• While you are waiting, file your federal grant aid on the Federal student aid website (studentaid.gov). We have to do this every year to maintain eligibility. This is done every fall for the next academic year.
• As soon as you hit the 240 hour and three month eligibility, login to your ASU portal to see you are eligible for SCAP. You should be by now. If not, contact your enrollment coach to help you out with it.
• Once the SCAP eligibility is reflected, you can register for your program of choice and its classes. Then, do the orientation to be able to begin classes online.

While you are in school, I want you to maintain at least 20 hours per week of work. This is how we do not lose the college tuition assistance and maintain eligibility. Also, I want you to know class registration with ASU have two dates in each of the academic semester. Again, be sure not to miss these once you find out what those dates are.

Other Starbucks College Achievement Plan Benefits

Employees who are veterans of the US armed forces can transfer the tuition assistance benefits to an immediate family member. This is the only thing I like about SCAP. I like how it extends this courtesy to our heroes.

This courtesy is not only extended to veterans, but also active military personnel. One qualifying family member can get exactly everything I have mentioned here, including the 100% tuition. It is nice for someone with a partner or child who wants to go to college, but does not want the burden of the usual big student debt.

Is the Starbucks College Achievement Plan Worth It?

Unlike the other college assistance programs I have written so far, Starbucks education benefit is limited. Now do not get wrong, I like that it pays 100% of tuition. However, there are limitations which I think takes away certain choices from the average young working class adults.

Here is what I mean below.

Starbucks Only Pays For Arizona State University

I want to talk about the option of not going to any school of your choice. Starbucks only pays for ASU online. I feel like that is stupid.

What happens to employees who have found better schools than ASU?

No offense to ASU, but not everyone wants to be part of its Alumina. I wish Starbucks expanded its partnership to other universities. That way, we will have choices and a large number of majors to choose from. This is besides the mandatory Arizona State University we are forced to go in order to qualify for Starbucks college discount.

The 135 Credit Hour Limit

There is the 135 credit hour limit. As if limiting the choice to acquiring a Batchelor’s degree to one university is not enough, Starbucks is only willing to pay for 135 credit hours. Do you know what that means for us, my good reader?

It means whenever we reach the 135 credit hour limit, there will be no more tuition coverage for us. Since it takes about 120 credit hours to get a Batchelor’s degree at ASU, the remaining 15 credit hour is just for accidental delays. By accidental delays, I mean we fail or drop a class. There is still enough credit in the 15 credit hours to get us through.

Finally, Starbucks only pays for Batchelor’s degree. That means young adults trying to get Associate degree will not qualify. It is why I think Starbucks could have done better. Not everyone has the time for a Batchelor’s degree, no matter how noble the intent of the company is.

There are better jobs out there that make it easy for you to graduate college debt-free. In as much as I advocate for young working class adults using their jobs’ tuition reimbursement to graduate college debt-free, I feel like there are better options out there.

Alternative To Starbucks Tuition Reimbursement

In as much as I want to applaud Starbucks commitment in tuition assistance, I feel like they could do better. There are other jobs out there which could help us graduate college debt-free. It depends on whether you are willing to use them to finish your college education.

A while ago, I discussed about FedEx college tuition assistance. You do not even have to be a delivery driver. It is structured in a way where you can work part-time as a warehouse FedEx member and still get it.

Additionally, there is the Amazon tuition reimbursement which pissed me off when I learned about it. This is because I worked for Amazon as a driver and never got it. I suffered to put myself through a surgical technology program, while paying out of college.

All because the Amazon DSP I worked with did not know Amazon offered the college benefit. You can read all about it. But the two I mentioned can help you squash that college tuition to zero or near zero. This is in case you do not want to go to ASU.

Starbucks College Tuition Assistance versus Other Tuition Reimbursement

Comparing these alternative to Starbucks college achievement plan, I made a a table for you below so you can determine which works out best for you.

Jobs	Tuition reimbursement amount	Eligibility timeline	Programs covered	Tuition assistance platform	Post-graduate degree
Amazon	$5250 for full time employees $2625 for part-time ones	90 days of employment. Part-time or full time status	Any associate, Batchelor or certificated covered by partner schools.	Career choice	No
Chipotle	Up to $5250 a year. 100% tuition paid in some Agriculture, hospitality, culinary and logistics programs.	120 days of employment.	Approved Programs. Culinary, Logistics, Business, Healthcare and others.	The Guild / Cultivate Education program	Yes
FedEx	$5250 tuition assistance. $4000 through UNCF / FedEx Scholarship. $9600 through TMCF | FedEx HBCU Scholarship.	60 days of employment. senior high school and college freshman for its scholarships	Business degrees for its scholarship. A college degree, a trade, vocational or technical school	None. Just through the HR department	Yes

As you can see from above, working for the above jobs during college will completely reduce your college debt. You do not have to use Starbucks to graduate college debt-free This is especially, when you want to maintain the choice of going to other universities. With the above companies, there are a few hundred colleges and universities to choose from.

Sorry, Starbucks.

I feel like young adults need to move around and have plethora of choices. It does not make sense to limit the choice of growth and opportunities to one school or degree type. At least, it is my two-cent on the matter of graduating college debt-free.

What I Personally Think About SCAP

Regardless of how I feel about it, the decision rests with you. If you ask me, I would say to use it to finish a Batchelor’s degree program when you do not mind going to ASU. The goal is to get a good quality education and improve your earnings during your self growth without getting into crippling debts.

As for taxation of the tuition assistance, the IRS will not touch anything less than $5250 a year. If we get more than that, Uncle Sam will consider it an income and come to ask for a piece. I discussed this on Is College Tuition Assistance Taxable article. I want you to read it to see when you pay tax out of Starbucks tuition reimbursement.