<p>My daughter just found out that she will be an RA for spring semester. She will receive funds toward room and board, I don't know the details yet. Will this have any affect on her financial aid? She gets two grants and a small need scholarship.</p>
<p>It likely varies with the school. </p>
<p>My D1 got her room and part of board for RAing, it didn’t impact her need based FA. It was also nice because it didn’t count as income, see page 7, Meals & Lodging:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p525.pdf[/url]”>http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p525.pdf</a></p>
<p>I found this, which infers that FA the following year could be impaced by untaxed income:</p>
<p>[College</a> R.A.s aren’t taxed on room and board](<a href=“http://www.bankrate.com/finance/college-finance/college-r-a-s-aren-t-taxed-on-room-board.aspx]College”>Student Loans | Bankrate.com)</p>
<p>D1 was a sr when she RAed, so this wasn’t an issue for her.</p>
<p>My D is applying to be an RA for next year and I told her to ask the financial aid office about how it will affect her. If they take it off of our contribution, great. If they just take it off her Barnard grant, then it isn’t worth her time and effort, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. i will have her call the financial aid office ask. I wish I had thought about this beforehand, it never occurred to me that it might have an impact on her aid.</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>This is a very good question.</p>
<p>At many schools, RA compensation is treated as an “outside scholarship” in a sense; the compensation first goes towards the student contribution, then starts reducing need-based aid.</p>
<p>When my daughter was an RA, her need-based assistance was reduced. But then again, her need was reduced, as the RA position provided free room and board. So she came out ahead.</p>
<p>Ask the financial aid office to make sure.</p>
<p>The “compensation” may not be monetary, but it can still be beneficial. The RA position (as overrated as it is) is a leadership role that employers and graduate schools will applaud. In that regard its valuable.</p>
<p>When I was an RA (granted in the 90’s), It payed for my room, full board and phone (ha ha a landline!) It didn’t effect my financial aid at all, I kept the position for two years because it was the only way financially I could stay on campus, as my father had lost his job. Of course there are more benefits then financial, but it was a big one for me because it filled the gap financial aid left when my parents could no longer pay my whole bill.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is not going to affect your EFC as your income and assets most likely have not change. If her being and RA comes with free room and board, it will reduce her need based aid because she will have less of a need. However, this does not mean, that the job is not “worth” the effort. At my D’s schools, there were not room/board benefit to being an RA, just a stipend but it was still one of the most competitive jobs to get on campus.</p>
<p>I agree with Determind15, that there are appreciable skills that she will pick up being an RA that will help her when she applies for internships, jobs that money will not be able to make up for. Some thread that may help</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/145183-whats-point-being-ra.html?highlight=undergraduate+advisor[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/145183-whats-point-being-ra.html?highlight=undergraduate+advisor</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/109089-becoming-ra.html?highlight=undergraduate+advisor[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/109089-becoming-ra.html?highlight=undergraduate+advisor</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1372601-being-ra.html?highlight=being+a+ra[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1372601-being-ra.html?highlight=being+a+ra</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1238010-ra-pros-cons.html?highlight=being+a+ra[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1238010-ra-pros-cons.html?highlight=being+a+ra</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1074830-idea-reduce-college-expense-ra.html?highlight=being+a+ra[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1074830-idea-reduce-college-expense-ra.html?highlight=being+a+ra</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1030038-ra-worst-job-ever.html?highlight=being+a+ra[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1030038-ra-worst-job-ever.html?highlight=being+a+ra</a></p>
<p>My daughter is an RA and is also a Pell and Cal Grant recipient. In addition, she receives a renewable academic scholarship each year. Our EFC is -0- however we still had a 10K financial need this year which was fully covered by the RA stipend. Her other aid was not affected what-so-ever. My daughter absolutely loves being a RA. Good luck to your daughter :)</p>
<p>It varies from school to school. My friend gets $250 compensation per month, free housing. Her aid isn’t affected by this aside from the fact that she doesn’t have to pay for housing (so if she had need-based aid for this, they would take the same amount away to keep the aid the same).</p>
<p>OP here with a follow-up. My daughter was able to choose which loan she wanted to reduce with her funds as a RA, either our Parent Plus or her Stafford. I was happy that her grants weren’t affected.</p>