<p>will that affect their financial aid package? A friend of mine has a child that is an RA. Was told that will not change (lower?) a financial aid package? Is that correct?</p>
<p>Well if you think about it, RA’s aren’t amazingly baller. Pretty much the same as any other part-time job.</p>
<p>It is different at every school, so your kid needs to ask. My older daughter’s school gave free room, but not board. Younger kid got both room and board for free. Her merit scholarship remained the same as her freshman and sophomore years, but obviously her need based was taken away because, with free room and board, there was no need. </p>
<p>Other schools I know of gave a single room at the rate of a double and/or small stipends.</p>
<p>so are you saying that need based aid will be lowered if a kid gets free room because they’re an RA? I could understand if kid has to take out less in loans but what about need based grants?</p>
<p>Need based aid can go down because need goes down if the RA receives hefty compensation like free room and/or board. That doesn’t mean that ALL need-based aid will be taken away. It depends on the amount of money that the school estimates that the family can afford to pay. But if it is a very needy kid who still needs help with tuition, there will probably still be some aid for tuition.</p>
<p>My kid no longer received need based because she has very generous merit aid that pays all of her tuition. So once she got free room and board as compensation for the RA job, she had no need. That won’t be the case for everyone.</p>
<p>Every college is different. You have to check the details for your kid’s school. One of my sons was an RA and earned pocket money. It did not affect his financial aid at all – he had a blast but it also was a bit exhausting.</p>