<p>If you get a job as an RA(resident assistant), and the compensation is room and board, is that taxable? Does it have any affect on your financial aid? Has anyone done it and do they reccomend it? Approximately how many hours per week is it? Do you have to stay up all nite a couple of days per week, tending to others? Any feedback would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I was actually thinking of posting a similar thread! It seems like it would be a great deal since room & board are paid for, but I'm not sure if it would be worth it. I'm worred that I'd have constant visitors needing help and I'd hear tons of complaining and having to work the front desk until 2 am some nights. I'm also worried that it may make it where I am not able to have a life (people probably wouldn't like it if I was never in my room!).</p>
<p>I can't answer the first part but as for the second part most schools have duty 2-3 times a week... at my school duty consists of making a few rounds and then signing off your radio at midnight or 1 am. if theres an emergency or loud party (Rare) in the middle of the night they'll call and wake you up on duty nights. at any school you have to do programming which consists of making bulletin boards and community builders like movie nights, as well as some more serious topics like learning about drug/alcohol abuse.</p>
<p>Namaste, same here!</p>
<p>Technically, I think the RA benefits would taxable in the same way scholarships supposedly are; however, I am not really sure.</p>
<p>As far as I know RA pay isn't supposed to cut into your merit aid, but I know a person or two that lost a chunk of need-based aid equal to exactly what they had earned the previous year as an RA. It really sucked for them, since they had moved off campus and then had to magically come up with the costs for their current apartment in addition to the FA lost from their RAing the previous year.</p>
<p>RacinReaver, would something like that be true for any campus job?</p>
<p>I hadn't heard it happening at any other campus job, and when I did research for pay my freshman year they didn't drop my FA at all. It might also be because I had been doing it under work-study, so they expected me to get that money whereas an RA would be more of a "bonus" income or something. The weird thing is nobody I ever knew there lost aid due to their income from summer internships, so the RA thing might have just been an isolated incident for the person or two I knew this happened to.</p>
<p>I am an RA currently. Your room and board are not taxable. At my school, we also get a small stipend which is taxable. As far as what it is and recommending it, I definitely recommend it. I know lots of people will talk about experience with jackass RA's, but most of my coworkers are pretty cool, and very few people are asses. Obviously, you have a job to do, so sometimes people will get ****ed if you have to bust them, but eeh, they get over it within a day or two. As for hours a week, that is unquantifiable, because some weeks its very few, some weeks it is more. Duty, we typically have one night every week, and rotate weekends (so I stay every few weekends for duty). You do rounds, lock doors, and if someone gets locked out, they knock on your door at night. It is definitely worth doing because the compensation and the skills/work experience/credibility is incredible.</p>
<p>How do you typically get a gig as an RA? I'm gonna be a grad student and if I go to this one school where I don't get funding, it'd be great for housing and food.</p>
<p>wsu, do you find it hard to get your homework done and to study? I'd just be worried that it would interfere with my grades. Are you also able to go out and have fun on weekends?</p>
<p>Becoming RA all depends on the school, some it's as simple as you apply and you can get it, at my school it's very competitive and you need to show either considerable leadership or interpersonal skills, or past experience in residential life as a programmer or student leader.</p>
<p>As far as homework, its not that hard. You develop great time management skills, and just learn to schedule time to study. The main thing is that you remember you are a student first, an RA second. It is a job you get out of it what you put into it. I personally have time for studying, being an RA and still having fun.</p>
<p>I am a nursing major at a highly competitive school, and I know quite a few RA's who are nursing majors. Sometimes it can get busy, but it hasnt killed me yet!</p>
<p>People think you cant go out, but I just make sure I go places that I wont see my residents. I draw the line at partying with residents, because if you drink with them, they wont take you seriously if you have to bust them.</p>
<p>At Creighton you can RA in your senior and junior years. I think i'd really like to do it because of how much it would help develope leadership skills and the room and board i wouldn't have to pay for!</p>
<p>Plus it's only a once in a lifetime oppurtunity!</p>