<p>My D has been asked to apply to be an RA at college and I am wondering if any of you have children that have done this and what are the Pros and Cons</p>
<p>I did it back in the dark ages, and D is an RA now. What the job entails does vary from school to school, as does the training. </p>
<p>Certainly there were way more pros than cons for me; I think the same is true so far for D, but there are three months left to go in the school year. . . .</p>
<p>The pros include tangibles (pay and/or a big chunk knocked off the housing line on your bill, terrific experience, and a very legitimate entry on your resume) and intangibles (contributing to the quality of life at your school, helping others, having fun). The same is true of the cons, with the main tangible drawback being the amount of time it takes as a baseline. It’s a big, serious responsibility, and it can be hugely stressful at times. </p>
<p>PM me if you want to get into more detail. Either way, it’s really important to evaluate the level of training and support the school provides, and the level of responsibility given to the RAs.</p>
<p>My daughter was also an RA for 3 out of 4 years. For the most part, it was worth it. She was not overly intense with her residents, but if the violations (drinking, noise,etc) were flagrant and/or disturbing other residents, she did have to write them up. Most students understood, and no hard feelings. However, senior year her car did get seriously “keyed” by someone. May have been a random act, who knows. Fortunately her car was not of great value anyway. All in all though, it was an easy way to pay for her room (about $7,000 worth), and she had a dorm room to herself. It’s not a job for everyone, but my daughter enjoyed the experience and the people.</p>
<p>^^ There’s a good illustration of what I meant about finding out exactly what the job entails at a given school. At D’s school there is no “writing up” of violations (though of course there are ways of bringing in administrative help). Some RA jobs have this policing element and some don’t.</p>
<p>Hey guys. I’m interested in becoming an RA at Stony Brook University so I was checking out some of the information they give online. It sounds like you are pretty much chained down to your building. They talked about like thanksgiving and spring break and any other breaks you may have that have to be spent at the building. I don’t know if they are just stating this to cover themselves or what the deal is. I am just trying to weigh the pros and cons because that seems like a pretty big con. Also any idea on how strict they are on any given weekends? I would greatly appreciate a response. Thanks</p>
<p>Every school is different, so you should really post on the Stony Brook board or just ask your current RA. Usually there is a good reason why you need to be there over breaks. Students need to be able to count on their RA as being available to them in case of emergency, even on holidays. Now, at my school the RA (or HR, we called them HR’s) could ask another RA to cover for them if they had to be away at a given time. But I wouldn’t go into the job planning to do that, you should only take it on if you think you can commit to what you’re being asked to do.</p>
<p>I was an RA back when the dinos roamed. When the college was closed and the dorms closed, no RAs were needed in the buildings. BUT our dorms were open for some of the shorter breaks. The RAs rotated being there. We also had someone on full duty every night. There were 8 of us in the building and that meant that each was on duty at least 4 nights a month. In addition, we were required to be in the buildings from midnight until 7 a.m. in our rooms…alone.</p>
<p>Even then I dealt with illegal drugs, an arsonist (yep…someone who kept setting fire to things on the floor), pregnant students, you name the problem, it came into my room.</p>
<p>I happened to like the job, but it’s not for everyone!!</p>
<p>RA is a good deal. It is a great way to lower COA. So, earning $ is the biggest pro. another pro is you get your own room.</p>
<p>the Cons: you have to get to school early to: 1) train 2) prepare the residence halls for the arrival of the students.</p>
<p>There is a fair amount of administrative work at the beginnng and end of the year, but during the year, it is not that bad Sometimes you are on-duty and you have to remain in the dorm. When you are not on duty, it is no big deal.</p>
<p>A lot of the responsibility is to make sure everybody abides by the residence halls rules and documenting when there is a serious violation.</p>
<p>You have to be prepared to act in an emergency if someone is hurt - first-aid, calling EMT, etc. That does not always happen, but you have to be ready.</p>
<p>Weekend duty kills your weekend.</p>
<p>Some schools require the RA to “facilitate” residence halls activities. Most students prefer to do there own thing, but you may have to set up a movie night or something.</p>
<p>All in all, it is a good deal. It can save you a lot of money.</p>
<p>finansur, there are probably only one or two areas of the dorms that remain open for the major breaks when the rest of the residence halls (and dining services) are closed. At the SUNYs, I think it’s usually covered on a voluntary basis or by assingment if none of the RAs volunteer…but there’s usually also a hall director who is a paid staff member living on campus so they may cover the actual break. What is mandatory for RAs is to be there from the first day of check-in through the last day of check-out (or a day before and after each), so there’s no leaving once your own finals are over or showing up the day before classes start (unless that’s when the residence halls reopen). YMMV…they’ll tell you all that stuff in the group info session, so plan to attend that if you’re interested.</p>
<p>At the school my son attends I believe the discount is only $2,000 on R&B, but the student is paid approx. $340-$370 (?) per month for what I believe to be 8 months.</p>
<p>Very competitive to get these positions! It is a lot of work, although the financial benefit may be an advantage. Still, you should be having fun at college too! :)</p>
<p>My son was an RA last year .He has worked extensively with children as a camp counselor ,and was an EMT for 2 years ,Very mature , great people skills .Was nominated for excellence ,but did not return ,WHY ? There were 2 pain in the ass kids who sucked up way too much of his free time .One was extremely depressed about being away from home ,the other was a prankster who was always getting into trouble ,but never bad enough to get kicked out .Being an RA is a crap shoot-you never know exactly what you’re in for .He already had 17K merit aid ,and the extra 8k he saved was not worth it !!</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1074830-idea-reduce-college-expense-ra.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1074830-idea-reduce-college-expense-ra.html</a></p>
<p>Here are a few other RA threads</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/109089-becoming-ra.html?highlight=UGA[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/109089-becoming-ra.html?highlight=UGA</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/656643-ra-decision.html?highlight=UGA#post1061865093[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/656643-ra-decision.html?highlight=UGA#post1061865093</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/473282-ra-pros-cons-2.html#post1060704361[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/473282-ra-pros-cons-2.html#post1060704361</a></p>
<p>I was an RA at a liberal arts college back in the 90s. At our school, only Seniors could be RAs, it was a prestigious, sought after thing and was a great experience (we had one per dorm and we had 12 dorms on campus). There were some pains, but generally it involved carrying a pager (this was pre-cell phone days), taking turns being on duty on weekends, weekly meetings and some vacation/break duty. We also did some amazingly fun retreats, got early access to class registration and free room and board (although I was on financial aid so it didn’t end up changing my family contribution much)…</p>
<p>Every school is pretty drastically different…friends at UCs could have been RAs as Sophs or Juniors and were in much more of a policing role. I had a mellow dorm which helped, but generally it wasn’t that big of deal…absolute biggest pain was being woke up to unlock doors for drunk students who had lost their keys :)</p>
<p>Can she handle being left behind if most of her friends decide to go out on a night she’s on duty? Can she keep secrets? Would she mind being in the dorm pretty much alone on the first and last days of breaks and semesters? Would she be comfortable fining a friend for a violation? (at my daughter’s school RA’s do inspections in pairs to keep them from allowing friends to violate rules and prevent RA’s from planting contraband or writing up people they may not like… helps avoid temptations in either direction). Can she handle staying up into the early morning on the day of a big exam if she can’t get someone to swap? Would it drive her nuts creating door and bulletin decorations on a regular basis (my daughter hates doing that, and this month has to follow a theme on Catholic identity - her favorite church holiday is Reformation Sunday). Would she be comfortable leading a floor meeting?</p>
<p>My daughter enjoys being an RA and was fortunate to be put on the Christian living floor with all of her best friends from the same floor last year (when she wasn’t the RA). Though at times it would be easier not being with friends! She often co-chairs meetings with the person in the leadership role for the floor’s theme. She gets free room and board which saves her a lot of money, since that would have been paid out of loans in her name. She’s a born organizer and group leader. For someone who’s an introvert or procrastinator, it could be toture.</p>
<p>My Dd is enjoying being an RA, she is a grad student so older and more mature than most of the students she polices. There is an RA in another hall who is quite annoying as that RA is not confident enough and wants to be liked resulting in no respect from students and fellow RAs. It is a job for a confident personality.</p>
<p>DD loves her room, much much better than other rooms in the halls, loves being in a single, is very good and the discipline, etc. She says it is a real roll of the dice in the randomness of the good v bad kids in the hall. Her hall has been pretty good, a friend’s hall has been really tough, no predicting that.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider, in her school there is a professional head of hall and then asst RAs. The professionals have very different styles, some are laid back, some are micro managers. Personality & fit is a matter of luck, to a degree, but really affects your experience. Of a dozen new RAs she knows half have either quit, been fired, or are on probation. Yet it was a long shot to get the job as so many apply</p>
<p>I am an ra at stony brook and let me say that i would not recommend becoming an ra. You are literally chained down to the building and campus residences owns your life. People who arent ras or who work for campres always like to argue that its about commitment and you know wat you signed up for but thats not even the case. When i applied to be an ra i knew that i would have to be super involved and that it took time. I knew that there were events i would have to attend, how the duty was broken up and that some weekends and holidays are taken. But wat i am talking about is the fact that theytell you that your school comes right before ra but when push comes to shove they will make you choose ra duties before school. I once had three exams to study for and there was an ra event which may i say was pointless and on top of that there were three additional sessions i could go to if i missed the first one. The supervisor told me that despite the fact that I had three exams the next day that I needed to study for and that there were other sessions I could go to to make it up i couldnt be excused from the one before my exams. These are the same ppl who fire you for not making the gpa cut yet wont allow you to do everyhing in your power to succeed. Many of them treat their ras like a means to compete against the other quads. Ive had an rhd who once told us that if we didnt raise enough money for a campus wide fundraiser we would have to chip in the money from ourselves so they could beat outthe other quads in the amount they raised. This is after we had already chipped in about $200 worth collectively as a staff! These and many other reasons i would strongly not recommend becoming an ra at stonybrook. Stony brook doesnt care about you and their ras. Since they have like no money now they care even less. They let the buildings fall into disrepair and then make us deal with the angry residents and parents when they see the hole in the wall thats been there since the beginning of time. If I were you I would hold off on applying to be an ra. Unless ur a senior then u might just do it for the free room and board and simply skate through your last yr.</p>
<p>So what do you get for being a Stonybrook RA? Free room and board, just room, or what?</p>
<p>My D decided to not apply as an RA last year but has for her upcoming Junior year. I have real mixed feelings about it. In some ways I hope she gets it because it does look good on your CV, it shows maturity and willingness but on the other hand she is a double major and has yet to have less than a 24 credit semestre and I am concerned about the time commitment. I guess we will see what happens soon as she will be notified either way by the 23rd of March.</p>