Resident Assistantships and Finaid

Paying for College
1

<p>Has anyone else dealt with this?</p>

<p>I was just awarded a Resident Assistantship for the coming year. I'm really, really excited about it, but one of the main reasons I applied was that my school gives free room and board, and I really need the help. However, I talked to finaid the other day, and they said the RA job won't help...it will just be added into my total package and cut into my grant money. I know this is also the case with other outside scholarships etc. I am just bummed because I will actually be working for the room and board. I'm pretty much on-call whenever I'm in my room and have specific responsibilities every week.</p>

<p>Has anyone else had success with re-negotiating finaid for things like this? Or could you re-direct me to relevant threads? I'm new :)</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any help!</p>

2

<p>It should either reduce your COA by not having a housing component or if it is handled as a grant, then it should reduce loans and work study first</p>

<p>Ask them how much they value the RA grant and see how that compares to the total of loans & WS you have, if it is less, than you are still better off.</p>