<p>Alright, so I got a full tuition ride to my college and I just have to cake up money for room and board. My question is that if I become an RA, what is the catch? Is it a hard job? What exactly will I be doing?</p>
<p>It depends on your school, but the “catch” is that you will probably have to be “on duty” at night several times a week and solve everyone’s issues. I haven’t been one but it seems like a job that doesn’t allow for a lot of time to hang out with your friends and such (though it depends if your friends live in the dorms or not). Plus you have to be the “bad guy” if you catch people drinking, etc.</p>
<p>I also don’t think you can be an RA as an incoming freshman, that doesn’t really make a lot of sense.</p>
<p>Yeah I’m going to apply as a sophomore and wow you really have to rat people out?</p>
<p>^ Well yeah…RA is a lot like Fire Watch in the military…and if you catch something going on that shouldn’t be going on and DON’T report it then you can get in a lot of trouble…if you are the RA and get caught doing that then I am sure you will most likely be fired…maybe more but I can’t say for certain.</p>
<p>…Ratting people out is technically the RA’s job…People might rat out drinking or whatever to YOU, and you are the authority (though you will have a boss of some sort).</p>
<p>Some don’t report things but if you’re caught doing that you can be fired, and that’s really NOT a job you want to be fired from. At my school there were rooms in the dorms specifically for RAs, and so if you were fired you would lose your housing.</p>
<p>Being a RA is all about enforcing specific rules. In my case, I don’t like some of my school’s house campus rules (none of these are alcohol/drug related); and I definitely would not want to enforce them, among being subject to other things (late night patrols, for example).</p>
<p>Good part: you get free room (and board?), usually a single.</p>
<p>Bad part: Lousy hours, having to supervise students and “rat them out.” At my institution, which is a dry campus, even RAs who are of age may not be seen in a bar, because that makes them a bad role model, according to the housing office.</p>
<p>Other bad part: You might not even be selected for the job if you apply. They’re pretty good at figuring out who’s applying simply in order to get free housing.</p>
<p>well, I dont drink so I wont have a problem getting caught doing “things” but I also find will find it hard and harsh to rat people out. Also, the job sounds pretty stressful but the free room and board is just irresistible</p>
<p>I guess it depends on your dorm/university, but last year the RAs in my dorm were constantly cleaning up puke, having to call people out for being loud or having loud music, being on call at inconvenient times, having to do graveyard shifts, reporting people for smoking inside, cleaning things out of bathroom sinks on Friday nights, enforcing guest hours, organizing events, you name it. </p>
<p>I’d hate it SO much but it just depends on your personality and how much you’d be willing to take for free housing. Also, it’d look great on a resume and you’d gain good leadership skills.</p>
<p>Besides ratting people out, you have students coming to you all the time for really stupid reasons.<br>
The RAs in my building had to listen to all kinds of idiot things. TOTALLY didn’t envy them.</p>
<p>Wow! yeah I probably wont end up doing it seeing as though I will be doing premed and the Organic chemistry and other classes I will be taking will not flow well with working graveyard shifts! But I try to chat with an RA my freshman year and get their opinions first. I mean Boston College’s room and board is quite expensive!</p>
<p>This will be my third year being an RA, and I can tell you that it is not a job, but a lifestyle. It is a very demanding position in which you are responsible for your community. For the last two years, I was an RA for first year students, so I basically introduced them to college life. I found that I gained so much experience in programming, dealing with conflict and confrontation, building community, and possessing strong leadership skills. </p>
<p>Your college experience as an RA is very different than that of a regular resident. I could not go to parties with underage students or do things that could put my job in jeopardy. Do I regret this? No, but there were definitely times in which I was very frustrated with the position, however you are in a team of other RA’s who are going through the same thing. </p>
<p>I would not do this position just for free room and board. It requires so much work and I dealt with situations I thought I never would. The RA position at other schools is a little bit different than mine, but generally, you must balance the role of being a role model, an authority, and a friend.</p>
<p>haha I was thinking about trying to become an RA my sophomore year just so I can get free or reduced room & board…</p>
<p>I think lasercat is pretty much spot on.</p>
<p>At my college, the RAs were just on call on their regular shift to check for any commotion. The best RAs were the fair ones. The ones who only wrote people up who were being completely obnoxious and obvious with their drinking and loudness. The RA jerks were the ones who just knocked on everyones doors looking for trouble without any reason behind it.</p>
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<p>I dunno. Our RAs were great. I guess our alcohol policy is a little lax, but they did have to report any smoking in the dorms. It’s at their discretion, though.</p>
<p>My freshman RAs, especially one of them, went out of their way to make sure we were doing alright, which I really appreciated. I would have liked to be an RA if I wasn’t a fall athlete.</p>