So, yesterday I signed a contract to become an RA next year...

[usainboltisfast]

RIP to your social life. Might as well delete your facebook fam.

 

[soltheman]

Anyone else work for the residential staff of their university? How did you like it? What are some things that you would recommend?

I did it over the summer last year (it was a joke then,) but now I'll actually have to do programming and events and things. At first I was pretty excited about the opportunity, but now I'm nervous.

Tips? Advice? Stories/experiences? Please share.

Edit: If it makes any difference, I'll be working in an apartment style hall, so most (if not all) of the residents will be junior status or above. (Which is also kind of frightening, considering I'm 19 and most of these people will be 21+) Nevertheless, it shouldn't be quite as "involved." At least, that's what I'm telling myself.

 

[storm2006]

YNS

 

[BranchLifestyle]

What years will you be RA-ing for? Was an RA for 3 yrs...PM me fam, I got a bit of experience/advice if you need any.

 

[soltheman]

Originally Posted by ShadyKay NT

What years will you be RA-ing for? Was an RA for 3 yrs...PM me fam, I got a bit of experience/advice if you need any.

Next year (Contract starts in August, goes 'till May.) And I'mma hit you up when I'm out of class homie.

 

[budweiser]

You're a rugger, right? That should be fun getting the younger lads off the hook.

 

[unkletomcruze]

OP I was an RA for 3 years.

First year-- all freshman guys floor
Second year-- mixed, soph-junior guys
Third year- Co-ed floor consisting of all grade levels.

During the summers in-between, I RA'd in the apartments and Suites as well (mostly athletes).

Honestly, it was the easiest job ever. Programming is really not the big of a deal because you can do whatever you want. Heck, take a few of your residents to dinner in the dining halls and you can count it as a floor program.

IDK, if you have specific questions, feel free to post 'em and i'll try my best to answer 'em.



...

 

[sneakaprince]

I had a GA (a grad level RA) across the hall from me during my freshman year.... Dude was the coolest guy ever. Bought us liq and pretty much never cared what me or my roommates did. I still talk to dude to this day he is actually like a father figure for me in many ways (he was actually into kicks and knew about NT)

I personally never wanted to be an RA but that was just me. OP its no where near as bad as the NT dudes are making it seem (but it is work). If u have a cool floor honestly its just free room and board in exchange for some of your free time. Most of the RAs I had during undergrad were cool ppl....

In fact I remember one very specific time where I brought this chick back to the dorms at liek 1 AM and she threw up in water fountain (I def wasn't cleaning that up). They ended up saying they were gonna write me up since it was my company and I didn't do anything to clean it up or prevent it. I gave em the #yeshrug and nothing ever came of it.... #winning....

Looking back I prolly still owe my undergrad institution alot of money but oh well

 

[joesarge]

I RAed for freshman as a Junior. It can be as easy as you want. I didn't write anyone up all year and did programming that I cared about. I actually got funding to buy wings and snacks to watch college football on Saturdays as an example.

It can be stressful, but if you are in a bigger dorm (w/ more other RA's) you won't be asked to stay in too many weekends. Definitely worth free room/board overall IMO.

 

[flyest in the hood]

Originally Posted by Storm2006

YNS

OP stated that he was a virgin on tinychat

 

[ravagebx]

I was an RA for 3 years. Honestly it was one of the best decisions I ever made in college. Firstly, out of my 6 years there (undergrad and grad) I had my own room all but freshman year. As an RA my half of the room was accommodated and they allowed me to buy out the other half at a 60% discount, so basically I was getting an entire room for 40% of what I would've paid for half. On top of that there was a bi-weekly stipend of like $100. Programming and all that stuff is annoying but not hard. Basically your RA experience will depend on you. If you take it super serious and want to act like a rent a cop its gonna suck. I was cool with all my residents. I didn't bust anyone's balls as long as they didn't do anything to f my gig up and they weren't complete idiots. I gave heads up to people and I did my best to let people have as much fun as possible without going overboard. Wanna smoke in your room, have a blast as long as I can't smell it or see it. Wanna boogie board in the hallway, #%!%*! Being an RA was fun man and it saved me a grip of money. It didn't stop me from partying and doing my thing at all. Hell it even got me in with cute girls at times...and if it didn't I could just key myself in

All in all I had a great experience and I would encourage anyone interested to give it a try.

 

[likethematrix]

being a "cool RA" is like being a "Cool prison guard"

you still gonna tell on people and you still gonna be snitchin.

 

[soltheman]

Originally Posted by Budweiser

You're a rugger, right? That should be fun getting the younger lads off the hook.

Yeah. The memory that some of y'all have is crazy. But, I don't think anyone of the current players will be living on my floor. I haven't really announced it via Facebook or anything because I'm not super excited about it or anything. Who knows, though? If that ends up happening though, it'd be legit.

Originally Posted by Flyest In The Hood

Originally Posted by Storm2006

YNS

OP stated that he was a virgin on tinychat

Oh.

I wish, though. Some of the stuff that I've done to get the box (and some of the beasts that I've laid down) almost makes me think it isn't worth all the good sexual experiences I've had. But that's another topic for another time.

Originally Posted by RavageBX

I was an RA for 3 years. Honestly it was one of the best decisions I ever made in college. Firstly, out of my 6 years there (undergrad and grad) I had my own room all but freshman year. As an RA my half of the room was accommodated and they allowed me to buy out the other half at a 60% discount, so basically I was getting an entire room for 40% of what I would've paid for half. On top of that there was a bi-weekly stipend of like $100. Programming and all that stuff is annoying but not hard. Basically your RA experience will depend on you. If you take it super serious and want to act like a rent a cop its gonna suck. I was cool with all my residents. I didn't bust anyone's balls as long as they didn't do anything to f my gig up and they weren't complete idiots. I gave heads up to people and I did my best to let people have as much fun as possible without going overboard. Wanna smoke in your room, have a blast as long as I can't smell it or see it. Wanna boogie board in the hallway, #%!%*! Being an RA was fun man and it saved me a grip of money. It didn't stop me from partying and doing my thing at all. Hell it even got me in with cute girls at times...and if it didn't I could just key myself in

All in all I had a great experience and I would encourage anyone interested to give it a try.

My university gives us our room for completely free, as well as $800 to use towards whatever we want on campus a semester (they say it's for food, but we use a credit card type of system and the money can be applied to anything on campus) to begin with. On top of that we get stipends. There are other bonuses (including extra money on our student IDs, cash bonuses for working extra, etc,) but I think that's all I can say without telling too much info.

I like your approach, though.

This entire thread is making me feel a lot better about the opportunity. Glad to know that there are a lot of other people who tried it out and liked it. (A lot more than I expected from TV, idk why.

)

 

[waveyjoneslocker]

I hate your kind OP. Sometimes I can't believe how bad R.A.'s are and how terribly they behave. There are just a few R.A.'s yet they are responsible for almost all of the murders in our town and are the ones failing at anything good. Plus, R.A.'s are also total jerks. I see R.A.'s walking in the middle of the road just to inconvenience people that drive cars. Also, when there is a car speeding around it is usually an R.A.'s driving obnoxiously in a really nice car but a trashed out house. This is my rant, sorry...

 

[youmadyoubad]

Originally Posted by WaveyJonesLocker

I hate your kind OP. Sometimes I can't believe how bad R.A.'s are and how terribly they behave. There are just a few R.A.'s yet they are responsible for almost all of the murders in our town and are the ones failing at anything good. Plus, R.A.'s are also total jerks. I see R.A.'s walking in the middle of the road just to inconvenience people that drive cars. Also, when there is a car speeding around it is usually an R.A.'s driving obnoxiously in a really nice car but a trashed out house. This is my rant, sorry...

 

[labolt317]

Originally Posted by WaveyJonesLocker

I hate your kind OP. Sometimes I can't believe how bad R.A.'s are and how terribly they behave. There are just a few R.A.'s yet they are responsible for almost all of the murders in our town and are the ones failing at anything good. Plus, R.A.'s are also total jerks. I see R.A.'s walking in the middle of the road just to inconvenience people that drive cars. Also, when there is a car speeding around it is usually an R.A.'s driving obnoxiously in a really nice car but a trashed out house. This is my rant, sorry...

Little unfair to say that they're all like that don't you think? I had one of the coolest R.A.'s. Used to drink with him and I still party with the guy to this day. It all just depends on how lucky you are in the R.A.'s you get I guess cuz the R.A. for the downstairs floor in my dorm was terrible. 

 

[brandon3000]

I was an RA.

It was AWESOME

all my neighbors had lived on the floor with me the previous year

was paid $100 every friday to do nothing and NEVER have to worry about getting busted drinking

around spring i began to get hassled because I never wrote anyone up but it was cool in hindsight because I had my own room and only had like 1 or 2 instances where I had to check one of the residents.




The biggest reward however came in the discounted room. That year i took out the least in student loans. If i was smart I would have continued to do this. Ah well college was one expensive blur

you'll be fine tho OP. Have fun

 

[Good Ol J.R]

I did it as well. PM me if you have any questions or want any funny stories.

 

[lieutenant kif]

Originally Posted by WaveyJonesLocker

I hate your kind OP. Sometimes I can't believe how bad R.A.'s are and how terribly they behave. There are just a few R.A.'s yet they are responsible for almost all of the murders in our town and are the ones failing at anything good. Plus, R.A.'s are also total jerks. I see R.A.'s walking in the middle of the road just to inconvenience people that drive cars. Also, when there is a car speeding around it is usually an R.A.'s driving obnoxiously in a really nice car but a trashed out house. This is my rant, sorry...

Do you know what an RA is?

 

[rocman23]

Use to drink with my RA sophmore year

Freshman year lived right next door to the R.A. and partied next to him

 

[keithsweatsjordans]

Originally Posted by LABolt317

Originally Posted by WaveyJonesLocker

I hate your kind OP. Sometimes I can't believe how bad R.A.'s are and how terribly they behave. There are just a few R.A.'s yet they are responsible for almost all of the murders in our town and are the ones failing at anything good. Plus, R.A.'s are also total jerks. I see R.A.'s walking in the middle of the road just to inconvenience people that drive cars. Also, when there is a car speeding around it is usually an R.A.'s driving obnoxiously in a really nice car but a trashed out house. This is my rant, sorry...

Little unfair to say that they're all like that don't you think? I had one of the coolest R.A.'s. Used to drink with him and I still party with the guy to this day. It all just depends on how lucky you are in the R.A.'s you get I guess cuz the R.A. for the downstairs floor in my dorm was terrible. 

You cannot be that oblivious

 

[dt43]

i'm not an RA, but if i was i'd basically be like what my current RA is now. he doesnt give a !%%+ about anything and is the chillest dude ever.

our floor constantly smells like weed (people have literally been like "whoa!" and took a step back once they got off the elevator

), we make mad noise, ripped bongs in the hallway, throw tons of parties with loud @%@ music etc and i don't recall him ever seriously writing anyone up. the school gives him money to throw "floor events" which is basically him buying mad food/drinks and leaving them in the lounge if anyone feels like taking some. like during the Superbowl he just ordered mad food and watched the game with us (we all openly had beers and he didn't care).

earlier in the year we threw this epic floor party that spanned across 5-7 rooms. apparently that night some frat party got busted early and everyone heard about our thing and showed up. so it eventually spilled over into the hallway and ended up being probably close to 200 drunk kids running around the halls with alcohol, playing BP, hooking up, etc. anyways he came back from somewhere at like 12AM, saw the madness, and just shook his head and laughed and went to his room. by like 2AM the campus police had found out, so he comes out of his room pretending to be outraged like "okay guys break it up! not cool"

. i remember he walked into one of the party rooms, there was blatantly alcohol and weed everywhere, and he's like "who's room is this?" and the two kids raise their hands, and he's like "sorry, but i'm gonna have to write you guys up for a noise violation" and that was it. all the kids had to do was help clean up and nothing happened to them.

 

[sangalang]

you guys must've had horrible ra's cause all the ones i've ever had (and the ones in my buildings) were all pretty cool for the most part

 

[allenpak]

Been an RA for 2 years, will be employed next year as well.  It's really not that bad, I got my own room (bathroom/shower), patio, parking spot, and they pay me $240 every two weeks. 

Plus I get free toilet paper.

 

[vendetta]

Lived next to the RA a couple years ago. Dude would let us drink and party on weekends so it was no biggie.