Pros
I made good friends among the staffs I worked for over my 4 years at MSU, and the position taught me valuable conflict resolution and leadership skills. Since there are very few hard-line 'hours' that you have to work - with only the mandatory 4 hours of desk shift, which you get to schedule , and duty nights where you're on call - the position is very flexible to an undergraduate class and part time work schedule. There's also free housing.
Cons
With the benefit of free housing, you lose your control over where you live, as ResLife places you where they need you. The stipend comes out at roughly $200 biweekly. New RAs make less than RAs returning for additional years, but the increase from 'new' to 'returner' is one time, so you won't get more money on each paycheck for your third year. The department is also becoming very pushy with their 'high education track', trying to get RAs to pursue future careers in Residence Life. This is even to the extend that graduating students who did not pursue degrees in higher education or school counseling psychology in undergraduate cannot advance upward to positions such as 'community director' or 'assistant community director'. Graduate students also can no longer become RAs, as the department decided they want to encourage graduate students to pursue positions like assistant community director or 'office assistant', the latter of which has no residential benefits and a minor increase in pay. Additionally, the semester-long 'in-services' are a headache that are intended to act like 'continuing training' after the week-long summer training ends, but end up being mandatory sessions that indirectly relate to the RA position at best, and are an irrelevant waste of time at worst. Additionally, all RAs are now required to take a Leadership Psyc course which does not fit into all student's degree requirements, basically forcing a student to pay for the requirement.
