Resident Assistant interview season is here, and applicants are scrambling for a chance at a highly competitive position. But in reality, how legitimate is this selective process?
Residential Services at Northwestern should be more transparent with the admissions process — particularly their admissions priorities — and make it more difficult for applicants to be accepted on the basis of association and connections.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not speaking out of spite — I’m a current RA in the process of interviewing RA candidates for the 2025-2026 school year.
Resident assistants receive stipends for on-campus housing and dining that cover the full cost of both. It’s the biggest incentive for students to apply to the position — and a valid one, considering its massive cuts on total student payment. In fact, “fees, books, housing and food, transportation expenses and transportation” account for $27,720 of an NU student’s total yearly expenses.
All RAs are also placed in singles nearly the size of doubles, and in the case of dorm rooms with built-in closets, two closet spaces and expanded storage space.
Upperclassmen can avoid the hassle of finding off-campus housing, signing complicated leases, cooking their own meals and dealing with maintenance issues without the on-campus facility support.
In short, it’s an increasingly coveted position with significant benefits, demonstrated by the 50% rise in applicants since 2023.
So how are applicants chosen from this competitive pool?
The NU Residential Services page only states one requirement, in addition to minimum qualifications, for the job: a commitment to supporting student needs and opportunities and comfort interacting with University personnel. Specifically, what objective criteria must candidates be evaluated on during both the written application and interview rounds of the process to ensure as much equity as possible?
Candidates are interviewed by two staff members of Residential Services: a Resident Director (full-time professional staff) and a Resident Assistant. The ratings and reviews assigned to each applicant determine their status. Current RAs sign up for slots on a first-come, first-serve basis, choosing dates and times that fit their schedules. RA applicants also manually pick preferred time slots for their interviews.
Though current RAs are encouraged to change their time slots in the case of association with an interviewee, there is no legitimate procedure in place to prevent such hacks to the system.
This means RAs may be coordinating with their applicant friends to get them accepted regardless of the quality of their applications and interviews.
I’ve encountered accepted first-round applicants who have multiple reported records of underage alcohol use in residential dorms. I’m not too sure how this aligns with the requirement that applicants are “in good academic and conduct standing,” especially when these records are easily accessible by Residential Services.
On the other hand, I’m familiar with a handful of overqualified applicants with stacked resumes and notable experience working in residential communities. Applicants with extensive help from current RAs are somehow unable to pass the first written application round, even when their record is clean and they showcase a genuine interest in fostering a vibrant residential community in their position.
In the case of acceptance by connection, students in real financial need are deprived of an opportunity to receive significant cuts in their total tuition payment, alleviating genuine financial difficulties they are facing as a result of NU’s exorbitant tuition.
In 2025, candidates will be notified of their status between Mar. 3 and 7. The housing search for upperclassmen typically starts the fall quarter of sophomore year, if not earlier. This includes and is not limited to finding the perfect roommates, obtaining guardian approval and scheduling apartment tours. Even if the search yields successful results, leases need to be signed, financial paperwork submitted and security deposits paid.
It’s a long and complicated process for first-timers, and if you’re late to the search, you might end up with a sky-high rent or in a miniscule space that stinks of old takeout and wet socks. And once leases are signed, they can be quite difficult to withdraw.
NU’s most recent Housing Fair was Jan. 31 of this year, more than a month before the status notification date. If candidates don’t even know if they’ll be living on or off campus the following year, how will they receive the support they need to make these important decisions? Will they find potential roommates who are willing to wait until mid-March to start apartment hunting? Will there be affordable options among the leftovers for financially insecure students?
The answer is clear: the RA application and admission process traps students in a precarious situation — one that leaves their future at the mercy of a system that feels, well, random.
Alice Oh is a Medill and Bienen sophomore. She can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.
