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<p>Actually, one of the things that doesn’t affect your application/scholarship is how much you seem to care. They base it on your merit or need alone.</p>
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<p>Being an RA is not hard, but it is competitive to get a spot, a few hundred students will apply to be an RA every year, for maybe 100 new openings (because once you become an RA, you are essentially guaranteed it for the next 2 years). It’s a complex application process starting with a written application and recommendation letters. This is followed by interviews (first cut I think) and group activities (second cut I think) to judge your interaction skills and management skills. After that, the current board decides who gets to be an RA the following year. And even then, you may not be placed in the dorm you wanted.</p>
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<p>No. The scholarships on campus are the ones given out when you apply. After that, there may be some small ones (like for research or whatever) but they are definitely under $5000, even under $1000</p>
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<p>Allie was actually giving some good advice: get an off campus job (lots of local restaurants, for instance, need help!). A lot of my friends did this. If you can make about $500-$600 a month (working about 15-20 hours a week), you can make enough to live off campus by your sophomore year (and thus eliminate the $5000 room & board cost). Another thing is to try and find a good paying summer job, work hard all summer, and save up on that money to use during the school year (I did this as a way to pay off rent for this past year).</p>