My son is in an Ivy school and has secured a resident hall assistant (RA) job for the 2017-18 year. The RA job will provide room + board for the 2017-18 year & to that extent his overall cost to attend will be decrease. When computing our EFC, will the college count his RA as part of the family income?
Example:
Total cost to attend = $67K PA
RA Assistantship = $13K
Expected Family Contribution Without RA taken into consideration = 42K
Will this mean that the college will keep the EFC at 42K (& hence award a financial aid for the difference which is 67-13-42 - 12K), or take junior’s 13K RA allotment into consideration & raise the EFC to 42 + 13 = 55K ? In which case, it really means no reduction/saving to the family & junior working an RA seems like a wasted effort. IoW, what he earns does not help the family, but goes straight to the school. (In that case, it seems better not to take the RA).
Hmm it depends on how the school does it, but it might count as a type of scholarship instead. Many schools will credit you for the room and board charges rather than giving you the money as a salary. However, any stipend beyond the room and board help would be considered as wages, I think.
The best answer will come from the FA office at his university. They will know the definitive answer to the question. At my kid’s school it was spelled out in the RA information on the website but students were also encouraged to contact the FA office to discuss their particulars before committing.
I’d think it wouldn’t be fair to basically pay him nothing for the RA job, which is what would happen if they kept the EFC at $42k. If you have to pay $42k if he is an RA and $42k if he isn’t an RA, he should turn down being an RA. He’d be working for nothing.
If the COA is 67k and your EFC is 42k then he has 25k demonstrated need
I think the RA assistantship is going to be used to offset his need leaving him with 12k in need.
When my D was an RA she did not get free room and board at her Ivy. They got paid a stipend. Even without the free room and board it was still one of the most competitive jobs on campus.
I’m not familiar with “meets full need” schools but this is what I think will happen. Your child will get their regular financial aid based on your EFC, then due to their position as an RA be given a reduction in costs of 13k as payment for their job. It may show up on their 1098 as a scholarship, Grant or stipend rather than income. As others have mentioned to do otherwise would mean working for free. I can’t imagine them getting too many RA’s that way unless they were full pay. I’d email or call someone at the university.
In order for your EFC to be reduced, you would have to find outside scholarships/awards that covers all of your need based aid.
Don’t simply look at the RA position as a waste because it is going to be a wash from a financial aid standpoint. sometime soon, your son will be applying to jobs after graduation through career services. There are a lot of great transferable skills that your son can pick up from being an RA @blossom
You can search the financial aid website at the school to see exactly how this source of income is treated Best odds is that this “award” counts the same as an external scholarship. But keep in mind that your student is already permitted to bring in outside scholarships to cover any loans, student contribution, and workstudy. So the break in the housing cost could be useful to your family because it reduces the TOTAL portion that your family is responsible for. The only portion of the family contribution that you may not be permitted to cover with scholarships is the parent contribution.
Full need schools, especially, count outside scholarships in different ways. At my oldest DD’s school, a portion (I want to say the first $500) was used to reduce EFC with the remaining being split in half. If the school was $60,000 and you received a $30,000 school grant (not loans, work study, etc) and you has a $5500 scholarship, your school grant was reduced by $2,500.
As far as RAs, they were given a small stipend (around $2500) and paid much the same as other jobs (bi-weekly.) I would assume, for FA purposes, it counted as any other outside job, unless you has work study possibly.
Here is what Yale says. Their Freshman Counselors are very similar to Resident Assistants. Your school probably has a similar page since this would be a concern of many students.
Freshman counselor compensation is treated as job earnings with respect to financial aid awards. The compensation received is considered as satisfying whatever job requirement is in the package. Compensation in excess of the expected amount will not affect any component of the aid award. Therefore, no matter what the level of aid received, a student’s financial aid award will not be adjusted due to the receipt of freshman counselor compensation.
How do FroCos get paid?
FroCos are compensated for their work through credit towards their room and board bills. For FroCos who receive financial aid and already have the room and board bills covered, the funds can go towards Yale Health coverage, your student income contribution, or other bursar bills. If there are funds left over after everything is accounted for, they will be distributed to you through your bursar account.