Resident assistants (RAs) play a crucial role in creating a welcoming, supportive community in University Residences.
RAs are student leaders who help Boilermakers find their home away from home by fostering connections and offering peer support. They're friendly faces welcoming residents during move-in. They're problem-solvers who offer steady support during challenging times and creators who work behind the scenes to plan programs that engage their community.
Approximately 1,000 Boilermakers expressed interest in becoming an RA during information sessions held in fall 2025, making it one of the most sought-after positions on campus. With so many Boilermakers eager to serve, finding the students who are best suited for the role calls for careful consideration. University Residences meets this challenge with a robust and competitive application process.
Jen Bannon, associate director of residential leadership, oversees the selection process. Her approach focuses on fairness and student growth.
“The process is about the students,” Bannon says. “For a lot of them, this is their first time applying for a job. Every student needs to be given a fair shot through a process that is setting them up to be successful — and even if they’re not successful, we need a process that gives them ample opportunity to be successful.”
After mandatory information sessions during the fall, the application process opens. The applications consist of essay questions, including the opportunity for candidates to share what residential life staff call a “personal flag” — a statement that offers five unique things about them. Candidates are encouraged to express themselves as creatively or succinctly as they like.
“During any interview, you’re almost always asked to tell a little about yourself,” Bannon explains. “This gives us the opportunity to learn about them in a way that’s a little different and provides them with a space to be creative. We don’t judge how they do it — it’s the fact that they can put something there and articulate themselves.”
After an extensive review, residential life staff select candidates for the next step. Known to staff as “Big Weekend,” this round includes individual and group interviews as well as group activities that take place in front of residential life staff. The different activities allow residential life staff to interact with and observe candidates in a variety of settings that also help candidates gain valuable experience they can take into their future pursuits. To ensure fairness, multiple residential life staff members evaluate each candidate at every step of the process.
“Some candidates flourish in that type of process,” Bannon says. “Extroverted candidates and those who are naturally leaders can take charge and immediately run a room. When you think of RAs, that’s typically the type of person most people would think of — but that’s not always what we want. We want to balance our staff with people who are also introspective and show that they have the critical thinking skills we’re after during the case study we have them complete.”
The final consideration is matching RAs with a residence hall community that fits their expertise and skills. For example, residence halls with a large population of first-year students can benefit from having the RAs who are best equipped to support their transition to college life. Halls with a larger population of older students may require RA support that focuses on guiding them as they consider their next steps beyond Purdue.
“We want to find that nice balance and mix of RAs who can connect with the students who are going to be in those communities,” Bannon says. “We also consider what RAs are studying and whether they’ve been in learning communities so our staff is representative of who lives in each building. When a student looks around, we want them to see people they can connect with.”
The students who are selected as new RAs for the 2026-27 school year can feel a sense of pride in knowing they navigated a competitive selection process. Of the 750 students who completed applications, University Residences expects to hire approximately 110 new RAs.
In the fall, these new hires will join returning RAs in helping Boilermakers succeed in their home away from home — from the first hello on move-in day to the laughs and moments of encouragement that follow.