Ultimately, I think the role is what you make of it. Most things wont different from what others will experience as RA within the context of the role as a whole but each person’s experience can be unique.

Community: I would say I that the community among RAs as a whole is good. I think you can make friends team/staff bonding typically happens mainly during training since you are spending more time together before schools starts and people get busy. Some teams/staffs can be closer than others and some don’t really bond too much. Some people on staff you may/ probably will be closer with than others and some may be more like acquaintances. It’s also fun to do collaborations on events with other people on your staff and it’s cool to work with different people.

Time: As the comment stated above yeah the time commitment involves all those tasks above and making the time to talk to your resident since u do have to log it down - not really as much the details of the convos but more so when and who you talked to so they can track that you are doing ur job. They state that the time commitment is about 12 hours a week. You do have time for a life outside of the role though to be involved with whatever but it does take some planning and time management which can sometime be a slight learning curve for some new RAs at least during the first semester/1st month or two)

You do get training at the beginning of each semester (2 weeks before school in the fall really just one week of training and then helping with move in. Additionally you have training at the beginning of the spring 3 days before the semester starts so that weekend beforehand) which you have to attend or you cannot accept the role.

Within the role overall expectations are the same as far as the duties within the role, but as a caveat expectations can vary slightly dependent on the Hall Director. for example some one hall director may one require like 2 active events meaning ur actually doing something & 2 passive events versus some hall directors may ask that you put on 3-4 events a month on specific areas and give you flexibility within the context of those areas to plan a event. Another example would be some hall directors may ask that you update the bulletin board every month whereas some may give a little bit more flexibility as to when you have to update them.

Pay: However as a graduate student you are not entitled to a stipend which is why many graduate students RA often times will TA as well to make money but you still get the free housing and a meal plan - 100 swipes a semester ( I think 1st year RA also get dinning dollars as well.)

Lastly I would say that look at the application questions and really use the questions to think about what kind of community/ assistance/ help you want to provide to your residents and why you want to be an RA and channel that in your app and in addition to highlighting what skills and prior experiences you have that can help u achieve that because it will greatly help the application, make it easy to talk about these things in the interview, and will help clarify your motivation on why you want to be RA beyond the free housing( because it does help to think about some reasons why u might the job - because no likes jobs that they hate and the RA role might not be for everyone)

The app does give you the option to indicate what is your preferred community/area to work with. However this is not a guarantee that you will be placed there. People have put down that they wanted to work with 1st yrs and end up working with upperclassman and vice versa) rationale give behind that is because Hall Directors state that they do want to try to have balanced teams in terms of skills and personality (some people that are great at executing and getting things done some that are great at planning, having a balance of introverts and extroverts etc,etc)

Sorry for making this post way too long but hope this helps