Becoming a CA is an amazing way to augment your overall Brandeis experience! CAs are educators and community builders in our many residence halls here at Brandeis, and they support the Department of Community Living in managing the facilities and other functions within the halls. CAs are community standards educators, connections to campus resources and other residents, and so much more!
The best place to get this information in detail would be the CA job description, but in short, CAs plan activities that help educate students outside of the classroom and build community and belonging, support students in their journey throughout Brandeis as a peer advisor and connector to resources, community standards enforcer and paraprofessional within the Department of Community Living.
While we do not state a hard and fast requirement of hours worked, a particularly stressful week might include 10 to 15 hours of work for a CA in an active hall community.
There are many, many benefits to joining the CA program and becoming a CA! Community advisors are assigned to a single room on campus outside of the traditional room selection process in the spring and receive a stipend that covers the cost of their room. Additionally, each CA receives at least $625 stipend on their account for meal plan expenses per semester. Furthermore, CAs have access to a strong professional network of both amazing student leaders and strong professional staff members at Brandeis and to specialized training sessions that will build leadership capabilities and transferable skills that will help you long after Brandeis.
Students who wish to serve as CAs must be current Brandeis undergraduate students who have completed at minimum one full year (rising sophomores and above) and who will still be full-time undergraduate students during their tenure as CAs. Students must have lived in residence at Brandeis for at minimum one semester. Successful candidates will also be in good academic and conduct standing; students must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 during the application process and must maintain a 3.0 GPA throughout their time as a CA to remain eligible to retain the role.
Finally, students in the CA role may not serve in positions like the Roosevelt Fellow or Student Conduct Board role whose training conflicts with CA training. Students who are interested in the Campus Center Team role or Orientation Leader role may apply for both roles; however, students MAY NOT be new in both roles concurrently.
The application process to join the CA program varies depending upon what entry date you are applying for and whether you are new or returning to the program. New student staff members are hired to join us both in fall and spring semesters. A review of each candidate’s academic and conduct status is a part of every hiring process for student staff members in DCL. Returning CAs can look at the Returner FAQs section for more information on their process.
The application is multifaceted and will ask you for some demographic information (name, class year, residence halls you've lived in, etc.), a copy of your most recent resume and the names and contact information of a reference. The application will also include a number of short answer questions that relate to your interest in the CA role, prior experiences and what you would aim to do if you were selected as a community advisor.
The interview processes are designed to give us a sense of you both as an individual and as someone who works in groups. The individual interview is usually 30 minutes and consists of questions about your skills and interests that align with the CA role as well as some behavioral interview questions that test your ability to think through a situation and make decisions. The group interview process typically takes two hours and consists of group activities that you will participate in on a variety of levels (in pairs, small groups, large groups and individually) that are designed to tell us how well you work with others and how you would fare in working with fellow CAs and resident
We don’t usually give out hard and fast answers to this question because the numbers can change each year. Every year we have a different number of vacancies, a different returning CA pool, and we see a different incoming applicant class. However, the CA position does tend to be quite selective!
There is no magic formula that we use to determine who becomes a community advisor, but we do take the application process that we use very seriously. Students who are selected are students who excel within that process. Additionally, we look for students who have a strong interest and motivation towards the CA role. While is does not formally factor into the process, students who take steps to show their interest in the role (talking to CAs, talking to ACs, coming to information sessions, reading and reviewing our online materials, etc.) tend to both be better prepared for the process and be students that we remember and recognize when it is time to discuss selection.
In terms of best ways to stand out in the process, we recommend that you put time into your written application and that you have a friend or trusted mentor read over your answers to the short answer questions and that you make an appointment with Hiatt to have your resume reviewed and polished. Staff members place great value on your written work as a means of both figuring out your own writing skills and as a means of understanding your readiness for the role, so don’t rush your answers.
Hiatt can also help with preparation for both individual and group process interviews. You should come to your interview ready to discuss your interest in the CA role, experiences that might be relevant and how you might use your skills and talents in the CA role. Talking to your current CA may help you understand how to best do this. The group interview will consist of group activities that will highlight your ability to work with others. Thinking about how you want to be best represented in a group setting can help here.
We like to say that our teams are ensemble casts, so no one type of person is best suited to become a CA. Highlighting your interest in working with students and being an educator and community builder, as well as your ability to be a team player and good employee, will serve you well no matter who you are.
First and foremost, congratulations are in order! You will receive a letter welcoming you to the program and sharing more details about your assignment and what to do next. All hired candidates are expected to attend our CA orientation meeting in early April and an intent form that lists all dates for trainings, meetings and other events that are required for participation in the program.
Students who are waitlisted should still be proud. This means that we thought you were solid and had the tools to become a CA, but we simply did not have enough spots to hire you. We typically offer a waitlist option for students to join in the event that one of the hired staff members is unable to fulfill the role for any reason. Students are brought in from the waitlist up until the first week of classes of the semester they were waitlisted for (either January or August).
Because of the large size of our applicant pools, we often have to turn a number of students away. Know that if this happens, it’s because we want to make sure that the fit of the CA position works for both us and you and that there are many reasons why you may not have been accepted. We are always impressed with everyone we meet during this process, so know that the decision is never personal and never meant to mean anything about your ability to be a great student leader at Brandeis.
The beauty of attending a school like Brandeis is that there are many, many ways to become a student leader and make a difference, whether it’s as a CA, an orientation leader, a member of the Campus Center Team, a Hiatt Career Advisor, Roosevelt Fellow, UDR or any of the other numerous roles on campus. We and our campus partners are always looking for students to answer the call to leadership even if it’s not with us. Take advantage of other campus opportunities and feel free to apply again during our next cycle. We've seen many students who may not have been ready as rising sophomores come into the program in their later years and excel.
Our office is thrilled to be able to offer a reappointment process to our current community advisors. In a recent process, we had about 50 CAs return to the role and we greatly value having experienced and knowledgeable veterans on the team! As noted when students are hired initially, the CA position is a one-year appointment, but students are welcome to participate in our reappointment process to secure a spot for a second or third year.
DCL has high standards for our returning staff, especially as we want returners to be leaders in the CA community and role models for our new staff members, so we will hold returners to a high standard in the application process. CAs reapplying for the position should not assume that they will be hired simply because they are returners.
The process consists of attending a returning CA information session or HCA information session, written application and an individual reappointment interview with DCL professional staff members. In many cases, the current supervisor and another staff member will conduct the interview, which will focus on both the CA's current performance and how they will raise the bar and excel if given a second or third year as a CA.
CAs who are unsure about returning should talk to their supervisors and other people in their personal teams of support (family, advisors, friends, etc.) about the pros and cons of returning. Being a CA in your junior and senior years at Brandeis can be challenging when you may have more competing interests, are thinking about studying abroad and especially in senior year as you prepare for life after Brandeis.
While the professional staff team is willing to work with students to support them through those changes, there are times where it becomes clear that a CA would have benefited from stepping away from the role and focusing on school. As much as possible, we hope to avoid unnecessarily stressful moments like these for all involved so we can focus on what’s best for our residential communities. If you decide not to return, know that no one will treat you differently and that you will always be a part of the DCL family! A decision to return for a second or third year should not be made lightly.
Every year, we hire head CAs who support the work that area coordinators (ACs) do and who act as part of a team of students (the Head CA Council) that functions as a permanent focus group for the senior team. Head CAs will go through a hiring process in Spring. More information about the role can be found on the job description when it is available. Questions can be addressed by your AC senior leadership team in DCL.
The CA stipend will not affect the amount of your need- or merit-based scholarship, provided that the sum of your CA stipend and your other awarded scholarships does not exceed the total cost of attendance. It is possible, however, that your loan and/or work may be reduced to remain within calculated need and/or the total cost of attendance.
The CA stipend is considered a scholarship. However, in accordance with the Tax Reform Act of 1986, if your aggregate scholarship and grant assistance exceeds tuition, required fees for course instruction or academic enrollment and books/supplies (for which receipts have been kept), the amount in excess must be included in your taxable income. You are responsible for determining whether the total of all of your scholarships (including the CA stipend), in whole or in part, should be included as taxable income.
Yes. If you would like to work more than 20 hours per week, you must submit a petition to "Waive the 20-Hour Per-Week Work Limit" form to Student Financial Services.
If you are at all concerned about how accepting the CA position will impact your financial aid, please reach out to Student Financial Services. The staff can be extremely helpful in making the decision to apply. The CA role is almost always a financial help to students rather than a hindrance, and those who leave the role before departing Brandeis in many cases have made note of how leaving the program and losing the stipend affected their aid. So even if you are returning to the program and have questions, feel free to reach out to SFS.