This year, 81 full-time RCAs and a “handful” of Assistant RCAs were selected out of a record applicant pool of 256 students, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Cole Crittenden GS ’05 — who oversaw the application process — said in an e-mail.
The number of available positions remained the same as last year’s, despite complaints from several students that this year’s reduction in RCA numbers had led to zones with over 50 advisees.
“At this time, there are no major policy changes being considered for the RCA position,” Crittenden said.
During the application process, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students screens students based on essays and recommendations and then assigns them to a residential college’s pool depending on students’ choices and the colleges’ needs, according to the ODUS website.
“Students are assigned to pools through a complex process that takes into account their own ranked preferences but also the projected needs of each college,” Crittenden said. “However, from year to year, colleges will have different numbers of openings, and we therefore stress to applicants that they apply first and foremost to the RCA position itself and not to any one particular college.”
Prospective RCAs then undergo individual and group interviews with college staff members and current RCAs.
“It’s really competitive,” said Adam Kravietz ’13, an applicant who was assigned to the Wilson College applicant pool but was ultimately waitlisted. “I think it was like 80 people for six spots,” he said of the Wilson selection process.
The competition is increased because many of the applicants are returning RCAs who are more likely to receive a position, applicant Jason Pan ’12 said. Pan, who is not a current RCA, was rejected from the Wilson College pool.
“Most of the people I know who got chosen actually did it this year, so they’re just continuing,” he said.
Several applicants said they were surprised that the colleges had not reconsidered the number of available positions.
“That’s ridiculous,” Kravietz said. “I wouldn’t agree with that. I think it’s pretty important to get pretty personal with your RCA.”
However, Kravietz noted, the selection process was an enjoyable one.
“It was a good experience,” he said. “It was pretty straightforward ... I felt they actually read my application and were asking me about specific experiences.”
Emily Trost ’13, who will be an RCA next year in Rockefeller College, also said the process was positive.
“I thought it was actually kind of fun and it made me kind of reflect on why I wanted to do this,” she said. “It kind of made me think about the past year and a half and how lucky we actually are here, what resources we have, the things we take for granted.”
RCAs are generally prohibited from speaking to the press. However, several applicants who were not accepted said there were problems with how the application process was conducted, particularly with the manner in which applicants are assigned to specific colleges, and noted that colleges apparently tend to favor applicants from within their own college.
Amanda Coston ’13, a Rockefeller resident, was assigned to the pool for her second choice of Whitman College. She did not make the interview stage of the process.
When she visited the Whitman office, she was told that they were only seeking people from Whitman or members of college councils, she said.
“I wanted to see what I could do better for next year,” she explained. “I just thought that was a little messed up because I don’t know why ODUS put me in that draw group if I didn’t even have a chance.”
Given the heavy competition, many applicants also expressed a desire for a more transparent and fair process.
“It seems really arbitrary how they pick people,” said one applicant who asked to remain anonymous because he might apply again next year and does not want to compromise his chances. “It definitely helps to be a member of the college council. It’s basically sucking up to the administration.”
Coston expressed the same sentiment, noting that she thought a lot of the selection process occurred behind the scenes.
“There’s definitely networking [involved],” she said, adding that she thought colleges should make their criteria clearer. “I felt like I wasted the time of the people who wrote my recs.”
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