We can all agree that as students, there is plenty of strife that comes from our schoolwork and classes, enough so that some of us may not want to pursue any other avenues of time-consuming devoirs.

Yet, there are always those few among us that voluntarily elect to work on campus alongside their studies to gain some extra funds on the side and potentially even some experience in the totally sought after workforce of the University.

There are definitely some jobs that present more of an exciting indulgence to those new students in the halls looking for something else to fill up every waking minute of their collegiate lives, and the following list seeks to sort and rank them from best to worst.

1.Campus Recreation Referee

I mean pretty self explanatory right? Imagine getting to referee a super tight intramural flag football game, or officiate an inexplicably intense dodgeball game. Something about watching 20-something-year-olds become competitive and even try-hard holds a special level of entertainment on its own and a fantastic thing to behold, and you get paid for it!

2. Front desk at a dorm

Let’s be honest — what percent of the time during your shift would you actually be helping residents in need? 5%? 4%? Whatever the number may be, the amount of things you could get done working at the front desk of a dorm is endless. 

From being an avenue to complete any number of homework assignments your heart desires, to wanting to just sit and rot your life away, this job is perfect for such a wide range of students! Although, dealing with the blaring fire alarm once a semester and feeling responsible for bringing all of your residents to safety may be enough to scare the weak ones away. 

3. Bartending

Ah yes, the golden egg for those in Greek life. If you’re a new student interested in the Greek system at the University, bartending would be a great pick for you.

What more in life could you possibly ask for as you’re mixing up any drink your fraternity brothers or sorority sisters could ever — wait — who’s that? Some random guy who you’ve talked to once walking out of class is asking for free drinks? And he brought eight of his friends? Uh oh.

Beware of the attention you will get if you take this particular path in the University edition of the Game of Life. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

4. Starbucks barista

Who doesn’t enjoy being a part of an absolutely massive conglomerate coffee company that somehow has two places on campus? It doesn’t matter if you’re in the Union Starbucks or the bookstore branch, either location offers unparalleled aspects of excitement and people-watching. Plus, you can say you’ve worked at Starbucks! Yay! Yay?

5. Dining hall worker

What a way to contribute to your collegiate community. Unfortunately, the excitement levels are low here. So is the morale. So is the food quality. 

But no matter! There is a certain art behind standing and watching people scoop globs of the dining hall offerings onto their plates, ensuring the spatula is positioned correctly after every use and not falling into the food. And it gets worse, so no worries if this is the path you feel really speaks to you!

6. Resident Advisor

Oh dear. We’ve reached the bottom of the list, and thus the least desirable stint of all. Many RAs get lucky and have a controlled floor that doesn’t behave in too derelict of a manner, but I would be remiss to say that this is the expectation. 

College students are going to be college students, so expect feeling like a tired parent on the occasional Saturday night you wake up to people screaming in the hallway, returning from a party or the bar, and feeling like you need to discipline them. There also is plenty of responsibility that comes with being an RA, and who wants that? Fire checks? No thanks.

One pro to this is that I don’t believe anybody becomes an RA because they have to. Instead, every RA is an RA because that’s the path they wanted. More power to you if this is you!

George is a senior in LAS.

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