Arizona·Personal Care and Service Occupations·SOC 39-9041

Best Residential Advisor programs in Arizona, ranked by enrollment

Coordinate activities in resident facilities in secondary school and college dormitories, group homes, or similar establishments. Order supplies and determine need for maintenance, repairs, and furnishings.

1 schools in Arizona run programs that feed this job, graduating 3 people a year. The job pays a median of $41,480 in Arizona across about 1,260 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledResident DirectorResident AssistantResidence Hall DirectorResidence Life DirectorHousefellowHouse FatherHouse MotherHouse Parent
Graduates / yr
3
in Arizona
Median pay · Arizona
$41,480
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
1,260
people employed
Schools
1
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
61%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Arizona that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in Arizona that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Arizona (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Arizona page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 13.1102In Arizona
3
100.0%
1$58,038

Top 1 schools in Arizona

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 1 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ Public · 1 feeder programs
3College Student Counseling and Personnel Services61%90%

All 1 schools in Arizona

Every school in Arizona with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Arizona that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Northern Arizona UniversityFlagstaffPublic31

What residential advisors earn in Arizona

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Arizona
$41,480
Mean annual
$43,240
Jobs in state
1,260
What the range looks like
10th pct$31,620Median$41,48090th pct$59,950
Versus the national median
-1.8%

U.S. median $42,240. Arizona pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
0.71×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in Arizona

Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ
$39,260median
30 jobs
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ
$42,340median
850 jobs
Tucson, AZ
$40,770median
220 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+3.8%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
17,400
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
3,500
91,200 → 94,700
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Plus short-term on-the-job training

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Residential Advisors page.

How to become a Residential Advisor

Job zone 3 of 5 · SVP 6.0 to < 7.0
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
On-the-job training
Short-term on-the-job training

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Top skills

Active ListeningMonitoringSpeakingCritical ThinkingReading ComprehensionWriting

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Arizona

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 2 majors mapped to Residential Advisors2 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 13.1102College Student Counseling and Personnel Services
  • 13.1199Student Counseling and Personnel Services, Other

Common questions

Answers for people weighing residential advisors programs in Arizona.

What degree do you need to become a Residential Advisor?+

High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is College Student Counseling and Personnel Services, which awarded 3 degrees in Arizona in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Residential Advisor?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Student Counseling and Personnel Services. Together they graduate about 3 people a year in Arizona.

How much do residential advisors earn in Arizona?+

The median is $41,480 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 1.8% below the U.S. median of $42,240. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for residential advisors growing?+

BLS projects a +3.8% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 17,400 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Arizona?+

1 institutions in Arizona reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do residential advisors work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Resident Director, Resident Assistant, Residence Hall Director, Residence Life Director among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 39-9041.

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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