How To Become A Student Life Coordinator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a student life coordinator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A student life coordinator is the college's bridge to its student body. They take charge of planning and implementing cultural, academic, and recreational programs for the students.

To develop the students' educational, social, and personal growth, the student life coordinator prepares and handles campus-based events. Their administrative duties include the logistics of orientations, excursions, fundraising programs, and other activities. The management of the allocated budget for the programs is also one of their tasks.

Since a big part of their job is to coordinate with the student leaders, club members, college committees, and other campus personnel, they need to have powerful and engaging communication skills. They also have to be organized and capable of handling multiple projects.

The educational requirement to be a student life coordinator varies depending on the employers. Some campuses do not require a bachelor's degree. Others prefer applicants with a master's in counseling, education, or any related field. Significant residential life experience proves as a huge advantage.

ScoreStudent Life CoordinatorUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,449

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

8.9

Growth Rate 12%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 2.17%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 12.24%

Hispanic or Latino 18.98%

Unknown 5.18%

White 54.43%

Gender

female 62.15%

male 37.85%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress Level

8.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.1

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.2

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a student life coordinator

Explore student life coordinator education requirements

Most common student life coordinator degrees

Bachelor's

70.9 %

Master's

13.0 %

Associate

9.0 %

Start to develop specific student life coordinator skills

Skills	Percentages
Student Organizations	12.07%
Professional Development	6.88%
Event Planning	4.88%
Leadership Development	4.83%
Program Development	4.74%

Complete relevant student life coordinator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New student life coordinators learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a student life coordinator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real student life coordinator resumes.

Research student life coordinator duties and responsibilities

Generate creative and original weekly content for publish, achieving more shares-per-article on Facebook than any other writer at the time.
Maintain and correctly manage confidential information in accordance to FERPA regulations.
Provide leadership and assistance for campus organizations dedicate to minority students and/or causes.
Work with individual chapters on leadership and organization development, scholarship, social and philanthropic programming.

Prepare your student life coordinator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your student life coordinator resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a student life coordinator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Student Life Coordinator Resume templates

Build a professional Student Life Coordinator resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Student Life Coordinator resume.

Apply for student life coordinator jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a student life coordinator job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do student life coordinators rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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1 Star

Student Life Coordinator reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2020

Pros

The interaction with students, the progress of the students and the opportunities to develop programs.

Cons

The very hectic schedule and the multi-tasking that never ends.