Student Research Assistantships
Learn about this opportunity for students to become close collaborators on faculty-led research projects.
Muhlenberg’s research assistantship program allows faculty members to hire talented Muhlenberg students on a part-time basis (up to 20 hours per week during the summer and up to 12 hours per week during the academic year) to assist them with the professional work required by their academic discipline.
The program provides hands-on experience for Muhlenberg students who want to complement their classroom education by getting hands-on experience with professional scholarly activity.
Research Assistantship Program Frequently Asked Questions
A research assistant might:
- Run an experiment
- Monitor a laboratory
- Help administer an academic journal or professional organization
- Work on an index or other aspects of a manuscript
- Pull books, articles, or photographs from a library collection
- Do research under the faculty member's direction
- Help organize a conference or other scholarly meeting
Research assistantships should provide students with serious responsibilities, require particular skills and aptitudes, and be centered on a major scholarly or professional project. Positions should require a greater level of responsibility and commitment than is typically required for a work-study and should not be ones in which the student is simply a general-purpose assistant.
An independent study is initiated, defined, and directed by the student. The faculty member’s role is to provide guidance and instruction, and to grade the end product of the student’s work.
A research assistantship is defined and directed by the faculty member. The student’s role is to provide specialized assistance that directly advances the research objectives of the faculty member. The student must already have the relevant expertise so that the amount of mentoring required is minimal. The goal is to provide meaningful work for the student that would otherwise not be a productive use of the faculty member’s time.
There need not be any gradable end-product in a research assistantship.
Research assistants are paid the college standard student wage and are compensated through monthly student-payroll disbursements. Research assistantship positions do not overlap, duplicate, or replace work-study jobs, independent studies, or academic internships; instead, they supplement these opportunities.