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Graduate student internship vs teaching & research assistant

The differences between graduate student interns and teaching & research assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a teaching & research assistant has an average salary of $36,796, which is higher than the $30,945 average annual salary of a graduate student internship.

The top three skills for a graduate student internship include patients, speech-language pathologist and data collection. The most important skills for a teaching & research assistant are lab reports, laboratory sessions, and organic chemistry.

Graduate student internship vs teaching & research assistant overview

Graduate Student InternshipTeaching & Research Assistant
Yearly salary$30,945$36,796
Hourly rate$14.88$17.69
Growth rate21%-
Number of jobs56,98248,936
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age4444
Years of experience--

What does a graduate student internship do?

Graduate interns work in different industries, and their job responsibilities may vary. As a graduate student intern, you may be expected to offer your services free of charge to the company you find placement in exchange for the experience you'll be getting. In other cases, you may be offered compensation of some sort. Most often than not, you will be assigned to a department to work under the supervision of the head of that unit.

What does a teaching & research assistant do?

The job of teaching and research assistants is to support faculty members in course material preparation and instruction. They often work in educational institutions such as universities and colleges. They perform varied duties and responsibilities that may include organizing visual aids and reference materials, conducting discussion groups, laboratory sessions, and seminars, and grading term papers, exams, and laboratory reports. Teaching and research assistants may also teach sections, conduct tutorials, and assist in overseeing study projects. The skills and qualifications required for this role may include being enrolled in a doctoral or master's study program and excellent communication skills.

Graduate student internship vs teaching & research assistant salary

Graduate student interns and teaching & research assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

Graduate Student InternshipTeaching & Research Assistant
Average salary$30,945$36,796
Salary rangeBetween $18,000 And $50,000Between $20,000 And $64,000
Highest paying City--
Highest paying state--
Best paying company--
Best paying industry--

Differences between graduate student internship and teaching & research assistant education

There are a few differences between a graduate student internship and a teaching & research assistant in terms of educational background:

Graduate Student InternshipTeaching & Research Assistant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common majorPsychologyChemistry
Most common collegeUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillNortheastern University

Graduate student internship vs teaching & research assistant demographics

Here are the differences between graduate student interns' and teaching & research assistants' demographics:

Graduate Student InternshipTeaching & Research Assistant
Average age4444
Gender ratioMale, 25.8% Female, 74.2%Male, 56.0% Female, 44.0%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 11.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 18.7% Asian, 5.7% White, 57.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%Black or African American, 11.0% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 17.6% Asian, 11.6% White, 54.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
LGBT Percentage6%6%

Differences between graduate student internship and teaching & research assistant duties and responsibilities

Graduate student internship example responsibilities.

  • Help veterans and their families learn to manage symptoms of PTSD through education, self-awareness, and becoming aware of triggers.
  • Collaborate with OTR on needs of clients to increase strength, endurance and independence with ADL's upon discharge.
  • Provide client and caregiver education regarding safety, ADL reeducation, or techniques and strategies that will benefit the client occupationally.
  • Perform kinetic and mechanistic studies using NMR spectroscopy.
  • Collaborate with organic chemists improving the effectiveness of RNA inhibitors.
  • Perform quantitative determination of primary pollutant's degradation using HPLC.
  • Show more

Teaching & research assistant example responsibilities.

  • Evaluate patients' study eligibility via medical history, obtain informed consent, enroll patients, and achieve enrollment quotas.
  • Design and teach workshops on serial communication, basic python, and open computer vision library.
  • Guide and monitor classroom lab activities involving SPSS software, research analysis, and data compilation.
  • Assemble, correlate and analyze research outcomes using SPSS, and synthesize data and findings graphically using charts.
  • Prepare and teach lab sections for undergraduate-level cartography and spatial statistics courses, and graduate-level raster GIS course.
  • Design questionnaire for tobacco study, collect data by going on fields, enter data, create SAS databases.
  • Show more

Graduate student internship vs teaching & research assistant skills

Common graduate student internship skills
  • Patients, 17%
  • Speech-Language Pathologist, 14%
  • Data Collection, 6%
  • Mental Health, 6%
  • Group Therapy Sessions, 4%
  • Traumatic Brain Injury, 3%
Common teaching & research assistant skills
  • Lab Reports, 19%
  • Laboratory Sessions, 9%
  • Organic Chemistry, 7%
  • R, 6%
  • Research Projects, 6%
  • Undergraduate Courses, 5%

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