A Student Assistant is a position for a student enrolled at university and entails assisting faculty members, basically in everything they do not want to do themselves. This includes a wide variety of tasks, from handling administrative tasks related to the academic matters of students to proofreading academic papers, sourcing references, or doing research for lecture preparation.
There are part-time student assistant positions available on most college campuses. Most of the job is done either at campus offices, responding to student inquiries, handling admission forms, or maintaining student files or at the library doing the legwork for academic research, collecting and organizing data.
However, you need to have great interpersonal skills as well because student assistants contribute to organizing community life on the campus, helping students not only with administrative problems but occasionally providing counseling for personal matters, too.
What is a Student Assistant?
What Does a Student Assistant Do
There are certain skills that many student assistants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed patience, communication skills and emotional skills.
How To Become a Student Assistant
If you're interested in becoming a student assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 69.6% of student assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.5% of student assistants have master's degrees. Even though most student assistants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Student Assistant Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a student assistant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as office assistant, progress to a title such as executive assistant and then eventually end up with the title operations manager.
Average Salary for a Student Assistant
What Am I Worth?
States With The Most Student Assistant Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active student assistant jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where student assistants earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Student Assistant Jobs By State
Top Colleges for Student Assistants
1. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
2. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
3. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
4. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Private
5. New York University
New York, NY • Private
6. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
7. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
8. SUNY at Albany
Albany, NY • Private
9. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
10. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
Top Skills For a Student Assistant
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.9% of student assistants listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as patience and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Student Assistant Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Student Assistant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Student Assistant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Student Assistant Demographics
Student Assistant Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among student assistants, 63.2% of them are women, while 36.8% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among student assistants is White, which makes up 59.9% of all student assistants.
- The most common foreign language among student assistants is Spanish at 46.8%.
Work Experience Programs For Student Assistants
Virtual work experience programs replicate work at top companies and help you gain the skills to be successful when applying and working there. In only a few hours, learn the relevant tools necessary to complete a typical work day at that company. Virtual work experience programs are 100% free, open-access, and self-paced. No experience or application is required!
Company: Latham & Watkins
Cost: Free
Duration: 5-6 hours
Company: BCG
Cost: Free
Duration: 5-6 hours
Company: Accenture North America
Cost: Free
Duration: 5-6 hours
Company: Accenture North America
Cost: Free
Duration: 5-6 hours
Online Courses For Student Assistant That You May Like
Personal & Professional Development for Administrative and Executive Assistants...
Convert your Computer into AI assistant...
How To Create AI Assistant (JARVIS) With Python Like the One from Marvel's Iron Man Movie...
Best States For a Student Assistant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a student assistant. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Student assistants make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $29,519. Whereas in New Jersey and New York, they would average $28,869 and $28,716, respectively. While student assistants would only make an average of $28,716 in Pennsylvania, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Rhode Island
$29,519
Avg. Salary
2. New Jersey
$28,869
Avg. Salary
3. Pennsylvania
$28,716
Avg. Salary
How Do Student Assistant Rate Their Jobs?
Top Student Assistant Employers
Most Common Employers For Student Assistant
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Washington | $33,616 | $16.16 | 159 |
| 2 | Rutgers University | $30,469 | $14.65 | 186 |
| 3 | UC Davis | $30,067 | $14.46 | 213 |
| 4 | University of North Texas | $28,799 | $13.85 | 214 |
| 5 | California State University | $27,276 | $13.11 | 705 |
| 6 | University at Buffalo | $26,845 | $12.91 | 210 |
| 7 | University of California Press | $25,808 | $12.41 | 192 |
| 8 | Kennesaw State University | $25,407 | $12.21 | 235 |
| 9 | San Jose State University | $24,932 | $11.99 | 331 |
| 10 | University of South Alabama | $24,733 | $11.89 | 141 |
Becoming a Student Assistant FAQs
How Long Does It Take To Become A Student Assistant?
It takes one year or less to become a student assistant. That is the time it takes to learn specific student assistant skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education. If you include the normal education requirements to complete a college degree, then it takes 4 to 6 years years to become a student assistant.