A student research assistant must assist the school's research sector in executing several research duties. While carrying out this duty, you must utilize the resources and techniques made available by the overseeing faculty. Additionally, you have to gather and validate research data and document research reports. You have to also supply suggestions to enhance research skills and methods and you must be able to decipher and record discoveries using research techniques and prepare and arrange to search equipment. In addition, you have to generate and execute control strategies for qualitative research. Also, you must improve the collation of data and materials for different reports, projects, and document project research overviews as demanded. Essentially, you will have to also carry out quantitative and qualitative evaluations of data, utilizing computer software as needed.
To fit into this role of a student research assistant, you must have at least a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in psychology, chemistry, or related courses. Furthermore, you must demonstrate excellent multitasking, interaction, and organizational skills. As a student research assistant in the United States, you will earn an average of $34,825 every year.
How to Become a Student Research Assistant
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a student research assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.0 an hour? That's $31,201 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 20% and produce 139,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Student Research Assistant Do
There are certain skills that many student research 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 analytical skills, communication skills and detail oriented.
How To Become a Student Research Assistant
If you're interested in becoming a student research assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 76.9% of student research assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 11.7% of student research assistants have master's degrees. Even though most student research assistants have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a student research assistant. When we researched the most common majors for a student research assistant, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on student research assistant resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a student research assistant. In fact, many student research assistant jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many student research assistants also have previous career experience in roles such as research assistant or volunteer.
Student Research 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 research assistant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as laboratory technician, progress to a title such as chemist and then eventually end up with the title senior chemist.
Average Salary for a Student Research Assistant
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Student Research Assistants
1. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
2. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
3. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
4. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
5. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
6. Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis, MO • Private
7. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
8. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
9. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
10. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Private
Top Skills For a Student Research 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, 10.7% of student research assistants listed research projects on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Student Research Assistant Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Student Research Assistant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Student Research Assistant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Student Research Assistant Demographics
Student Research Assistant Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among student research assistants, 55.9% of them are women, while 44.1% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among student research assistants is White, which makes up 59.2% of all student research assistants.
- The most common foreign language among student research assistants is Spanish at 42.9%.
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Best States For a Student Research Assistant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a student research assistant. The best states for people in this position are Massachusetts, Alaska, New Jersey, and Illinois. Student research assistants make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $46,984. Whereas in Alaska and New Jersey, they would average $45,867 and $43,265, respectively. While student research assistants would only make an average of $42,984 in Illinois, 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. Massachusetts
$46,984
Avg. Salary
2. Alaska
$45,867
Avg. Salary
3. New Jersey
$43,265
Avg. Salary
How Do Student Research Assistant Rate Their Jobs?
Top Student Research Assistant Employers
Most Common Employers For Student Research Assistant
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California State University | $66,731 | $32.08 | 49 |
| 2 | Arizona State University | $60,468 | $29.07 | 28 |
| 3 | University of Washington | $59,895 | $28.80 | 33 |
| 4 | UC Davis | $50,450 | $24.25 | 27 |
| 5 | University of Michigan-Flint | $44,732 | $21.51 | 24 |
| 6 | University of California Press | $42,041 | $20.21 | 82 |
| 7 | Michigan State University | $38,319 | $18.42 | 41 |
| 8 | Mizzou | $37,510 | $18.03 | 26 |
| 9 | University of West Georgia | $36,513 | $17.55 | 27 |
| 10 | University of Maine | $35,961 | $17.29 | 36 |