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Teaching & research assistant vs graduate research assistant

The differences between teaching & research assistants and graduate 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 $34,230 average annual salary of a graduate research assistant.

The top three skills for a teaching & research assistant include lab reports, laboratory sessions and organic chemistry. The most important skills for a graduate research assistant are R, technical reports, and research projects.

Teaching & research assistant vs graduate research assistant overview

Teaching & Research AssistantGraduate Research Assistant
Yearly salary$36,796$34,230
Hourly rate$17.69$16.46
Growth rate-19%
Number of jobs48,93652,695
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 67%Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Average age4444
Years of experience--

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.

What does a graduate research assistant do?

Graduate research assistants are students who work for senior researchers or professors. They help professors in their research. Usually, graduate research assistants are given allowances or stipends in exchange for their help. Graduate research assistants help the researcher in testing research tools, gathering data, and analyzing data. They may also help researchers in creating presentations, interpreting data through graphs, and crafting other collateral that the researcher may need. It is usually required that the graduate research assistant is studying a specific field related to the research topic.

Teaching & research assistant vs graduate research assistant salary

Teaching & research assistants and graduate research assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

Teaching & Research AssistantGraduate Research Assistant
Average salary$36,796$34,230
Salary rangeBetween $20,000 And $64,000Between $22,000 And $52,000
Highest paying City-New York, NY
Highest paying state-Pennsylvania
Best paying company-Los Alamos National Laboratory
Best paying industry-Education

Differences between teaching & research assistant and graduate research assistant education

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

Teaching & Research AssistantGraduate Research Assistant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 67%Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Most common majorChemistryMechanical Engineering
Most common collegeNortheastern UniversityGeorgia Institute of Technology

Teaching & research assistant vs graduate research assistant demographics

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

Teaching & Research AssistantGraduate Research Assistant
Average age4444
Gender ratioMale, 56.0% Female, 44.0%Male, 54.2% Female, 45.8%
Race ratioBlack 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%Black or African American, 11.0% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 17.6% Asian, 11.8% White, 53.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
LGBT Percentage6%6%

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

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 research assistant example responsibilities.

  • Organize TA office hours, manage online gradebook, proctore exams.
  • Create and lead exercises to teach linear algebra, calculus and statistics.
  • Grade homework, quizzes and manage grades on online gradebook effectively as a lead TA.
  • Foster cross laboratory collaboration between physics labs and between engineering, biology, and chemistry departments to accomplish share goals.
  • Evaluate patients' study eligibility via medical history, obtain informed consent, enroll patients, and achieve enrollment quotas.
  • Develop an RT-PCR SSCP analysis strategy for normal & tumor tissue RNA analysis.
  • Show more

Teaching & research assistant vs graduate research assistant skills

Common teaching & research assistant skills
  • Lab Reports, 19%
  • Laboratory Sessions, 9%
  • Organic Chemistry, 7%
  • R, 6%
  • Research Projects, 6%
  • Undergraduate Courses, 5%
Common graduate research assistant skills
  • R, 8%
  • Technical Reports, 7%
  • Research Projects, 7%
  • Graduate Research, 6%
  • Data Collection, 6%
  • Data Analysis, 6%

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