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Teaching & research assistant vs research fellow

The differences between teaching & research assistants and research fellows can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a research fellow has an average salary of $53,823, which is higher than the $36,796 average annual salary of a teaching & 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 research fellow are patients, research projects, and data analysis.

Teaching & research assistant vs research fellow overview

Teaching & Research AssistantResearch Fellow
Yearly salary$36,796$53,823
Hourly rate$17.69$25.88
Growth rate-17%
Number of jobs48,93659,746
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 67%Bachelor's Degree, 47%
Average age4441
Years of experience-4

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 research fellow do?

A research fellow is an academic researcher who conducts research and analysis of comprehensive literature, data, and results and provides literature reviews. He/She supervises research assistants and recruits study participants to interview them for a particular study. To become a research fellow, a candidate should have a doctorate in a relevant discipline and publish peer-reviewed papers. Also, a research fellow can be an independent investigator or be supervised by a principal investigator.

Teaching & research assistant vs research fellow salary

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

Teaching & Research AssistantResearch Fellow
Average salary$36,796$53,823
Salary rangeBetween $20,000 And $64,000Between $39,000 And $72,000
Highest paying City-South San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state-Hawaii
Best paying company-McKinsey & Company Inc
Best paying industry-Non Profits

Differences between teaching & research assistant and research fellow education

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

Teaching & Research AssistantResearch Fellow
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 67%Bachelor's Degree, 47%
Most common majorChemistryChemistry
Most common collegeNortheastern UniversityDuke University

Teaching & research assistant vs research fellow demographics

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

Teaching & Research AssistantResearch Fellow
Average age4441
Gender ratioMale, 56.0% Female, 44.0%Male, 55.3% Female, 44.7%
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, 6.4% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 27.1% White, 52.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage6%8%

Differences between teaching & research assistant and research fellow 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

Research fellow example responsibilities.

  • Collaborate with software engineers to automate identification of 15N- and 13C- labele LC-MS features.
  • Process and manage GIS databases to contribute towards research in human transportation behavior.
  • Manage investigator initiate and cooperative group correlative studies to identify biomarkers to ascertain tumor burden and clinical outcomes in lymphoma.
  • Analyze quantitative and qualitative data through statistical software SAS and SPSS.
  • Conduct sampling, PCR, data analysis and oral presentations of the work
  • Implement python and C++ codes for numerical computation of transport properties in models and materials.
  • Show more

Teaching & research assistant vs research fellow skills

Common teaching & research assistant skills
  • Lab Reports, 19%
  • Laboratory Sessions, 9%
  • Organic Chemistry, 7%
  • R, 6%
  • Research Projects, 6%
  • Undergraduate Courses, 5%
Common research fellow skills
  • Patients, 10%
  • Research Projects, 6%
  • Data Analysis, 5%
  • Cell Culture, 5%
  • Immunology, 4%
  • CRISPR, 4%

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