Undergraduate research opportunities—Are these paid positions?

[Anonymous]

So, it sounds like $11-15 per hour might be a reasonable expectation, if no credit is involved?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You hear so much on college tours about research opportunities for students. If you work, say, in a professor’s lab during the semester (not for credit) do you get paid? What about a research position with the university over the summer? Are they paid and do you get a housing allowance? What hourly rate is typical? Or does it just depend on the position? Thanks!

I was an international politics major and got paid to do research for professors a few times. Usually it was something like $15/hour. I did not get a housing allowance, but I worked for the housing office that summer, so I got free housing through them.

[Anonymous]

I was unpaid at multiple research internships. I don't think it is standard at all

[Anonymous]

It really just depends. I would not assume 11-15/hour at all. Students only get paid if the researcher has funds and genuinely needs the service they can provide. As a rule, undergrads aren't good for much for a summer except maybe data entry and some grunt level lab work. It takes too much time to train them to do the kind of things graduate students and post docs can do, and students at those levels work year round.

Of course, there are exceptions, but I would encourage undergrads to be clear about whether they are applying for paid positions or volunteer ones. Many times undergrads will volunteer to work in a lab (for free), and then the understanding is that, in exchange for being helpful (though not necessarily for 40 hours a week), they get access to learning about the research, how the lab works, being mentored by grad students and post docs, and a letter of rec from the researcher when they apply for grad school.

Obviously, this is not a great deal for a student who doesn't know what they want to study and who genuinely needs to spend the summer making money for the next school year, but it can be really helpful for students looking to go into competitive graduate fields. Clinical psych, for example. When I was a grad student we had volunteers who would do data entry and then, if they were reasonably smart, we'd work with them to help them contribute to a poster or paper that was going to be presented at a national conference. And the PI would write them a recommendation letter and/or consider them for our lab if they were a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really just depends. I would not assume 11-15/hour at all. Students only get paid if the researcher has funds and genuinely needs the service they can provide. As a rule, undergrads aren't good for much for a summer except maybe data entry and some grunt level lab work. It takes too much time to train them to do the kind of things graduate students and post docs can do, and students at those levels work year round.

Of course, there are exceptions, but I would encourage undergrads to be clear about whether they are applying for paid positions or volunteer ones. Many times undergrads will volunteer to work in a lab (for free), and then the understanding is that, in exchange for being helpful (though not necessarily for 40 hours a week), they get access to learning about the research, how the lab works, being mentored by grad students and post docs, and a letter of rec from the researcher when they apply for grad school.

Obviously, this is not a great deal for a student who doesn't know what they want to study and who genuinely needs to spend the summer making money for the next school year, but it can be really helpful for students looking to go into competitive graduate fields. Clinical psych, for example. When I was a grad student we had volunteers who would do data entry and then, if they were reasonably smart, we'd work with them to help them contribute to a poster or paper that was going to be presented at a national conference. And the PI would write them a recommendation letter and/or consider them for our lab if they were a good fit.

And I should add: they would be an author on the paper/poster, which is the kind of thing grad schools look for.

[Anonymous]

I was not paid for my research but I was paid for a lab support position (washjng glassware, prepping stuff for the intro labs).

[Anonymous]

There are many summer research opportunities that offer housing and a small stipend. I did this every summer from sophomore-senior year at different universities. Check with your science department of choice, they should be able to help your student apply.

[Anonymous]

Can only speak to my experience at a large, public institution and wet lab work, but typically undergraduates had to start as volunteers to get a foot in the door unless they were truly exceptional. From there, if they were good and once they had put in some time, there were a range of opportunities for funding over the summer either through the PI's grant, external scholarships/internships/grants, or internal department or institutional funding. The student had to do the planning, applications, and lead the charge on the funding most of the time. Housing and tuition stipends were never included in the ones I saw, but it's possible it exists elsewhere. Typical rates of pay were minimum wage up to maybe $25/hr.

[Anonymous]

My son applied for a paid internship at Duke Medical but ultimately covid hit and it didn’t happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can only speak to my experience at a large, public institution and wet lab work, but typically undergraduates had to start as volunteers to get a foot in the door unless they were truly exceptional. From there, if they were good and once they had put in some time, there were a range of opportunities for funding over the summer either through the PI's grant, external scholarships/internships/grants, or internal department or institutional funding. The student had to do the planning, applications, and lead the charge on the funding most of the time. Housing and tuition stipends were never included in the ones I saw, but it's possible it exists elsewhere. Typical rates of pay were minimum wage up to maybe $25/hr.

This. The initial period of research is really all training and little productivity so we can’t pay a student except if we have special government money for supporting undergraduate training. Later we may have more flexibility and I also try to find money for students for summer who would need a summer job if a can. But research isn’t finance - we don’t have paid internships the same way as a means to convince you to come work for us later. I spend 40 plus hours of solid work on top of my teaching and research to raise the tuition of each PhD student I have. There isn’t much extra for paying undergrads. I am happy to give credit and I am highly supportive of good students and find them great mentors. I have been thrilled to work with many fantastic undergrads despite this and about half our papers have undergrad co authors, occasionally even major authors.

- stem prof at a top private university

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can only speak to my experience at a large, public institution and wet lab work, but typically undergraduates had to start as volunteers to get a foot in the door unless they were truly exceptional. From there, if they were good and once they had put in some time, there were a range of opportunities for funding over the summer either through the PI's grant, external scholarships/internships/grants, or internal department or institutional funding. The student had to do the planning, applications, and lead the charge on the funding most of the time. Housing and tuition stipends were never included in the ones I saw, but it's possible it exists elsewhere. Typical rates of pay were minimum wage up to maybe $25/hr.

This. The initial period of research is really all training and little productivity so we can’t pay a student except if we have special government money for supporting undergraduate training. Later we may have more flexibility and I also try to find money for students for summer who would need a summer job if a can. But research isn’t finance - we don’t have paid internships the same way as a means to convince you to come work for us later. I spend 40 plus hours of solid work on top of my teaching and research to raise the tuition of each PhD student I have. There isn’t much extra for paying undergrads. I am happy to give credit and I am highly supportive of good students and find them great mentors. I have been thrilled to work with many fantastic undergrads despite this and about half our papers have undergrad co authors, occasionally even major authors.

- stem prof at a top private university

Agree with these posters. I was actually paid my first (relatively useless) year in a lab but it didn’t come out of the lab funds — my university had a specific bucket of money for paying undergrad in those positions; you just had to apply and if you were on financial aid you were almost sure to get funding for one summer. After that you are expected to have learned enough to get paid or do your research work during the semester for credit.