How Research Assistantships Work in Grad School

What a Research Assistantship Is

A research assistantship, usually called an RA position, pays you a stipend and tuition waiver to work on a faculty member's research project, typically the same project your dissertation grows out of. RA positions are the other main funding path in PhD programs, alongside teaching assistantships, and many students hold a mix of both across their years in the program.

Unlike a TA position, where your supervisor is whoever teaches the course you support, your RA supervisor is usually your own research advisor, so the position and your dissertation work overlap directly.

Where RA Funding Comes From

RA stipends come out of a faculty member's research grant, most often from a federal agency. In the sciences and engineering, this commonly means funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation or the National Institutes of Health. In other fields, funding comes from private foundations, industry partnerships, or university research funds.

This matters because your funding ties to your advisor's grant cycle, not to the department's teaching budget. If your advisor writes grants covering multiple years, your position is more stable. If a grant is set to expire before you finish your degree, ask early how your advisor plans to cover the gap.

Typical Duties

RA duties center on the research itself rather than teaching, though the specific work varies enormously by field.

• Running experiments, collecting data, or conducting fieldwork tied to the funded project

• Analyzing data and helping write up results for publication

• Managing lab equipment, software, or datasets used by the wider research group

• Supervising undergraduate research assistants in some labs

• Attending and presenting at lab meetings and, eventually, academic conferences

Because RA work usually feeds directly into your own dissertation, the line between the job and your degree blurs more than it does with a TA position, where the teaching work stays separate from your own research.

RA Positions vs Independent Fellowships

An RA position ties your funding to a specific advisor's grant. An independent fellowship, awarded to you directly rather than through a grant, gives you more freedom to choose or change your research direction, since the money follows you rather than a specific project.

National fellowships are competitive and cover a small share of PhD students. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is one of the largest, currently providing a $37,000 annual stipend plus a $16,000 payment to the university to cover education costs, for students in eligible STEM and STEM-education fields. Winning a fellowship like this also makes you more attractive to potential advisors, since you bring your own funding rather than drawing on their grant.

What Happens if Your Advisor's Grant Runs Out

Ask this question directly before you accept an RA-funded offer, since departments handle grant gaps differently.

Some departments guarantee a TA position as a backup if your RA funding lapses. Others leave it up to your advisor to find bridge funding or leave you to cover the gap through a fellowship application or a semester of TA work you arrange yourself.

Get funding guarantees in writing whenever possible, and ask your graduate coordinator what has happened historically in your department when a grant expired mid-degree.

How RA Work Shapes Your Degree

RA work tends to keep you closely aligned with your advisor's specific research agenda, which speeds up your own dissertation since the two overlap, but also narrows your independence compared to a fellowship-funded student choosing their own direction. Talk to current students in a lab about how much freedom RAs have to pursue side projects or their own questions within the broader grant.

If you plan to apply for outside fellowships later in your program, ask your advisor early, since a funded RA position and outside fellowships are not always compatible depending on your department's rules, and switching mid-year requires planning.

Questions to Ask Before You Accept an RA Offer

• How many years of funding does the grant currently cover

• What happens to students if the grant is not renewed

• Does the RA role match your dissertation topic, or is it a separate project you would need to combine with your own research

• How many hours a week does the position typically require

Written Agreements and Expectations

Ask your advisor for a clear, written understanding of what the RA position covers: hours expected, specific tasks, and how progress gets reviewed. Verbal agreements shift over time, and a written record protects you if expectations change or if a disagreement comes up later about what the position was supposed to include.

Clarify how RA work counts toward your degree requirements. In some departments, RA work overlaps directly with dissertation credit hours. In others, the assistantship and your coursework or dissertation progress get tracked separately, which affects how many credits or milestones you complete each term.

Ask about this distinction before you accept the position, since it changes how you plan your semester schedule and how quickly you move toward your degree milestones.