Working as a Professor's research assistant.

What does it mean to work for a professor or hold an academic research assistantship?

What kinds of tasks are involved?
Karlyle

hey kar06 -

it depends. Sometimes you might just do some brainless stuff including organizational work or other grunt work. But other times, you might help the professor learn about a field that he/she is not really experienced in. You might do some reading and make summaries for the professor. Or you might write a literature review. If you work with a professor for a while, you might actaully write a paper with him or her and get published as a coauthor.

so the range really varies. At first - early in grad school - you might do some grunt work but later move on to more advanced stuff.

do most graduate school applicants already have experience as a reseach assistant prior to graduate school? I never had the opportunity to work as a research assistant during undergraduate.

by no means is it neccessary to have already done academic research prior to joining a graduate program. I am sure that a few go-getters have though