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Research Assistantships

UGAR provides stipends for students to serve as part-time research assistants for faculty. Projects must benefit the students academically and/or intellectually. Assistantships cannot be primarily clerical or administrative. Faculty are expected to cover any research-related expenses.

Mentoring students in research requires time and resources, so consider carefully how many students (across all programs) you can effectively mentor in a given year. It is expected that assistantships will be conducted during term(s) in which the student is enrolled in classes, and both the student and the faculty mentor are on campus.

Students are not required to submit timesheets, but it is strongly recommended that faculty require students to track the time they spend on the project and the tasks they have accomplished.

James O. Freedman Presidential Scholars

The goal of the Presidential Scholars program is to provide meaningful faculty-mentored research experiences for juniors to work with Dartmouth faculty, often in preparation for undertaking a senior honors thesis.

  • Eligibility: Juniors in any academic discipline who fall within the top 40 percent of the class.
  • Number of terms: Two (the first term can be sophomore summer).
  • Payment: $1200 stipend per term (for 7-12 hours per week, for a total of 100 hours over the course of the term). In the second term, students may elect to get independent study credit rather than a stipend only if they receive approval from both the faculty mentor and the academic department/program.
  • Tracking: Students are not required to submit timesheets, but it is strongly recommended that they keep a document tracking time spent and tasks accomplished.
  • Application: Eligible students are notified in January of sophomore year, and the application deadline is in the spring of sophomore year.
  • Process: Eligible students contact faculty about research opportunities or faculty may also approach students with whom they would be interested in working. Once the student and faculty mentor agree on a project, students submit an online application. Faculty mentors then confirm the collaboration via an online form.

Undergraduate Research Assistantships at Dartmouth (URAD)

Students in URAD assist faculty with their research.

  • Students participating in the program are not expected to generate their own independent research projects.
  • There must be a clear academic benefit to the student, and the student's role in the project must be intellectual rather than administrative.
  • The program does not match students with faculty. See UGAR's tips and resources on how to find a faculty research mentor.
  • The nature of the work and skills required will vary depending on the project, and students should communicate with their faculty mentors about the expectations prior to the start of the assistantship.

Students engage in the research throughout the academic term.

  • It is expected that students devote the equivalent time/effort to what they would for an academic class. That is estimated to be an average of 10 hours a week during a 10 week term (approximate total of 100 hours during the academic term).
  • A stipend of $1200 will be issued at the end of the term, contingent on confirmation by both the student and faculty research mentor.
  • Timesheets are not required since payment is via stipend rather than hourly wages, but students should maintain a document tracking the time spent on the research and the tasks accomplished.

This is a competitive program; priorities for funding are as follows:

  • Sophomores and juniors.
  • Students who have not yet been funded for 3 terms of URAD.
  • Projects that are clearly aligned with the student's academic trajectory.