Are you a faculty/staff member looking for a research assistant, or an undergraduate student receiving Federal Student Aid? The Federal Work-Study Research Assistantship (RA) Program is designed to help high-need students develop research skills and explore their academic interests.
The Office of Student Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR) and Mason Impact have coordinated with the Office of Student Financial Aid to use Federal Work-Study aid to fund undergraduate research assistants for faculty and staff.
Our goal is to expand opportunities for students with economic need to participate in research within their field of study, in addition to giving faculty FREE research support funded by OSCAR and the Office of Financial Aid.
Projects can be varied in scope. For example, students could participate in cleaning up survey data, completing a literature review, or assisting with an art installation.
Civil engineering senior Tyler Miesse works with Celso Ferreira, assistant professor, on a project studying how vegetation in coastal marshes can protect communities from waves and flooding.
For Faculty and Staff
Post a Position
For detailed instructions on how to post a position, read the On-Campus Job Description Form.
Position Description
All positions must give the students direct experience with research or scholarship at a level that is consistent with the student's skills and interests. These are not secretarial or other administrative support positions.
A good position description will be written in nontechnical language geared toward undergraduate students and include:
- 2-5 sentences describing the project/research goals
- 2-5 bullets describing the job duties or expectations
- 2-5 bullets describing the requirements for the position
Once you have completed the On-Campus Job Description Form, please email it to oscarfws@gmu.edu. OSCAR will help faculty facilitate the posting of all federal work-study undergraduate research positions to the Handshake website.
For Students
Eligibility
Eligibility is based on demonstrated financial need and is calculated by the George Mason Financial Aid Office.
You must have already been awarded financial aid to be offered a work-study position. If your award package does not include work-study, please contact the Financial Aid Office to discuss adding federal work-study.
In addition, you must be enrolled at least half-time (six credit hours per semester) to be eligible for this program.
How to Apply
For a job description of each position, visit Handshake and log in using your Mason NetID and password.
Make sure to write a unique cover letter that explains to the faculty member how you have the skills and abilities (or at least an interest in learning the ones listed) to do the project.
Once Hired
You will work as a research assistant for the assigned faculty/staff member for 150 hours per semester at $10/hour. The schedule will be worked out between the student and the mentor.
You will fill out a bi-weekly timesheet on PatriotWeb to receive your payment. Timesheets must be submitted on time. Unprocessed time sheets will not be paid and time cannot be made up in the future.
You must keep track of your hours worked; your Federal Work-study award has a cap on the total number of hours. A record of the number of hours worked is available in PatriotWeb.