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University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Department of

Sociology

Research Assistantships for Undergraduates

 

Note: This is an especially useful experience for undergraduates who are considering going on to graduate school.

Goal

To provide undergraduate students with meaningful research experiences and to provide faculty members and senior graduate students with research assistance.

Proposal

Faculty members and PhD students post one-page descriptions of their research projects on the undergraduate sociology listserve and on the undergraduate bulletin board outside of Oldfather 707. Undergraduates apply for the positions in which they are interested, stating their interest and qualifications. Qualifications would normally include completion of 205 and 206 and a minimum 3.0 GPA.

Compensation

1-6 credit hours of Sociology 396.*

Supervisor Responsibilities

Supervisors are obliged to provide a meaningful research experience for the URA. Although URAs may do mundane work (as most research involves much mundane, even clerical tasks), it is the obligation of the supervisor to make the URA part of the research team, to help them understand the larger project and the research process and to give them more advanced work as their skills and the project allow.

URA Responsibilities

To fulfill responsibilities assigned by the supervisor and to meet agreed upon deadlines, to give an honest effort, and to fulfill ethical responsibilities of research as outlined in the ASA Code of Ethics.

Evaluation

Supervisors will provide a letter grade for the URAs. URAs will fill out a form evaluating the quality of their experience and supervision.

Assessment

Both the supervisor and URA will fill out an evaluation of the learning experience.

* Undergraduates may apply a maximum of 6 credit hours of courses numbered 39x to their undergraduate major (397, 399, 399h). If you plan to take, say, 6 hours of undergraduate thesis and 6 hours of 397, only 6 of those hours could apply to the major and the other 6 hours would count as electives. If you have doubts about how this applies in your situation, see your advisor.