<p>Hey guys I'm a mech engineer and about to start research. THe way I went about asking for research is asking for "unpaid" positions because I was afraid that they'd automatically decline me if they thought i wanted to have a paid research position. So my question is, is there any differences between paid and unpaid research positions for mechanical engineers? Obviously, getting paid is one, but I mean in terms of what you will be doing in the lab.</p>
<p>You’ll probably be held to higher standards if you’re being paid, but in my experience, most undergraduate researchers are not paid (at least when they’re starting out). I don’t think you’ll be at a disadvantage or anything in terms of what you’ll be doing in the lab.</p>
<p>I experienced the opposite. In my experience, most undergraduate researchers are paid for insurance purposes.</p>
<p>what do you mean by insurance purposes? And I plan on starting out unpaid, but later I would like ask if I can get paid, is there a good way to ask for a salary when the time comes?</p>
<p>All of my research positions as an undergrad were either paid or for course credit. If you get paid there’s probably a departmental policy on how much students earn to prevent bidding wars between professors and discourage students from working with one professor over another.</p>
<p>would you guys say that having a paid position instead of unpaid would look better on a grad school application for a top tier school?</p>
<p>I don’t think on a grad school application you’d really have anywhere to specify if it’s a paid or unpaid research position. Generally they just ask for work experience and research experience, so there’s no need to specify if you got compensated for it or not.</p>