Work Study

Work study positions are occasionally available in some of labs. If you are a student with a work study allocation and wish to apply for a work study position in one of our labs, please follow the steps below. If after reading through the information below you have any questions about work study and how to apply, please contact Maria Dilbert. 

Make sure that you are eligible for work study and have received a work study award for the academic year. If you are unsure if you have a work study award, you will need to reach out to your school's financial aid office. 

First we recommend you look through all the different lab websites to find which labs and research are of interest to you. Lab websites can be found here. 

To find a work study position we recommend you reach out directly to different labs to see if there are any potential openings for a work study opportunity. We recommend when you reach out to these labs to also let them know why you are interested in their research and what you hope to gain from from a potential work study experience. 

Contact information can be found on each lab website. 

If you receive a response from a lab that a work study position is available and it has been communicated that they would like to hire you for the work study position, a lab manager or professor will need to reach out to Maria Dilbert in the Psychology Department to let them know you have been approved to work as a work study student in their lab. 

Once approved to work in a lab submit an application via Columbia's Work-Study Webpage: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sfs/docs/Federal_Work-Study_Student_Employment/.

The position is titled "Research Assistant (Class I / #4821 or 5401)" under the Psychology Department.

The descriptions for these positions are as follows: 

  • #5401 - "Undergraduate research assistants needed to provide administrative and research support such as running studies, participant recruitment, data entry, scanning, and photocopying," 
  • #4821 - "Assist faculty or department staff in course or program development. Little or no special skills, education or experience required."
  • The Federal Work Study program for the 2023-2024 Academic Year begins on September 11th, 2023 and ends May 5th, 2024.
  • Work study students work no more than 12 hours per week. As the University is compliant with the Labor Law, the minimum is $22 per hour. If you are a Teaching Assistant III, you can only work 8 hours a week per the provost. Any time worked beyond the allowed hours per week will not be processed. 
  • You cannot start working in a lab, and will not be paid, until you have been approved work. Please wait for an approval email from either Erin Murphy or Maria Dilbert.