At the same time, it resembles paid forms of research assistance in that a worker is being rewarded for productivity on a project. While a student should not receive both full credit and full salary, in some cases a combination of credit and pay may need to be worked out. Three different possible arrangements are outlined below. Actual terms are worked out between individual students and their faculty sponsors. Most students earn academic credit for their research assistance, from one to six or more credits per semester depending upon the amount of work agreed upon by the student and the professor.
Some curricula limit the number of independent research credits permitted for a degree.
During Winter and Summer Sessions, working hours per credit should be at least doubled. When registering, students may also submit a titling form, obtainable from the Student Services Office, that will distinguish research from special problems on the transcript. Students intending to pursue the General Honors Certificate or Honors Degree with Distinction may request from the Undergraduate Research Office classification of research credits as Honors-designated. Some must earn a certain amount of personal support each term and cannot find time to handle, in addition to a full course load, both an outside job and research. Work-study grants may also, under some circumstances, be available from the Undergraduate Research Program.