The decision to take a research assistantship (RA) or a teaching assistantship (TA) is a personal one that depends on your future career plans and your interests.

TA positions are usually controlled by the department and are offered to students to support the department's undergraduate teaching program. A teaching assistantship could include, with faculty supervision, teaching a class, running a lab course, holding office hours, grading papers and exams, or some combination of these activities. If you decide you want to teach, you should mention any relevant experience on your application, such as being a grader your senior year or tutoring. If you know you are likely to become a TA during your graduate years, you should evaluate the TA programs at schools you might attend.

When comparing programs, consider factors such as the length of a typical appointment (6 months, 9 months or 12 months), whether the pay includes tuition waivers, whether the school has a TA training program, the availability of medical insurance, and the availability of office space. Spend time talking with graduate students at each school you visit. They can give you insight into what it's like to be an assistant at that institution.

Here are some things that can help you enjoy the experience and help your students maximize their learning opportunity.

First, it's important to realize that TA responsibilities can vary. While one TA may be assigned to grade papers and hold office hours, another may be required to teach an introductory course or conduct a three-hour lab.

However, a TA is always an extension of the professor he or she works with. In order to be a competent assistant, you need to understand your professor's teaching/grading system, as well as his or her expectations of you. By initially taking some time to get to know your professor, you can avoid future miscommunication. While TAs typically devote a maximum of 20 hours per week to their duties (which is considered full-time), it is important to realize that this time commitment changes. Because grading often takes up the majority of a TA's time, you'll find your time commitment is greatest around midterms and finals, so you need to prepare your own study schedule and manage your time well so that you don't neglect your own coursework.

Being a teaching assistant can be a very rewarding experience. While sharing your knowledge of a subject with undergrad students, you'll have the opportunity to polish your communication skills, as well as enhance your mastery of the subject. After all, you can't teach a subject unless you have a firm grasp of the topic, and there's nothing like a lab or discussion section with a group of students for learning the material.

For those pursuing academic careers, the experience of a teaching assistantship is invaluable. In most disciplines, it is impossible to obtain a position as a professor without some teaching background - which for most students means a teaching assistantship. It's a hands-on opportunity to discover if you have what it takes to be a teacher. And serving as a TA looks good on any resume. It demonstrates to employers that you have strong communication and leadership skills - talents that will serve you well whether you continue in academia or make your way as a professional engineer.

RA positions come from faculty members who have external funding from a grant or contract and need research help to complete the work. If you want to do research, you should identify a faculty member who works in your field of interest and get to know him or her. If you can find a faculty member at your undergraduate university who knows this person, ask for a recommendation.

If you haven't done research as an undergraduate student, a major difficulty in evaluating a research opportunity is that the concept of research is contrary to most of the experience you have had in school - a diet of formal courses, in which all problems are small, information is neatly packaged and questions generally have an answer. Research, on the other hand, involves open-ended (and sometimes endless) unsolved problems. The packaging is anything but neat, and there is no guarantee that you will find answers to your questions.

Evaluating research opportunities is complicated by a few human factors, as well. Committing to a project that is a sub-discipline within the field you studied as an undergraduate, or in a new direction altogether, can be overwhelming. It can take months to fully understand the nature of a research problem, even if it has been described in great detail by the faculty advisor. But it's unlikely that you will have the luxury of taking months to figure out if you want to do it or not. If you have been offered an assistantship, you have to decide now.

Having said all that, there are a few things you can do to make evaluating a research opportunity less of a crapshoot.

Keep in mind that your satisfaction with your research opportunity will depend on how well you get along with your research advisor. Like all human relationships, this one will take time to unfold, but you need to decide now if this is someone with whom you think you can work. As we discussed earlier, it's good to carefully choose your advisor. You should also meet any other graduate students this advisor already has working for him or her. By discussing the research and the working conditions, you may be better able to decide if this is a good position for you.

Don't worry too much about getting the choice of research projects exactly right. Once you decide, you will find yourself squarely in the "window of frustration" - an uncomfortable period (of up to a year) where you cannot clearly see the big picture, you do not really contribute that much to the research effort and your productivity measures may be all off.

When you embark on a graduate education that includes research, your primary educational objective is to learn how to do research. It is an apprenticeship and it does not happen in the 15-week timetable of your formal courses. When you finally get past this period, you will be well on your way to becoming a researcher. And you may be entering one of the most satisfying and uncomplicated periods of your professional life. Once you learn how to do research, you will never look at problems in your field the same way again.

As a neophyte researcher, you are not well-equipped to evaluate a research opportunity, but you can look at the backdrop for the opportunity - the school, the faculty advisor, and the other graduate students - for clues. Base your choice on the information you are able to gather. Then get ready to learn about a whole new way of solving problems.

If there are no graduate assistantships available in your department, you may also apply to other departments such as chemistry, physics, biology, or other engineering departments. Depending on your background, you may be hired as a TA in one of these departments, or you may find a multidisciplinary RA position that fits your interests.