I saw a similar thread, but I guess my question is a bit different.
I am a senior in high school, and I will probably be able to assist a professor in research at a university during the summer. However, I’ll be pretty much doing what a lab assistant does. I am assuming this is a complete different experience from being a research assistant… Is the experience of working in a lab worth 40 hours a week of my summer?
Depends on what you will be doing and what your goals are. If its all scutwork, you’ll have to decide if just the experience of being in a lab is worth it you (ideally because you are interested in the subject matter and willing to try to learn the underlying science on your own, you hope to be a scientist some day with a lab of your own, etc… or the money is excellent and you need cash.)
I was coerced into spending a summer in high school cleaning rat cages (no joke!) in a lab. I hated every minute of it, especially as I had little interest in science to start with and that ensured that I had zero interest thereafter. The money was good, which is why I was forced into it. And of course, whenever I interviewed thereafter and people asked if I was willing to ‘get my hands dirty,’ I always had solid proof that indeed, I was. But so not worth it.
To OP and any others these are absolutely not terms with universal definitions. Lab assistant, research assistant, research associate, lab technician, research technician are often used interchangeably and often not. Not everyone agrees on what roles these positions should and shouldn’t take in the lab. Always, always talk specifically with the professor about what your duties would be regardless of the title of the position.
It depends on cost/benefit analysis of all your options for this summer. Cost has to include “the opportunity” cost. We do not know them, you are the only one who could do this analysis. On the other hand, my stand was always for the job, ANY job for that matter. They are so hard to come by. The third point is that my D. could not find ANY opportunites during ALL summers in UG, so she spent very relaxing summers with her friends, something to remember on for the rest of your life. There are no free summers in Med. School, no free summers in residency, no free summers for practicing doc. with family. You got the picture.