Where do Professors Send Their Children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most professors can't afford elite private schools in this area unless they come from family money or they have a spouse who makes much more

Depends what subject they teach and where they teach. Tenured profs in general are overpaid these days, considering they get summers off. And law school profs do extremely well. These are some of the sweetest gigs going. Plus, many schools pay full tuition or partial tuition to profs' kids wherever they go to college. Anyone who is not a tenured prof at a good school is...a sucker missing out on these perks and near-complete job security. No wonder no one retires!

hilarious. A few academic stars are overpaid; the rest work for decent but not overpaid salaries (50-100). And there is no summer off - you might not be teaching, but you are writing, researching, catching up on administrative duties, directing graduate students, and prepping classes for the fall. Every single tenured professor I know works at least 50 hour weeks (maybe it goes to 40 some weeks in the summer), and I am not at a high pressure school. At a RI school, 60-70 hour weeks, 50 in the summer would be the norm. Seriously, 10-12 hour days are the just a matter of course at many points in the semester. There is a lot of work to do! I can't work on weekends anymore because of kids (and you can't just take a weekend off and do your job with any semblance of well), so I work till 2 am. Professors don't retire because they have worked like this for years and so work is their identity.

Your kids can get free tuition at the school you teach at and, IF your school is in certain tuition consortiums, they can get free tuition at another school but only IF someone from that school comes to your school. The schools in the consortium with ours are pretty third tier - just a couple I'd be excited to send my kids to but I'd only be able o if someone at the good school wants to come to my little second tier school (i.e. not likely). The option of a free college tuition at a crappy university (mine) is a nice fall back, but I'm still saving for college.

Well, I guess I'm a slacker, but I view my tenured professorship as an extraordinarily well paid and secure part-time job. Honestly, if you are working 60-70 hours/week post tenure that's because you're nuts. I do work a lot -- but mostly b/c I do a lot of "extracurricular," non-university-based work that I took on voluntarily. No one makes me do it -- I do it b/c I like it.

+1

I have several friends who are academics. Most of them do work constantly, but they have always been like that, as long as I've known them (since college/grad school). They are great worker bees, always nose to the grindstone no matter what is going on. The work is never done, not because it can't be done but because they never decide that they are done. Think about it: when you were in college, there was really no end to the studying you could do. You could always read another suggested reading, reread a chapter, review your notes again. At some point most people stop, deciding that the marginal return on additional studying isn't worth the additional effort. But some people never feel done, and they continue wringing their hands until time runs out. Most of the academics I know are like this. They work all the time and constantly feel stressed, but much of that pressure is internal. It's not the job. It's them.

[Anonymous]

DH is a professor (liberal arts) and works long hours year-round. He has the flexibility to help with pick-up but usually works regular hours plus late into the night every night. He is a very internally motivated person, loves to think about things, write, and provide quality feedback and communication to his students. Our daughter's education is one of our greatest priorities in life. She attends a wonderful DC independent school and it is worth every penny!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most professors can't afford elite private schools in this area unless they come from family money or they have a spouse who makes much more

Depends what subject they teach and where they teach. Tenured profs in general are overpaid these days, considering they get summers off. And law school profs do extremely well. These are some of the sweetest gigs going. Plus, many schools pay full tuition or partial tuition to profs' kids wherever they go to college. Anyone who is not a tenured prof at a good school is...a sucker missing out on these perks and near-complete job security. No wonder no one retires!

hilarious. A few academic stars are overpaid; the rest work for decent but not overpaid salaries (50-100). And there is no summer off - you might not be teaching, but you are writing, researching, catching up on administrative duties, directing graduate students, and prepping classes for the fall. Every single tenured professor I know works at least 50 hour weeks (maybe it goes to 40 some weeks in the summer), and I am not at a high pressure school. At a RI school, 60-70 hour weeks, 50 in the summer would be the norm. Seriously, 10-12 hour days are the just a matter of course at many points in the semester. There is a lot of work to do! I can't work on weekends anymore because of kids (and you can't just take a weekend off and do your job with any semblance of well), so I work till 2 am. Professors don't retire because they have worked like this for years and so work is their identity.

Your kids can get free tuition at the school you teach at and, IF your school is in certain tuition consortiums, they can get free tuition at another school but only IF someone from that school comes to your school. The schools in the consortium with ours are pretty third tier - just a couple I'd be excited to send my kids to but I'd only be able o if someone at the good school wants to come to my little second tier school (i.e. not likely). The option of a free college tuition at a crappy university (mine) is a nice fall back, but I'm still saving for college.

Trust me. Aside from going to a few meetings, you can take the summer off. And then there the whole subject of sabbaticals....

[Anonymous]

I doubt the pp is tenure track faculty.

[Anonymous]

Professor couple here. Both kids are in DCPS (can't afford private but also would not want to send my kids to private even if we could.) And yes, we do work summers and weekends too.

[Anonymous]

Good luck getting a tenure track position at a college with a semi-literate student body. And there is no way an adjunct or asst prof could afford elite pvt school tuition here, absent a trust fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most professors can't afford elite private schools in this area unless they come from family money or they have a spouse who makes much more

Depends what subject they teach and where they teach. Tenured profs in general are overpaid these days, considering they get summers off. And law school profs do extremely well. These are some of the sweetest gigs going. Plus, many schools pay full tuition or partial tuition to profs' kids wherever they go to college. Anyone who is not a tenured prof at a good school is...a sucker missing out on these perks and near-complete job security. No wonder no one retires!

hilarious. A few academic stars are overpaid; the rest work for decent but not overpaid salaries (50-100). And there is no summer off - you might not be teaching, but you are writing, researching, catching up on administrative duties, directing graduate students, and prepping classes for the fall. Every single tenured professor I know works at least 50 hour weeks (maybe it goes to 40 some weeks in the summer), and I am not at a high pressure school. At a RI school, 60-70 hour weeks, 50 in the summer would be the norm. Seriously, 10-12 hour days are the just a matter of course at many points in the semester. There is a lot of work to do! I can't work on weekends anymore because of kids (and you can't just take a weekend off and do your job with any semblance of well), so I work till 2 am. Professors don't retire because they have worked like this for years and so work is their identity.

Your kids can get free tuition at the school you teach at and, IF your school is in certain tuition consortiums, they can get free tuition at another school but only IF someone from that school comes to your school. The schools in the consortium with ours are pretty third tier - just a couple I'd be excited to send my kids to but I'd only be able o if someone at the good school wants to come to my little second tier school (i.e. not likely). The option of a free college tuition at a crappy university (mine) is a nice fall back, but I'm still saving for college.

Well, I guess I'm a slacker, but I view my tenured professorship as an extraordinarily well paid and secure part-time job. Honestly, if you are working 60-70 hours/week post tenure that's because you're nuts. I do work a lot -- but mostly b/c I do a lot of "extracurricular," non-university-based work that I took on voluntarily. No one makes me do it -- I do it b/c I like it.

+1

I have several friends who are academics. Most of them do work constantly, but they have always been like that, as long as I've known them (since college/grad school). They are great worker bees, always nose to the grindstone no matter what is going on. The work is never done, not because it can't be done but because they never decide that they are done. Think about it: when you were in college, there was really no end to the studying you could do. You could always read another suggested reading, reread a chapter, review your notes again. At some point most people stop, deciding that the marginal return on additional studying isn't worth the additional effort. But some people never feel done, and they continue wringing their hands until time runs out. Most of the academics I know are like this. They wo all the time and constantly feel stressed, but much of that pressure is internal. It's not the job. It's them.

well, it's not a sweet gig if to get the gig, you have to be the type of person who will never take advantage of a sweet gig.

But I don't fit the description above. I'm able to let things go and to half-ass something, and I still have 50-60 hours of work to do a week (in fact, I half-ass things because I have too work to be able to be a perfectionist about it). Maybe it is a different in disciplines. In liberal arts, we always think those business professors are slackers. Can't for the life of me get anyone from the business school to serve on one of the university wide committees I'm on. hmmmm

[Anonymous]

And what am I doing up (between posts?) at 12:53 am? Grading papers and reading for class tomorrow. part-time job indeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most professors can't afford elite private schools in this area unless they come from family money or they have a spouse who makes much more

Depends what subject they teach and where they teach. Tenured profs in general are overpaid these days, considering they get summers off. And law school profs do extremely well. These are some of the sweetest gigs going. Plus, many schools pay full tuition or partial tuition to profs' kids wherever they go to college. Anyone who is not a tenured prof at a good school is...a sucker missing out on these perks and near-complete job security. No wonder no one retires!

hilarious. A few academic stars are overpaid; the rest work for decent but not overpaid salaries (50-100). And there is no summer off - you might not be teaching, but you are writing, researching, catching up on administrative duties, directing graduate students, and prepping classes for the fall. Every single tenured professor I know works at least 50 hour weeks (maybe it goes to 40 some weeks in the summer), and I am not at a high pressure school. At a RI school, 60-70 hour weeks, 50 in the summer would be the norm. Seriously, 10-12 hour days are the just a matter of course at many points in the semester. There is a lot of work to do! I can't work on weekends anymore because of kids (and you can't just take a weekend off and do your job with any semblance of well), so I work till 2 am. Professors don't retire because they have worked like this for years and so work is their identity.

Your kids can get free tuition at the school you teach at and, IF your school is in certain tuition consortiums, they can get free tuition at another school but only IF someone from that school comes to your school. The schools in the consortium with ours are pretty third tier - just a couple I'd be excited to send my kids to but I'd only be able o if someone at the good school wants to come to my little second tier school (i.e. not likely). The option of a free college tuition at a crappy university (mine) is a nice fall back, but I'm still saving for college.

Well, I guess I'm a slacker, but I view my tenured professorship as an extraordinarily well paid and secure part-time job. Honestly, if you are working 60-70 hours/week post tenure that's because you're nuts. I do work a lot -- but mostly b/c I do a lot of "extracurricular," non-university-based work that I took on voluntarily. No one makes me do it -- I do it b/c I like it.

+1

I have several friends who are academics. Most of them do work constantly, but they have always been like that, as long as I've known them (since college/grad school). They are great worker bees, always nose to the grindstone no matter what is going on. The work is never done, not because it can't be done but because they never decide that they are done. Think about it: when you were in college, there was really no end to the studying you could do. You could always read another suggested reading, reread a chapter, review your notes again. At some point most people stop, deciding that the marginal return on additional studying isn't worth the additional effort. But some people never feel done, and they continue wringing their hands until time runs out. Most of the academics I know are like this. They wo all the time and constantly feel stressed, but much of that pressure is internal. It's not the job. It's them.

well, it's not a sweet gig if to get the gig, you have to be the type of person who will never take advantage of a sweet gig.

But I don't fit the description above. I'm able to let things go and to half-ass something, and I still have 50-60 hours of work to do a week (in fact, I half-ass things because I have too work to be able to be a perfectionist about it). Maybe it is a different in disciplines. In liberal arts, we always think those business professors are slackers. Can't for the life of me get anyone from the business school to serve on one of the university wide committees I'm on. hmmmm

That's because they have practical concerns and better things to do--like spend their higher salaries.

[Anonymous]

My SIL is a professor. Although she & my BIL, who is in a high paying field, could easily afford private, they send their kids to a NW public elementary (not a "JKLMM" school but one with comparable test scores).Their kids are still young but, as of now, they plan on continuing in DCPS all the way through.

[Anonymous]

I'm a law school prof and we definitely have it good.

Only think I can add to the question of where to send kids to school: mine are at a progressive private that gets a very self-selecting applicant pool. It's a school that often gets derided by the more uptight DCUMers as "indufficiently rigorous," which mostly seems to mean that the kids don't get enough homework, don't take enough tests, and have too much fun.

As someone who spends most weekdays with extraordinarily bright young men and women from extraordinarily rigorous high schools and colleges, I see a lot of anxious, obsessive people who are all about hard work and more than a little lacking in the intellectual curiosty and playfulness department. Some of most talented and interesting students are the ones who did not come from this kind of high pressure background-- the ones who drifted around for a bit and somehow or other, God help them, still found their way to law school.

I'm already confident that my kids are bright. I want them to be at a school where their creativity and curiosity will be nurtured, not their competitive anxieties. I would not send one of my kids either to Sidwell or St Albans or NCS if you paid me-- nor would I send one to any of the top-performing MoCo or NoVa publics. Too obsessively achievement oriented; too competitive. I don't want my kids to end up as miserable, highly-paid over-achieving lawyers with a raft of fancy diplomas on their walls: I'd much rather they be poorer but happier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a law school prof and we definitely have it good.

Only think I can add to the question of where to send kids to school: mine are at a progressive private that gets a very self-selecting applicant pool. It's a school that often gets derided by the more uptight DCUMers as "indufficiently rigorous," which mostly seems to mean that the kids don't get enough homework, don't take enough tests, and have too much fun.

As someone who spends most weekdays with extraordinarily bright young men and women from extraordinarily rigorous high schools and colleges, I see a lot of anxious, obsessive people who are all about hard work and more than a little lacking in the intellectual curiosty and playfulness department. Some of most talented and interesting students are the ones who did not come from this kind of high pressure background-- the ones who drifted around for a bit and somehow or other, God help them, still found their way to law school.

I'm already confident that my kids are bright. I want them to be at a school where their creativity and curiosity will be nurtured, not their competitive anxieties. I would not send one of my kids either to Sidwell or St Albans or NCS if you paid me-- nor would I send one to any of the top-performing MoCo or NoVa publics. Too obsessively achievement oriented; too competitive. I don't want my kids to end up as miserable, highly-paid over-achieving lawyers with a raft of fancy diplomas on their walls: I'd much rather they be poorer but happier.

Amen. Can we be friends?
I would add that some of the brightest people I know did not drift around, but also did not come from "pressure cooker" schools -- private or public. Rather, they came from small towns, small cities, average public school systems, etc. They were motivated and they have some perspective on the real world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a law school prof and we definitely have it good.

Only think I can add to the question of where to send kids to school: mine are at a progressive private that gets a very self-selecting applicant pool. It's a school that often gets derided by the more uptight DCUMers as "indufficiently rigorous," which mostly seems to mean that the kids don't get enough homework, don't take enough tests, and have too much fun.

As someone who spends most weekdays with extraordinarily bright young men and women from extraordinarily rigorous high schools and colleges, I see a lot of anxious, obsessive people who are all about hard work and more than a little lacking in the intellectual curiosty and playfulness department. Some of most talented and interesting students are the ones who did not come from this kind of high pressure background-- the ones who drifted around for a bit and somehow or other, God help them, still found their way to law school.

I'm already confident that my kids are bright. I want them to be at a school where their creativity and curiosity will be nurtured, not their competitive anxieties. I would not send one of my kids either to Sidwell or St Albans or NCS if you paid me-- nor would I send one to any of the top-performing MoCo or NoVa publics. Too obsessively achievement oriented; too competitive. I don't want my kids to end up as miserable, highly-paid over-achieving lawyers with a raft of fancy diplomas on their walls: I'd much rather they be poorer but happier.

OK. Often, people seem to want their kids to win the rat race without having to run in the rat race. Your take is different and is, for this neurotic area, refreshing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:of the two sets of professor parents I know in the (D.C.) neighborhood, one set sends their teens to WIS and the other send their elementary kid to GDS

Interesting. Are both parents in both couples profs? If so, they may be just managing it, sort of the equivalent of the two-govt-worker couples at some privates. Or maybe the teach in a field that lends itself to lots of consulting work?

some people have family money too...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a law school prof and we definitely have it good.

Only think I can add to the question of where to send kids to school: mine are at a progressive private that gets a very self-selecting applicant pool. It's a school that often gets derided by the more uptight DCUMers as "indufficiently rigorous," which mostly seems to mean that the kids don't get enough homework, don't take enough tests, and have too much fun.

As someone who spends most weekdays with extraordinarily bright young men and women from extraordinarily rigorous high schools and colleges, I see a lot of anxious, obsessive people who are all about hard work and more than a little lacking in the intellectual curiosty and playfulness department. Some of most talented and interesting students are the ones who did not come from this kind of high pressure background-- the ones who drifted around for a bit and somehow or other, God help them, still found their way to law school.

I'm already confident that my kids are bright. I want them to be at a school where their creativity and curiosity will be nurtured, not their competitive anxieties. I would not send one of my kids either to Sidwell or St Albans or NCS if you paid me-- nor would I send one to any of the top-performing MoCo or NoVa publics. Too obsessively achievement oriented; too competitive. I don't want my kids to end up as miserable, highly-paid over-achieving lawyers with a raft of fancy diplomas on their walls: I'd much rather they be poorer but happier.

My thoughts exactly!! Wish we could be friends! I understand if you don't want to share the name of your school, but could you tell me if it's in DC?(or MD or VA)