Where do Professors Send Their Children?

[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.

I share your views. Which progressive school?

[Anonymous]

+1 to law school prof above. I am a humanities prof and too many of my students are terrified of experimentation, creative thought, or any situation where they perceive they might "fail" at the task.

I send my kids to PG county public schools.

Let the breathlessness and fanning begin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
+1 to law school prof above. I am a humanities prof and too many of my students are terrified of experimentation, creative thought, or any situation where they perceive they might "fail" at the task.

I send my kids to PG county public schools.

Let the breathlessness and fanning begin.

Good for you, but this is the private/independent school forum, not the PG county forum. Are you considering private school?

[Anonymous]

Public school parents comment on this forum all the time. The PG public school parent is a professor. The OP asked where professors send their kids to school. Her reply seemed very pertinent. Do you prefer to segregate PG parents? I don't notice redirection of western MoCo public parents.
Signed,
PG Mom married to a professor with a kid in private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uness the professor or his/her spouse makes/inherited moeny elsewhere -- their kids go public. I'm at GWU and some of the profs I know in the liberal arts -- send their kids to the dreaded DC publics -- Wilson H.S. which is otherwise known as "Yale or Jail".

Seriously....didn't anyone invest back in their single days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The more compelling question, though, is where do douchebags send their kids :roll

St. Patrick's.

[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 work all the time and constantly feel stressed, but much of that pressure is internal. It's not the job. It's them.

PP just described me perfectly! I knew I should have been an academic!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: 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.

This is sick. "A college with a semi-literate student body." Where is our country headed??

[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 work all the time and constantly feel stressed, but much of that pressure is internal. It's not the job. It's them.

PP just described me perfectly! I knew I should have been an academic!

Guess you guys have ever heard of publish or perish or fighting for tenure.

It's up or out.

It's not easy.

[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 work all the time and constantly feel stressed, but much of that pressure is internal. It's not the job. It's them.

Yes. And yet they love to tell you how difficult and demanding their jobs are, oh the humanity! Do they know the rest of us are rolling our eyes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I'm the law prof poster. Sorry, skeptics, even law professors make typos. This is a parenting forum, not the supreme ct or the yale law journal. And, well, this is kinda my point: if your idea of the perfect school is one that will turn out kids who never make spelling mistakes, then you're looking for something different than what we're looking for. good luck in your pursuit of perfect spelling and perfect test scores! I'll take happy kids who get enough sleep and enough playtime.

Being bright isn't enough, as you probably well know. It's how to combine brightness with drive and hard work -- this applies as much to someone in the social sector trying to change the world as it does to an associate on the partner track. While this combination of capabilities and skills may be innate in some kids, a lot of bright kids benefit from having a competitive cohort pushing them to work harder and do better.

+1 This is why we moved from MCPS to private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
+1 to law school prof above. I am a humanities prof and too many of my students are terrified of experimentation, creative thought, or any situation where they perceive they might "fail" at the task.

I send my kids to PG county public schools.

Let the breathlessness and fanning begin.

Good for you, but this is the private/independent school forum, not the PG county forum. Are you considering private school?

FWIW, I post on this forum because we were considering private for our daughter, and still might move private if things don't work out for some reason. So far, we've been very pleasantly surprised with our local school, and plan on sticking with public as long as it works. That could be next month, next year, or five years down the road.

[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 work all the time and constantly feel stressed, but much of that pressure is internal. It's not the job. It's them.

PP just described me perfectly! I knew I should have been an academic!

+1