Assistant Professor

[Anonymous]

Is there any field in which you don’t need a PhD to become a professor, even an adjunct?

The question as posed suggests that OP is certainly not in a PhD program. At best the OP is in undergrad. If that’s correct, then OP should talk to their professors about becoming a professor.

But you don’t just walk in off the street and become a professor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any field in which you don’t need a PhD to become a professor, even an adjunct?

The question as posed suggests that OP is certainly not in a PhD program. At best the OP is in undergrad. If that’s correct, then OP should talk to their professors about becoming a professor.

But you don’t just walk in off the street and become a professor.

Community colleges will hire you with just a master's as an adjunct lecturer in any field. But the competition is so tough that in some places there are enough Phd's looking for work that they push those with just a master's out of the running -- even those with a terminal master's degrees like the MFA. And obviously the TAs teaching on campuses where they are studying do not yet have a Phd -- but they aren't getting paid per class, it is part of the deal where they get tuition remission and a stipend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any field in which you don’t need a PhD to become a professor, even an adjunct?

The question as posed suggests that OP is certainly not in a PhD program. At best the OP is in undergrad. If that’s correct, then OP should talk to their professors about becoming a professor.

But you don’t just walk in off the street and become a professor.

You need a Phd or master's degree to teach at the college level. I think there is some confusion here about what a "professor" actually is -- they do teach as part of their responsibilities, but that isn't the most important part of what they "do." They are scholars, expected not only to know their field enough to teach others about it, but to actively engage in work to advance the field. This is perhaps more obvious with STEM folks who are, I don't know, trying to prove their theory of the physics of event horizons on black holes or something. But publish-or-perish applies just as much in the humanities -- an English professor's primary responsibility is advancing the field through scholarly research and publication as well. (Anyone who is confused by this is not in the position to think about being a professor in the humanities.) You aren't prepared to do that out of undergrad, it requires years of specialized study beyond it (there are exceptions so unique that they aren't really worth mentioning -- generally famous people in the fine arts).

[Anonymous]

MFA is the terminal degree in creative fields but those are probably the hardest to get. For writing, you need at least one reputable book publication, usually more. Also there are now creative PhDs so the market is really flooded.

A librarian with an MLS can work in a college or university library without a PhD and sometimes these are tenure track, sometimes staff.

These people never retire. Schools are cutting staff. I would never advise anyone to go into academia.

Teaching as an adjunct is a good side gig if you are qualified and can get hired. One thing is that they never hire tenure track people from this pool. It's a very weird and arcane world.

[Anonymous]

OP if you are an undergrad or considering a career in academia (and the long road that comes before it) talk to your professors about it or reach out to an old one to discuss it.

If you are professional thinking you can switch to a tenure track role and do not have a terminal degree or teaching experience, look at private high schools (where you don't need licensure) or adjuncting at a community college.

Highly competitive tenure-track jobs begin with Assistant Professor, which can lead to Associate Professor 5-10 years later if you earn tenure...otherwise you're out, which can lead to Full Professor another 5-10 years later. Pay can be good for some majors at some schools, or as low as $45K/year for humanities at lower ranked schools.

You typically need a PhD unless you are in a field where the terminal degree is different (JD for law, MFA for art, etc...).

The market is cutthroat for most positions. Sometimes a particular discipline may have 10 openings in a year across the US in random cities, and your particular wheelhouse might fit three of them. Others are less competitive. Sometimes you fit the job description perfectly, but the posting is to fill a vacancy left by someone who retired who had a very niche role or skill and you don't get looked at unless you have that too. For my job, 21 people applied (this is less competitive).

All tenure track jobs have teaching, research, and service loads.

Teaching is your classroom obligation. At smaller schools you might teach 4 classes each semester. TAs are less common. Profs at big name universities in science might teach 1 class each semester + huge lab expectations (including you bringing in the funding through grants). In my experience teaching is kind of an innate talent. I have seen people who excel at it naturally, and others who flounder and can't overcome their difficulties.

Research is scholarship. For a lab science this might be experiments, papers, presentations, grants that fund your work, etc... For English, peer reviewed competitive journal articles, conference presentations, often books don't count as the highest bar because they are not peer reviewed but they are good to have. For smaller teaching focused schools tenure might require maybe a few articles to get tenure versus an R1 where you must have many prestigious articles and tons of competitive grants and people still might object to your application for tenure.

Service is the work of running a university but also has to do with associations and the industry. Service I have done is on university committees dealing with budgets, hiring, DEI, etc.. I have served in leadership roles for professional associations and conferences. I have been an expert in articles and helped to write white papers. I sponsor student clubs and run departmental events and meetings. Serve on hiring committees. Etc... These things are absolutely endless and thankless. ...and the least important to the tenure committees, but still necessary.

Academic job interviews are often 2-3 days long, involving meeting with just about every stakeholder, giving teaching presentations, and giving a presentation on your research agenda. You often have to sit on a panel and defend your candidacy. Endless meals out. It's a social and mental marathon. They will fly you out and cover expenses.

Once you get the job people vary from being run down to loving it. I pretty much love it BUT I teach at a lower pressure university and have a good balance in a field that is less hardcore (and lower paying because of that - people would be shocked how little I make for how much I work).

I am required to be on campus for class (I am luck to pick my class times, mostly), office hours (which I set), and for some meetings. I'd say for 75% of my meetings I can choose to be remote. I go in about 3 days per week, and can pick my kids up most days. But I think about work all the time, check emails all day, and often work at night. I do not mind.

You will have to go up for tenure within 5-10 years depending on a university's rules. If you do not get tenure, you're fired (typically you get 1 year to find something else). More humane deans will counsel you out if there is writing on the wall, but sometimes denial is a surprise. Scroll back up to see that if this happens, your next job may be in another state, or you may not find one in academia.

Check out The Professor Is In on Facebook and The Chronicle of Higher Ed message board.

[Anonymous]

Op, do you want to become one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the reality of being an assistant / associate professor at a University? I see a lot of various postings. All I remember in college is meeting once a week for lecture and group activities. Is it cutthroat? It is good for an extroverted introvert?

At the end of the 1980s, it was pretty good. You had to publish or perish to make tenure, but it was a chill lifestyle after that. Buy an old fixer upper, work on it all summer. You could even have a SAH spouse and vacation abroad.

Now: It doesn’t pay enough to support a single adult comfortably and save for retirement. Students expect nothing less than an A.

[Anonymous]

Highly competitive, and you don't make enough money even as a full time assistant professor to make all the time getting the PhD worthwhile - unless you are teaching at Harvard or a really prestigious higher paying institution. And it's cutthroat to get to that sort of institution.

And, the college student demographic cliff is coming, and there is going to be a reduced number of college students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP if you are an undergrad or considering a career in academia (and the long road that comes before it) talk to your professors about it or reach out to an old one to discuss it.

If you are professional thinking you can switch to a tenure track role and do not have a terminal degree or teaching experience, look at private high schools (where you don't need licensure) or adjuncting at a community college.

Highly competitive tenure-track jobs begin with Assistant Professor, which can lead to Associate Professor 5-10 years later if you earn tenure...otherwise you're out, which can lead to Full Professor another 5-10 years later. Pay can be good for some majors at some schools, or as low as $45K/year for humanities at lower ranked schools.

You typically need a PhD unless you are in a field where the terminal degree is different (JD for law, MFA for art, etc...).

The market is cutthroat for most positions. Sometimes a particular discipline may have 10 openings in a year across the US in random cities, and your particular wheelhouse might fit three of them. Others are less competitive. Sometimes you fit the job description perfectly, but the posting is to fill a vacancy left by someone who retired who had a very niche role or skill and you don't get looked at unless you have that too. For my job, 21 people applied (this is less competitive).

All tenure track jobs have teaching, research, and service loads.

Teaching is your classroom obligation. At smaller schools you might teach 4 classes each semester. TAs are less common. Profs at big name universities in science might teach 1 class each semester + huge lab expectations (including you bringing in the funding through grants). In my experience teaching is kind of an innate talent. I have seen people who excel at it naturally, and others who flounder and can't overcome their difficulties.

Research is scholarship. For a lab science this might be experiments, papers, presentations, grants that fund your work, etc... For English, peer reviewed competitive journal articles, conference presentations, often books don't count as the highest bar because they are not peer reviewed but they are good to have. For smaller teaching focused schools tenure might require maybe a few articles to get tenure versus an R1 where you must have many prestigious articles and tons of competitive grants and people still might object to your application for tenure.

Service is the work of running a university but also has to do with associations and the industry. Service I have done is on university committees dealing with budgets, hiring, DEI, etc.. I have served in leadership roles for professional associations and conferences. I have been an expert in articles and helped to write white papers. I sponsor student clubs and run departmental events and meetings. Serve on hiring committees. Etc... These things are absolutely endless and thankless. ...and the least important to the tenure committees, but still necessary.

Academic job interviews are often 2-3 days long, involving meeting with just about every stakeholder, giving teaching presentations, and giving a presentation on your research agenda. You often have to sit on a panel and defend your candidacy. Endless meals out. It's a social and mental marathon. They will fly you out and cover expenses.

Once you get the job people vary from being run down to loving it. I pretty much love it BUT I teach at a lower pressure university and have a good balance in a field that is less hardcore (and lower paying because of that - people would be shocked how little I make for how much I work).

I am required to be on campus for class (I am luck to pick my class times, mostly), office hours (which I set), and for some meetings. I'd say for 75% of my meetings I can choose to be remote. I go in about 3 days per week, and can pick my kids up most days. But I think about work all the time, check emails all day, and often work at night. I do not mind.

You will have to go up for tenure within 5-10 years depending on a university's rules. If you do not get tenure, you're fired (typically you get 1 year to find something else). More humane deans will counsel you out if there is writing on the wall, but sometimes denial is a surprise. Scroll back up to see that if this happens, your next job may be in another state, or you may not find one in academia.

Check out The Professor Is In on Facebook and The Chronicle of Higher Ed message board.

+1 to all this. Also, for those 10 random openings she mentions, it also means that you will have to relocate for your job. Everyone I know who succeeded in academia did this, and then sometimes move again later in their careers. Like California to Louisiana to Colorado.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Highly competitive, and you don't make enough money even as a full time assistant professor to make all the time getting the PhD worthwhile - unless you are teaching at Harvard or a really prestigious higher paying institution. And it's cutthroat to get to that sort of institution.

And, the college student demographic cliff is coming, and there is going to be a reduced number of college students.

What makes you think the Ivy pays? They think you should just be grateful to be there.

[Anonymous]

Also if you land a coveted tenure track job, and get tenure, you may have another host of problems.

I work at a mid-tier liberal arts college as an administrator and I can’t tell you how many of these faculty are bitter, depressed individuals. They come to the realization that this “brass ring” is forever. Not all colleges are in idyllic Boston; there are a lot in the sticks of South Carolina or Ohio.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also if you land a coveted tenure track job, and get tenure, you may have another host of problems.

I work at a mid-tier liberal arts college as an administrator and I can’t tell you how many of these faculty are bitter, depressed individuals. They come to the realization that this “brass ring” is forever. Not all colleges are in idyllic Boston; there are a lot in the sticks of South Carolina or Ohio.

NP. This is really interesting. It seems like most of the challenges posters are talking about involve how hard it is just to land a position and get tenure. But it seems like after that should be smooth sailing - a job for life, can never get fired, the true "ivory tower" bubble *forever* as you mention. Does the pay also go up a lot once you get tenure? If you are making a high salary relative to locals in low cost of living areas like South Carolina, that does not sound too bad at all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the reality of being an assistant / associate professor at a University? I see a lot of various postings. All I remember in college is meeting once a week for lecture and group activities. Is it cutthroat? It is good for an extroverted introvert?

What is an extroverted introvert?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also if you land a coveted tenure track job, and get tenure, you may have another host of problems.

I work at a mid-tier liberal arts college as an administrator and I can’t tell you how many of these faculty are bitter, depressed individuals. They come to the realization that this “brass ring” is forever. Not all colleges are in idyllic Boston; there are a lot in the sticks of South Carolina or Ohio.

NP. This is really interesting. It seems like most of the challenges posters are talking about involve how hard it is just to land a position and get tenure. But it seems like after that should be smooth sailing - a job for life, can never get fired, the true "ivory tower" bubble *forever* as you mention. Does the pay also go up a lot once you get tenure? If you are making a high salary relative to locals in low cost of living areas like South Carolina, that does not sound too bad at all!

LOL no. I can't speak to places like Harvard and MIT, where the vast vast majority of professors don't work, or even UMD or UVA, but the small private and public colleges that make up most of the institutions around the country do NOT pay high salaries relative to locals and do not significantly increase salary with tenure. Pay is on par with small nonprofits.

I'm married to a professor at one of these types of schools, and friends with many others. They make around 60-65k pre-tenure and they'll be lucky to go in to 70-75k after. Yes, these include people with STEM PhDs, who are making less than the 22 year old new grads they tauht because it's their passion.

Just don't go into academia.

[Anonymous]

NP. This is really interesting. It seems like most of the challenges posters are talking about involve how hard it is just to land a position and get tenure. But it seems like after that should be smooth sailing - a job for life, can never get fired, the true "ivory tower" bubble *forever* as you mention. Does the pay also go up a lot once you get tenure? If you are making a high salary relative to locals in low cost of living areas like South Carolina, that does not sound too bad at all!

I think it can be a sweet gig if/when you get there. My best friend and her spouse got TT jobs (spousal hire) in a major midwestern research university. They busted a$& to get those jobs and eee lucky to get spousal her and then to get tenure but now they have lots of seniority and racked up awards grants and retention award/bonuses that they manage to have a sabbatical every 2 yrs and make 350k in a city where 400k buys a really nice house. They also have extremely flexible schedules, summers off (research travel etc) so it works well for family. I initially thought I was going to be an academic but the early years were so unappealing. Now, however, I see that if you actually make it to full prof at decent place it has a lot of advantages in terms of flexibility and freedom. We have other friends nearby who are both full profs at uva and life is very good for them (aside from the insanity of dealing with administration).