No idea that professors made this much money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to work at a DC university in public health about three years ago. They hired assistant profs at $85-$95 and most with tenure weren't earning much above $115k. A few rockstars out of many earned closer to $200k. The state research university I worked at in the midwest had tenured people at the END of their careers earning $120k max (most were in the $80k range).

You have to really love the subject matter (or like not having to dress a particular way), because you'll never be rich being a professor.

I should add that the state research university I worked/studied at was in the economics department. So the idea that fresh new grads come out at $125-175k as assistant professors is laughable. The people I went to grad school with now have tenure and teach at middling public universities. They earn about $100k.

[Anonymous]

My DH and I never made over 60k a year as professors at public colleges. The "superstar" professors make a lot more money, the rest don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you are delusional. The only people who make high wages in academia are specialty professors they pull from the private sector at the end of very successful careers or high level administrators (not faculty positions.)

Even tenured professors are lucky if they make six figures.

The first paragraph is correct. The second is not. In urban areas, many tenured professors make 6 figures, not including benefits (which are many).

[Anonymous]

Many/most public professor salaries are public, FWIW. And they’re nowhere NEAR $650K.

But... the benefits. My tenure track professor husband has his base salary (85K) but also travel and research budgets (10K each), generous retirement and health insurance, free college almost anywhere for our kids — who are nowhere near that age yet but the benefit is grandfathered in — and we also got a housing gift/subsidy to buy a house. All of those combined make his real salary higher, I think.

I guess my point is to neither raise eyebrows nor sympathetic toasts to tenure track faculty, since many of them are doing just fine, but not insanely so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not typical. I have tenure-track professor friends who test in the University of Maryland system. My one friend was hired starting at 57k - I imagine my other friend makes about the same. They both feel fortunate to be tenure-tracked.

And the only way they generally make big jumps in salary is to be recruited by another university so their current university pays a lot more to keep them. Otherwise, pay raises are incremental. Which is fine given the job security of a tenured professor and the lifestyle. But just know, OP, it's not a goldmine by any means.

[Anonymous]

At many universities, the highest paid employees are the football coach, the assistant football coach, and the president (in many states, the football coach of the flagship public university is the highest paid state employee period, far above even the governor). It's a steep decline from there in terms of salaries, with an increasing number of jobs being filled by adjuncts who will never get on a tenure track.

[Anonymous]

my sister is a tenure humanties professor at a large research institution. she does not make 6 figures. and back when she was applying for jobs, they were receiving over 500 applications from phDs for each job.

[Anonymous]

wow my hippie ex is on that list!

[Anonymous]

I am a mom and the academic life has worked great as our second income as the flexibility is great when you have family obligations but honestly wouldn't marry a guy who only made 100k. And certainly wouldn't be satisfied as a sahm on that one income. Today the majority of phd's are earned by women and i think it's kind of becoming perceived as poorly paid flexible women's work and not a serious career.

[Anonymous]

My sil teaches at Harvard (but not a prof) and makes $80k and a 5 year contract. Many many people like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to work at a DC university in public health about three years ago. They hired assistant profs at $85-$95 and most with tenure weren't earning much above $115k. A few rockstars out of many earned closer to $200k. The state research university I worked at in the midwest had tenured people at the END of their careers earning $120k max (most were in the $80k range).

You have to really love the subject matter (or like not having to dress a particular way), because you'll never be rich being a professor.

I should add that the state research university I worked/studied at was in the economics department. So the idea that fresh new grads come out at $125-175k as assistant professors is laughable. The people I went to grad school with now have tenure and teach at middling public universities. They earn about $100k.

Picking a state university I have no affiliation with, the University of Illinois last published a comprehensive list of faculty salaries in 2016. At the time, there were ten assistant professors of economics, all making between $130K and $133K. The top full professor makes $243K. Higher-ranked departments and those at private universities pay more.

Your anecdotes to the contrary are not relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you are delusional. The only people who make high wages in academia are specialty professors they pull from the private sector at the end of very successful careers or high level administrators (not faculty positions.)

Even tenured professors are lucky if they make six figures.

This is simply false. The starting salary for econ professors fresh out grad school is $125-175K, depending on the quality of school. Full professors make $200-250k at a lower-ranked program, and $300-400K at a better department, with outliers making upper six figures or into seven figures. Econ is a relatively well-compensated discipline, but it is hardly the only one, and some other disciplines (e.g. finance, accounting) make more.

Yeah - econ; finance; accounting; and stat -- bc if they weren't paid $$$ esp in the northeast, they could all leave for banking and hedge funds. I assume the same is true for many/most of the engineering disciplines. Little bit different for the English and history professors -- schools know they have no place to go, as hiring as museums isn't especially robust.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some salaries in higher ed are inflated for sure, especially in administration and business and law schools. but MBAs and JD programs are also piggie banks for the school because students pay full freight. And as others have said this does not apply to your average sociology professor, especially pre-tenure. my friend who was at the top of his field at an Ivy in a humanities niche made less than I did (7 years into teAching) in my first job out of law school as a law clerk! Now he makes $150k after 10 years of tenure (in NYC, so adjust for COL). A nice job but not a boondoggle.

Humanities super super stars can make bank (by switching schools and bidding up their salaries) but this is rare.

Right, but what’s the market, outside of academia, for someone with a degree in a “humanities niche”? There is no market.

Why is that a relevant question? The job of a professor is to be a professor in a university, so comparing them to someone on the general job market doesn't make any sense. At any rate, someone smart and hard-working enough to get tenure at an Ivy and be at the top of their field would likely do just fine outside of a university setting as well.

No one is saying they aren't smart or couldn't do well in life. But the reality is most people don't want to start over. They're not getting a PhD finished until what 26-28. Then a few yrs of bouncing around as an associate prof etc. I can't imagine you're getting full tenure until 35-ish. So when you're 35 and your full tenured offer for 90k comes thru -- are you really going to say -- well I could do better than this in IT, I'll retrain and that's that? Or are you more likely to have a spouse/kids/mortgage and not be willing to uproot if you're at some far flung school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to work at a DC university in public health about three years ago. They hired assistant profs at $85-$95 and most with tenure weren't earning much above $115k. A few rockstars out of many earned closer to $200k. The state research university I worked at in the midwest had tenured people at the END of their careers earning $120k max (most were in the $80k range).

You have to really love the subject matter (or like not having to dress a particular way), because you'll never be rich being a professor.

I should add that the state research university I worked/studied at was in the economics department. So the idea that fresh new grads come out at $125-175k as assistant professors is laughable. The people I went to grad school with now have tenure and teach at middling public universities. They earn about $100k.

Picking a state university I have no affiliation with, the University of Illinois last published a comprehensive list of faculty salaries in 2016. At the time, there were ten assistant professors of economics, all making between $130K and $133K. The top full professor makes $243K. Higher-ranked departments and those at private universities pay more.

Your anecdotes to the contrary are not relevant.

There is a big difference between professors in fields like business/econ/accounting and humanities fields. Those in the former could easily leave academia and go make 2-3x the listed salaries. That's why schools pay them so much, because they would have a difficult time getting strong professors if the salaries were lower. Humanities, not so much. Academia is really the only realistic option for a PhD in medieval literature or history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At many universities, the highest paid employees are the football coach, the assistant football coach, and the president (in many states, the football coach of the flagship public university is the highest paid state employee period, far above even the governor). It's a steep decline from there in terms of salaries, with an increasing number of jobs being filled by adjuncts who will never get on a tenure track.

Yep. At a certain football crazy state school to our north that has had reputation problems, the football coaches contract is for $4.7mil in salary this yr; $5.6 mil next year and topping out at $7+ mil in 2-3 years. Of course with a performance bonus of up to $1 mil if they bring home certain bowl game or championship wins. Pretty sure the governor of the state and no finance prof at the university has a salary of $7mil.