Reply to Pros and Cons of Top 10 SLAC vs State Flagship Honors Program

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]i have a phd from a top (ivy league) phd program and i nobody i know wanted to be a professor at a slac. this is considered an acceptable option but is nobody's first choice. the best researchers/scientists do not teach at SLACs.[/quote]

Which, in turn may make academia a more accessible/desirable-looking gig to undergrads at SLACs.  Less work/more prestige than other teaching gigs.  Laidback lifestyle.[/quote]

not sure what you are saying - academia is extremely competitive and even faculty positions are lacs are quite competitive. there are many many desperate phds around.

that said, the best of the best are not going to teach at SLACs. as i said that is nobody's first choice.  which means that slac faculty is not the best. i mean, i am sure that they have good teaching materials but the sort of interaction that you can get from the very best minds in the world (literally) is not going to happen at a lsac because those minds are not there.[/quote]

I agree with you.  All I’m saying is if you go to Harvard or Berkeley, your impression of how smart and hardworking you have to be to make it as a professor is pretty daunting.  If you go to even a top SLAC, it doesn’t look so hard.  Small seminars, schmoozing with undergrads, fewer dramatic tenure battles.  So at Harvard, you might think don’t even consider academia unless you think you’re in the top 2% of your class.  At a SLAC, it might look more like a top 20% destination.  The real masters of the universe are headed to finance.

Getting into grad school is different from finishing your PhD is different from getting a faculty position is different from getting tenure.  At Harvard or Berkeley, you see the desperate PhDs.  You don’t at a LAC.  And if you liked your time at a LAC, you might define a successful academic career in different terms and have a fairly straightforward not-too-grueling vision of how to get there from here.  Abstractly, if you look at the output required for tenure, it’s hardly staggering.  Hubris, politics, and conflicting imperatives make high-profile academics much more competitive than it has to be. [/quote]

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