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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you're a tenured professor at a large, research university and have an endowed chair, you can definitely make enough money to afford the lifestyle the first essay writer described. Take the University of Michigan, for example (just because the salaries are public): a particular tenured professor in the Political Science Department makes $175,000. If both are tenured professors (unusual, but not impossible), you could conceivably be talking about $300,000 household income. Add speaking fees on top of that and, especially if they're living in a small college town (like Ann Arbor), they could definitely have a house like that.
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PP here. I looked up professor salaries writ large at Michigan. Some business school professors are making north of $400,000. Even the assistant professor in the business school are making $150,000. Those guys and gals are also doing consulting work, so add that income and you've got some pretty rich profs.

http://www.umsalary.info/deptsearch.php?Dept=Ross+School+of+Business&Year=0&Campus=1[/quote]

I don't think anyone who recently posted is trying to say that it is impossible to have a very comfortable life as a professor, but that there is a disparity between the salaries of many humanities profs and those working in professional fields. It should also be taken into account that it is very difficult to get a tenure track job. A family member recently said to me: you're just a prof at GW, why aren't you working at Princeton, your alma mater? Duh. I am just grateful to live in a city and not someplace in the sticks like many of my grad school cohort. [b]There are about 2 jobs per year in my field with a couple to a several hundred applicants.[/b] [/quote]

This.  Most people don't get realize this about TT jobs in academia.

I would not encourage any undergrads or my own young kid to pursue a Ph.D., unless s/he is extremely bright, extremely passionate about the field, and accepting of the fact that it is not typically a lucrative profession and is difficult to find a TT position, particularly in desirable areas of the country.  I might instead encourage my own kid to pursue the MD route, like my spouse, as it is more practical and the job outlook is much better (my MD spouse has been able to easily follow me around the country for academic jobs).  [/quote]

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