Is being a college professor all that bad?

It seems like it wouldn't be all that bad. Weekends off, summers off for the most part. Pretty good salary and Im sure after a few years that starts to go up. I am sure if you are an about average professor you can easily make over 100K and most likely higher depending on the school and teaching experience.

 

summers are NOT off unless you have tenure. Otherwise you're pumping out research all year round while dealing with student bullshit during the school year.

Being a lecturer is what you have in mind but that pays shit - the professor salary is for research producing work. What you're describing doens't make sense from the university perspective...

The only example of Prof not producing research but still getting paid are Professional degree professors who have years, probably decades, of real world experience. The schools have to pay them pretty well to convince them to join academia..

 

It's not as easy as you think it is, even if you just want to work at a local, less-regarded state university.

The salary is good but keep in mind that you'll be in grad school and you won't be out until late 20's or early 30's.

But once you're an associate or full professor then things get better. However, there's tremendous pressure to pump out high quality research regardless.

 

My sister is a professor and I can tell you that you are delusional. Her pay is around $30k, she works most of the summer, is grading all weekend and over Christmas/Spring Break. She loves her area of expertise and makes it work but honestly it is far from cushy. Looking at being a professor and thinking how easily you'll be a tenured professor making six-figures is even less realistic than every college freshman on WSO who thinks he's going to do 2 years in IBD then be the next John Paulson and make a few billion in a year.

 
MilitaryToFinance:

My sister is a professor and I can tell you that you are delusional. Her pay is around $30k, she works most of the summer, is grading all weekend and over Christmas/Spring Break. She loves her area of expertise and makes it work but honestly it is far from cushy. Looking at being a professor and thinking how easily you'll be a tenured professor making six-figures is even less realistic than every college freshman on WSO who thinks he's going to do 2 years in IBD then be the next John Paulson and make a few billion in a year.

For some reason I have trouble believing this... Are you sure your sister is not a TA...? Most of the finance/econ professors at my university were making in the range of 150-250K. This was a top public school, so their salaries were visible. On top of that most have side gigs, such as owning their own tax practice, etc etc. These professors taught about 3 courses and worked pretty light hours...

This is for finance/econ though, maybe science professors have it worse? But I can't imagine being paid 30k as a PhD. I can make more as a manager at denny's lol

 

Salary depends on department and how long they have been working. Look up some new Psychology or English lecturer's salary in large State U's, it's like $30K. Even for hard sciences or engineering, there are reasons why many are doing post bacs for 5-6 years and still go off to work at MTSU or something.

Think of it this way. Each professor in a department is pumping out 1-2 PhD each year. That department already has 20-30 full professors and each year they might hire one new lecturer or something, Turnover is low, supply is high.

 

Being a college professor isn't a bad life. But it isn't necessarily an easy life. And right now, it's probably more competitive to obtain a professorship than a banking job (obviously, not counting community college and low caliber schools). It's shockingly difficult.

 

My undergrad business school is full of professors who made a killing in their careers and decided to move to a nice area and just teach. I know a lot of them don't do research and they all make 6 figures (state school, salaries are public info. Accounting professor makes more than 250 a year). Maybe this isn't common elsewhere, but I think this is similar to what you are describing and I agree that it is a pretty sweet life.

 

my econ prof is always complaining how his brother makes so much more as a VP of Boeing. In my school econ profs make more than other profs as well. I would say that if you're looking for safety go for tenure track. But personally I only could teach once I retire from my finance career.

 
Best Response

I have a bunch of friends who are professors. It depends what you're teaching.

Two friends: (1) Communication PhD. Now communication professor. $60k salary. (2) Communication PhD. Now marketing professor. $120k salary.

Long story short... English PhDs have poor non-academia job prospects, so they become professors, so it pays little. Engineering PhDs have decent non-academia job prospects, so it pays decently to be an engineering professor. Finance PhDs have great non-academia job prospects, so it pays well to be an engineering professor.

I've heard of finance and accounting PhDs (best starting professor salaries) starting at mid/upper 100s (i.e. approaching $200k all in) for first year as professor.

So year, 6 years to get tenure, and then you're living the dream. Not a bad gig. My friends generally had their PhDs by 26 or 27 years old.

 
BigPicture:

p.s. even before tenure, the work/life is a LOT better than finance/consulting/big law

So would you say it is worth becoming an accounting professor instead of trying to move up in an accounting firm?
Mps721
 

I'm not familiar with Big4 salary progression.

I did engineering -> top MBA -> consulting

If I had to do it over again, I might do finance PhD -> finance professor

starting salary as finance or accounting prof is comparable to consulting, but with much better work/life. Of course, there will be less salary growth as a prof. 8 to 10 years of consulting/finance/big law will gives you much higher pay than professor.

it's a trade off. How much do you value leisure?

 

Being a professor is more than just the money. You have a doctorate and if you are any good, you are advancing your field. Good professors (the ones who make good money) are constantly researching and publishing. Universities have a points system and you need to hit those points in order to get tenured and move up. Different journals have different points so you can't just pepper crappy journals all the time.

The money comes when you publish a lot and become a niche expert. Then you have side consulting businesses and stuff like that. Or you co-author books, stuff like that.

If you are a tenured prof at a big university you will spend maybe 30% of your time teaching and the rest researching.

We had a former private equity VP who taught at our business school. The state government has to publish salaries of the professors since they are government employees. Anyways this guy was pulling in $250k for teaching 4 sessions each week, 10-11 and 11-12 on both Tuesday and Thursday. The TAs did all the grading and they made most of the exams. So yes its a pretty cushy job.

Array
 

As I understand it, research is the real priority for professors. Teaching is secondary. I would not advise entering a PhD program unless you are truly passionate about the subject and would enjoy conducting research. I've considered this myself, but I'm unsure if it is worth the opportunity cost of 5 years of Wall Street pay. I'm also not sure if my math background is strong enough.

"My dear, descended from the apes! Let us hope it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known."
 

I'm still very much toying with the idea. With a not-so-traditional background, I've already spent almost one year working on several research projects at different universities, and after some more time in the industry I could really envision myself doing this full-time. I just love doing research, although I've never liked the teaching part too much (being a TA, supervising students in their bachelor/master theses, lecturing), given there were just too many unmotivated brats around where I was.

The pay is awesome. Make it through 4-5 years of ramen noodles and 10-for-10 pizzas from Pick N Save, and you're looking at average starting salaries of $150.000 and $170.000 (with limited upside potential) for accounting and finance professors, respectively.

Only thing that still keeps me from it is the fear of ending up at a mediocre school with dipshits that don't give a flying eff about school as students.

 

I'd love to be a professor, but I have no interest in spending 6 years of my life as a poor graduate student making shit money and spending all day in a lab/library. Unless you live and breathe your subject, doing a PhD at a reputable place fucking sucks.

 

Ya as someone else pointed out being a professor at a good university is about research so if that isn't appealing then you won't be good.

It's a great job for those of us who love reading and sharing ideas. Any job is great if you're getting paid to do what you love.

 

You guys are joking, right? Starting as a post-doc pay is 30-45 a year, as an assistant 70, associate 80-90, full professor 110-130 at a Big ten/SEC school. Many people wind up bouncing around for years as adjuncts who make 1800-3000 a course without benefits. There are some people who are well compensated i.e. 250-450, but they teach at places like HBS and have excellent pedigrees. Those jobs are as rare as hen's teeth.

 

^Your numbers might be right for average professor salaries across all disciplines, but pay for professors in accounting/finance is significantly higher than what you've cited. At my school (state flagship), starting pay for accounting/finance professors after PhD is ~$165,000 and goes up to ~$230,000 after 5-7 years. Full professors make $250,000+ and that doesn't include any chairs they are awarded (which pay an extra $10,000 - $50,000 per year). Besides the pay, the hours aren't nearly as high as banking/consulting/law and the benefits are pretty good. That said, landing an accounting/finance tenured position at a top school is incredibly difficult and the consequences of not making it (i.e. ending up at a shitty school) are pretty drastic.

 

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