# How much does a professor typically earn?



## Drella

thread over.


----------



## coldmorning

It varies a lot. If you are well published, you can make in the 70's and above. It also depends on the field. Law professors frequently make in the six figures. Of course for star professors, the sky is the limit as some people can make like 20K just for speaking at events with expenses paid. But that's sort of like the musician who becomes a millionaire while the average musician makes like 18k a year.

But it's a hell of a lot of work. Unless you work at a community college (which I actually think is the best place to work for a professor), you'll have to publish a lot. And I agree that generally, you should get a phd only if you want to teach.


----------



## Mr. Orange

It has a lot to due with where you teach...if you are a professor at a respected college or university you will make vastly more than you make at a lesser known college, in most cases. I know that the starting salary for high school teachers is something like $35,000...so that doesn't make sense to me that it would be the same for a college professor. If you do a good job, I think you get regular raises. You also have to take into account the benefits that are offered. I am pretty sure that college professors get very nice benefits, so that would inflate the salary a lot. And you can get tenure at a college, which gives tremendous job security. I know that many of the professors at my college drove nice cars, and lived in nice areas, so they must have been fairly well off. And you will also probably do independent projects as a professor, which usually get funding from the college, and you get access to their resources to do so. You can make quite a bit extra doing things like this, and perhaps travel quite a bit as well.


----------



## Drella

Thanks for the responses. I think a part of me realized the lack of prospects, but was in denial. I'm in a research oriented field, so I had hoped to do research outside of academia (i.e., in a hospital, at a private company, the government... or something). I guess it's a pipe dream. I'm published already (hah, as fourth author on some esoteric twaddle, which is pathetic) and have a few other studies that will eventually be up for review, but I'm too lazy/apathetic to be an all-star maverick professor. I will obviously be living with my mother ten years from now, eating cat food. Well, at least I know the future that awaits me. I would be more than happy with, say, $60,000, but much less than that (i.e. $35,000) doesn't really justify all the work for me. Yeah, a professor I know drives luxury cars and lives in a beautiful house, but he's also the department chair with 30+ years of experience and a private practice.


----------



## thetrial

Not enough.

I think the average here is 35-40k.


----------



## Drella

thetrial said:


> Not enough.
> 
> I think the average here is 35-40k.


Thanks. That's what I was afraid of; I doubt that would be enough for me to even live on, much less comfortably... not with almost $1,000 a month going to pay off student loans (If I don't want to be paying on them forever). I think I'm going to have to talk to someone about this before I dig myself in any further.


----------



## coldmorning

Drella said:


> Thanks. That's what I was afraid of; I doubt that would be enough for me to even live on, much less live comfortably... not with almost $1,000 a month going to pay off student loans (If I don't want to be paying on them forever). I think I'm going to have to talk to someone about this before I dig myself in any further.


Well, you can defer payment while you're in school. Most phd students get funded too so it's not like you'll be adding debt while working on a phd. And if inflation takes off, that debt of yours will be dwindling while you are in school.

I have a masters but some of the students I went to school with went on to finish their phd. That's how I know about salaries because they would tell me about offers and such. Frankly, 35K doesn't sound too realistic to me... at least not in the US. I don't know of anyone in my class with a phd who got a 35K offer. I've heard of students feeling insulted by 60K offers.

What you could do is go for a masters and see if you want to get a phd after that. If you're in a grad program you can work with professors and get a better sense of what their careers are like. If you can get funding for a master's, then there's really nothing to lose (unless you really want to make money right away). But it's a fairly safe way to know how professors in your field live and get a sense of what they make.


----------



## Drella

I'm in grad school already, so that's what's worrying. And I already am adding to the debt right now; I may get funding for the Spring or next year, but they didn't have money to offer me for the Fall. (It was my mistake for going here and _not_ the place that immediately agreed to pay everything. Thanks, SA). My payments have been deferred for the past 6 years, so they've accumulated a nice bit of interest as well. I'm worried about being able to pay them off once I finish school. It's a bit of a relief that $35,000 sounds like a gross underestimation to you, because 60K would honestly be perfectly acceptable to me.


----------



## Drella

Thanks for the info, Marooned.


----------



## thetrial

Yeah I guess my estimate is only relevant for Canada. Forgot to mention it, oops!

Either way, being a prof is one of my possible career choices as well. I definitely think they should get paid more.


----------



## Kelly

How much you get paid depends on the school that hires you. That's why it's good to try for private universities. They pay more. At my university (public in Ohio), non-tenure track visiting professors start off around $40,000/year with a full course-load.

Plus, at my school, profs get bonuses if they have grad students, etc. For example, my Ph.D. advisor gets paid more because, although being my advisor doesn't count as her teaching an extra class, she does have to take the time to _advise_ me. Plus, profs who serve on grad students' committees, but aren't their primary faculty member get paid extra too.

It irritates me to no end when profs complain about how little money they make. I only make a fraction of that!!

A professor friend of mine told me that the best way to pay off student loans is to "live like a student for a year," meaning, stay on your student budget until you pay off the loans. I told him it might take me more than a year... :fall

Have a nice day,
Kelly


----------



## pariahgirl

At my school its around 40k, I know this because one of my criminal justice teachers took almost a whole class period to complain about this. But with the budget cuts I assume that the pay isn't going to get any better around here anytime soon.


----------



## dax

Drella said:


> Does anyone know? In the general sense, I mean. I realize it varies from region to region.
> To ask it another way, if I were to become a (assistant) college professor, would it be enough to pay off my student loans (which is an ever-growing mind boggling amount), pay for rent/a car, and allow for my $300 a month _snapping into a Slim Jim_ budget?
> I honestly thought that, when I get a Ph.D., I can do _anything!11! The skies the limit, kid!_ Then, reality sank in as my professors began talking to me about "When you are a professor, you'll..." Steady on, compadre; I don't necessarily want to lecture, but (apparently) that's virtually the only thing one can do with this degree. Every salary calculator site I've visited varies in their approximations; one says $35,000, another says double that, and so on. $35,000 is unacceptable to me, in all candidness; the expense of time, money, and effort does not justify the pay-off. Anyway, I'm just curious. I want to know if I'll be eating cat food and living with my mother ten years from now.


What are you getting a Ph.D. in?


----------



## random222

??? 35K 40K, what universities are you guys talking about??

At the university I went to, 1st year professors earn at least 75K. The rest earn over 100K. And this was a state university.


----------



## pita

The non-tenure ones at my school make around 35-40k, I believe, but the senior level tenured profs make over 100k. That's (recently crappified) Canadian money, of course =P


----------



## jakehunt

i think it all depends. when i look at my professors salaries they are around 20k / month. i go to a public university. for public schools this information is available, being a phd you can easily do a research and come out with a reasonable conclusion for yourself.


----------



## hyacinth_dragon

Really what you earn as a professor is dependent on how much money you bring to your academic department. Typically professors earn way more at a big 10 school. At other places its somewhere between forty grand to sixty grand a year. I went to a state school that was not a big ten and the department chair made around sixty grand a year. At UW Madison some professors make one hundred thousand a year depending on what kind of money they bring into the department and how long they have been teaching and doing research. Thats in the sciences though.


----------



## Drella

Well, I checked at my school, and Professors in my field earn $76,000; Associate Professors earn $59,000; Assistant Professors - $49,000 and new Assistant Professors - $47,000.

I don't know... I could live with that.
I also checked the salaries at my undergrad college (they listed salary by gender), which were fairly comparable, except for the women's salaries....


----------



## mypasswordneverworks

Drella said:


> $35,000 is unacceptable to me, in all candidness; the expense of time, money, and effort does not justify the pay-off.


Welcome to the real world :b

Anyway, it depends on the subject. If your PhD is in English or History you'll make $35k at my school but if it is in something like Finance or Economics you make closer to $80K starting out. My professor told us about this one day. He said that it is based on your "value" outside the college---aka how much you'd earn if you were not a professor. English & history isn't as valuable outside of education as is Finance and such. It goes back to "why would you be a teacher for $35k if you can earn $80k working outside of it"---so that is why they pay more based on subject.

High school teachers here start out at $27k.

I go to a state school.


----------

