What are the steps I need to take in order to become a college professor?

Question

I am currently finishing my MBA and would like to start teaching sometime soon. Any ideas how I could do that?

Answer 1

You need a degree in your field, preferably experience, and it would help if you are published. An adjunct college professor makes around 20G a year, and has no job security. To be fulltime you need to be famous, successful, have connections, or something more than a master's. Are you sure this is what you want to do? Anyhow, if you qualify as a minority you can probably get hired at a state college easily, whether you want to do this is another deal. You really should have a PhD, and to be honest the only thing you’re suited for is teaching business, and if you know about business you should be working, not teaching eh? A business degree is laughable, the only thing lower is an Ed degree, sorry. If you wanted to teach college you should have gone into a science. Any career professor is expected to work in their field and provide opportunities for students to work under them. There are people who work in college with lesser degrees, but they usually have very good schools under their belt – like Yale or Princeton. That way the college or university knows you wont be an embarrassment. That’s why we're college professors and not 'teachers.' Our job is to work in our field, teaching is secondary, whereas in high school teaching comes first. You, especially with your degree, should have some experience in your field before you try to teach it to others. Many professors get their jobs because they have a connection in their field – so your Physics prof is working on a reactor insulator and can use some graduate assistants under her- get it? Then the graduate students can work to earn their own degrees while getting experience in the field. The higher up you go in ed the less you get paid (bet you didn’t know that) My advice is see if you can be an alternate route High School teacher. You make many times more money, contract, job security, heathcare etc. Put simply – unless you are extraordinarily lucky you are going to either not be hired or hired as an adjunct, or part time. In that case you need to publish or do some work in business to try and secure your job, every few months you may end up unemployed, you will have little to no benefits and you get paid – By Contact Hour. So you spend 8 hours a week grading, 2 hours preparing for the lecture, and you get paid for that ONE hour.

Answer 2

I am not sure what you mean by "professor?" If you are thinking about a tenured position at a ranked university then you have a way to go i.e. most likely a DBA with a strong penchant for research in a particular area. Moreover, you should study with the best person in the your field of interest because his or her recommendation will be of great help when applying for a job. Your dissertation should also be superb, preferably path-breaking. And the list goes on and on. There are some good books that examine the academic path from graduate school through tenure.

Now lets talk about teaching at a college or a community college. A MA or MBA should be sufficient to teach as an adjunct at say a Webster or Chapman College. These jobs are hard to get, entail a lot of management and bureaucratic work and many classes to teach.

"A University Professor"

Answer 3

take the SAT or ACT
1. Get a B.A or a B.S. from an accrideted college or University
Take the GRE or equivelent test
2. A Master's Degree. For some disciples a Masters is the terminating degree. Usally MFA, Art or Writing
3. A Ph.D or equivenlen. When pursung the master and doctorate degrees, you should try to be a T.A. and gain undergraduate teaching expirence
Apply like hell to every opening in you field across the country and hope you find anything, even if it's part-time adjunct.
Keep looking and applying until you find a full-time, tenure leading postion.

Good Luck

Answer 4

You may be able to teach in community colleges with an M.B.A. degree. You will need a Ph.D. or D.B.a. for most colleges and universities. This may sound like a lot of work - but the payoff is very handsome since there is a shortage of terminally qualified business faculty.

Answer 5

Start teaching. I'm not kidding. As a grad student you should be TAing (teacher assistant) at least one undergrad course. If you aren't, then talk to your degree adviser right now.

Then, get your Ph.D. Continue TAing while you're a grad student.

Then, you can do some postdoc research -- you'll still be doing grunt teaching. While you're a postdoc, you can write around and look for an associate or assistant professor position.

Good luck, tenure track!

Answer 6

You will definitely need a masters degree in what you want to teach. It would also be beneficial if while attending graduate school you are a TA in the area you are teaching in. If you are in college ask your college professors how they got to where they are.

Answer 7

Enroll in a Ph.D program in a college, work as a graduate assistant, apply for an adjunct vacancy, work you way towards associate or assistant professor. Be prepared to move from state to state.

Answer 8

to become a college professor, you need to be really smart on what you want to teach on, and i think for college they might only look for teachers with Master Degree, if you have one, try to see if you can apply to be a professor

Answer 9

Kazak is giving it to you straight. Listen to him. See a career counselor before you leave college. They will help you and their services are free!!!

Answer 10

good luck mami. that's awsome lots of school and interviewing. talk to ur desired college for details/