Do colleges help their adjuncts pay for a post grad degree?

Question

I am planning on getting a masters within two years. After that, I would like to work on a PhD, while teaching at the college level. Do colleges help adjuncts pay for this? Would a college hire one of it's PhD candidates to teach while they work on their degree?

Maybe I was a little unclear. I don't plan on becoming an adjunct until after I get my masters. I'm working on my masters now.

Answer 1

Yes. Yes. And yes.

Answer 2

You've got it kind of backwards.

After you finish your bachelor's degree, apply to a graduate program. In many cases (depending on your field of study), the graduate program will be a combination MA/PhD (or MS/PhD if you're in the sciences).

When you apply to grad schools, you should be shooting for either
a) a fellowship, or
b) an assistantship of some kind, like a research assistantship, or a teaching assistantship.

Students who are awarded fellowships and assistantships usually receive full tuition remission, as well as a stipend. Students on teaching assistantships (and some fellowships) often act as teaching assistants in courses taught by professors, but sometimes they teach courses on their own. In either case, the teaching experience is valuable.

Many PhD students will ALSO end up having to work as an adjunct before they finish their degree, because fellowships / assistantships only last for a specific period of time (usually from 3-5 years), and it often takes longer to finish the Ph.D. So after a fellowship/assistantship expires, sometimes a student must try to get a teaching gig.

If you are working as an adjunct prior to finishing your degree, the college that hired you does not care if you finish your Ph.D. It certainly will not help you fund that study. As a matter of fact, they probably don't want you to get a Ph.D., since they'd have to pay you more if you had one. Moreover, when you get your Ph.D., you won't want to work as an underpaid adjunct any more.

Colleges rely on a pool of pre-Ph.D. students to fill these undesirable adjunct positions. Some people get really unlucky, and never break out of adjunct ranks. They are underpaid, overworked, and generally exploited.

In some other cases, however, some people WITH Ph.D.s choose to work as adjuncts because they value teaching over research, and don't want the burdens of committee work or the pressures of publishing. They often have to cobble together adjunct jobs at two or more colleges, just to make a decent living.

Anyway, there's my two cents.

Answer 3

Doing it. But don't expect the pay to be good. I make $18,000-$24,000 a year, depending on how many classes I can teach.

My school doesn't hire its graduates but some do.