Salary of a college professor as opposed to a public/private school teacher?

Question

I was curious. College professors usually only have 17-20 hour work weeks (not including office hours) and I was curious about how much their yearly salary is as opposed to a public or private school teacher working 40 hour work weeks. My mom works for the school and didn't know either when we were discussing it yesterday.

How much does a community college/two year school make compared to a university professor?

Answer 1

You are completely mistaken about the number of hours college professors spend working each week.

Assuming a 3/3 courseload (average), we only spend about 9 hours a week in the classroom. However, we are not merely teachers. We are scholars/researchers, and we are administrators.

As part of our job, we must:
- publish constantly, by researching, writing, preparing and submitting book reviews, scholarly articles, and books to journals and publishers
- read constantly in order to keep up with new developments in our field (both books and scholarly journals)
- present at conferences once or twice a year, which involves researching, writing, and submitting about 4 proposals annually
- prepare new courses, and update old courses, as departments are constantly undergoing curriculum review
- participate in pedagogical workshops
- serve on national, university, and department committees
- submit reams of paperwork to university administration for every single thing we do, including grades, course changes, curriculum change, departmental review and benchmarking, etc.

Those of us who are also directors of undergraduate or graduate studies or department chairs also have increased administrative duties, which I will not detail here.

As I tell my students who are interested in becoming university professors, the greatest thing about being a professor is the time flexibility -- you can work any 70 hours a week you want.

My time usually divides up like this:
9 hours/week in the classroom
8-10 hours/week class prep/course revision
15-20 hours/week research/reading
10-15 hours/week writing
8 hours/week committees/workshops/lectures
7 hours/week meeting with students/grading
5 hours/week administering the graduate program I direct

Do the math. This is by no means a 20 hour workweek.

Oh, and summers? I teach two courses, work with graduate students on their theses, do graduate student recruitment and graduate program administration, and write, write, write.

Having cleared up that misconception (I hope), university professors' salaries vary considerably, by field of study, by prestige and location of univerity, and by level of promotion.

Here's a ballpark salary range for humanities and social science professors who teach at state universities.

Assistant professors usually begin at about 40K. It takes about 6 years to be promoted to associate.
Associate professors usually earn about 60K. It takes about 6-8 more years to be promoted to full.
Full professors usually earn about 80K.

Business and engineering professors make lots more. About triple. That's because their salaries have to compete with private sector employment offers.

Community college professors make about 10K less, on average. That's because they don't have to research and publish.

How then, do I have time to answer questions on Yahoo? I have no kids, and I'm an insomniac. :)

Answer 2

There are many factors to consider when comparing the salary of a college professor to that of a public teacher. The salary is going to different in different locations. Below are two links to salary.com. The first shows what a college professor makes in my area and what a high school teacher makes in my area. You can enter in your zip code to get a better idea for where you live. There are several pro's and con's to teaching in each field. If you would like to know more you can contact me and I will be happy to assist you in any way. Oh, by the way, the college I work at just turned from a two year college to a 4 year college and they pay more than the Universities that are in Atlanta, GA. So, it really just depends on your experience, your education, and what college you work.

Answer 3

Well, both have their ups and downs... Isn't there any chance to have them both? I know someone who has a full time job at a high school, but is also an asociate assistant professor at the local college... I don't know if this is possible in your part of the world, but you should try to find out! Personally I daydream about becoming BOTH a college professor and a high school teacher.... I hope I'll get to do these two things, be it at the same time or at different point in my future career.... Good luck to you!!!

Answer 4

You can go to salary.com to check it out.

My guess is that a community college teacher makes $40-50K and university professor makes $60 and up. I think it depends on what is being taught, how many classes they teach, what school they are teaching at, etc. It's only a guess though; I could be wrong.

Answer 5

Salaries for college professors vary dramatically. It depends on what state you are in and what subject you teach. The range literally runs from 25000 year into the 100,000s. If you give me more specifics I can answer better.

Answer 6

A college Professor with an "endowed chair" will make upwards of nearly $200,000 at midwest universities and more at East Coast universities.

A starting Assistant Professor at makes about $75,000 and a full professor makes about $125,000/150,000

Answer 7

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Answer 8

In our locale, a College professor usually earns more and he could earn even more depending on his educational qualifications.

Answer 9

It depends where you are located in the country - but in many areas the salaries are viturally the same.

Good Luck!!!