How many years of college do you have to take to become a Professor?

Question

...and do you need to be a teacher first?
What is the median income?

Me and my teenage son are thinking about what careers he should do when he is older.

Answer 1

Professors in some areas at community colleges may have only a Master's degree. Nearly all Colleges and Universities these days will hire only people with doctorates.

The 'typical' time a full time student takes to get various degrees after graduating from high school are:

Bachelor's degree ... 4 to 5 years.
Master's degree ... 1 to 2 years after Bachelor's
Professional degree 1 to 3 years after Bachelor's
Doctorate degree 3 to 5 years after Bachelor's

Teaching before you become a Professor is a requirement only if your field is Education. Some doctoral programs include course work in teaching and some do not -- effectiveness varies as well. Some doctoral programs include direct experience teaching [teaching fellow] and others do not.

The key task in a doctoral program is to make an original contribution to the literature of your chosen field in the form of your dissertation. A typical dissertation is of book length and may require one to three years of full time effort to work up the idea, read the field closely, do your research and then write the document.


GL

Answer 2

At the vast majority of colleges you either need to hold a Ph.D or a Masters degree and a number of years of experience in the work force before you can become an associate professor.

If you go directly through the school route then you are going to need about 8 to 10 years worth of college (4 for the bachelors, 4 to 6 for the Ph.D); however, once done, it would be possible to potentially get a job as an associate professor.

However, the other option is to get experience in the work force as well as a masters degree before pursing a job as a professor. Typically you need about a decade worth of experience as a minimum, however, it does mean that it is possible to purse a career once the bachelors degree is complete while working on the masters in the evenings. The downside to this route is that a professor with a masters is less likely to get tenure.

As for income, it is hard to say as it is partly dependent upon the size of the school, discipline, experience, and reputation. However, a associate professor can typically expect to earn between $56,000 - $98,000 while a full professor could make between $68,000 - $136,000.

Answer 3

A professor. 4-5 i would think.
The best paying jobs are a doctor, lawyer, nurse or anything under that category.