Anyone know if they get paid per class they teach? Do they get paid like elementary/hs teachers?
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Anyone know if they get paid per class they teach? Do they get paid like elementary/hs teachers?
Professors make a lot more money than teachers. They're salaried and then they have other income like giving speeches and writing textbooks. Not all professors give speeches but most write books. It gives them 'cred.
I *think* that professors are salaried, and have to teach a certain number of classes/ credit hours depending on their title/status/whatever you call it. As I understand, a professor is contractually obligated to teach a certain amount within a certain time frame. I'd guess that his/her contract would stipulate research or publication requirements; a great deal of this will depend upon the type of college or university at which a professor works. Also, the amount a professor makes can depend upon their level of education. PhDs and terminal degrees (MFAs, for example) tend to make more per year (but again, this will depend on where a professor is working. One of the problems at one of the schools I attended was that they only hired instructors with terminal degrees, but starting salary was on par with other schools, where they'd hire adjunct or assistant professors or whatever you call them who might only have MAs or something). Also, I'd imagine that experience/ tenure also plays a role in earnings, like most jobs.
Well an acquaintnance of mine is a professor and he's not going to work for two months or so in the summer, and so he's not getting paid for it. Let me wondering.
^^^I'm guessing that teaching summer classes is optional and earns you more money. Or is he going on sabbatical?
In my state, public high school teachers make more than professors at the state colleges. A top-step teacher makes around $70K. College professors make $10-$20K less, but they spent significantly fewer hours in the classroom ( probably 200 to 300 vs. 900 ). A lot of college professors would never survive in a HS or MS setting and most teachers would not make very good instructors at the college level. The two jobs require very different skills. Professors have more free time to write/research/consult so they probably make up for the lower "base" pay that way.
That's my job--you guys all are on the money with this, because it varies from place to place. There are different levels of professorship and also different kinds of teaching jobs: at a community college, for instance, your salary steps up usually by experience and your publications, ie these two things determine your salary and raises year by year. In a private school, there will be adjunct (lectureships) where teachers come in, usually with a terminal degree but not always, and they sign a contract to teach, say, 2 classes in fall, 1 in spring--for that they will get a salary and (perhaps, depending on the institution) some combination of health/dental/retirement and often stock funds as incentives. It is a good set up if you are a writer, as I am, because it gives you a lot of freedom to do your other work, and if you want to teach in summer you can do so (and are usually paid the same amount as the regular year--so if you make seven thousand dollars a course you make that in a month and week rather than over four months). And the writer who said you have other sources of income--at any level of professorship--is right; you might sit in on seminars or edit books or something along this line if you are involved in writing, for instance. Associate professors (meaning that they are on a track to become tenured) will make more money but have less freedom: they may have to oversee committees or some such. Full professors make the most and I think are the most involved in the institution; I'm going say that a full professor at a small college in the boonies may make 60,000, while a full professor at Harvard will make twice that and up--but it varies also based on the fame of the person. Sometimes a university will pay a great deal to an individual just to have them on the campus--they might teach just one course, just to be listed as a member of the faculty, and get a full professor's salary.
Hey Vyanka,
I should have added that people do get paid sometimes just by the class--if they are teaching, for instance, in a community college. They might teach one or two classes in a fall semester and be paid a specific sum for each. he hardest thing for part-timers is getting health insurance, because often an institution doesn't provide it, and this is why you often see part-time teachers teaching much more than they should, just to pay health insurance for their families. It isn't too fair, and there are a number of part-time unions cropping up for just this reason.
Full time profs get paid a set salary. Adjunct professors get paid per class.
This is probably different also from school to school--at my school, for instance, adjuncts are on a yearly salary--a contract that they renew each year.