Originally posted by: cumhail
Where was this? Unless we have a celebrity (or someone who'd be considered one in some field) in our midst, that's not at all typical of what university instructors earn when starting out. For the typical who's finished his/her Ph.D., has published one or two articles in peer-review journals, and is lucky enough to find tenure-track work, he/she can generally expect somewhere in the area of $40-50k/year, depending on geographic location, personal qualifications, the institution in question, etc. That gets you the title of Assistant Professor and means you'll be evaluated, at the end of some set term (typically, this is after several years), and it will be determined whether or not you'll be granted tenure. If not, you move on and try again. If you do get tenure, you generally receive a bump in salary, along with the title of 'Associate Professor.' In most areas, this still places you well under $70k/year... though one can, perhaps, take on additional work to supplement the proscribed course load.
My numbers are just vague averages, by the way... nothing exact. But they're based on some level of knowledge of the field and can be checked by looking for an article on the subject in something along the lines of 'The Chronicle of Higher Education.' As I mentioned earlier, all norms go out the window when it comes to someone who can bring cache to an institution. If you're well known and regarded in your field/discipline, if you've held public office, if you are a celebrity whose presence they believe will attract attention, donations, etc... there's really no set limit to what you can make nor even to what degrees you need to have. But for the regular schmoes who just finished grad school and are looking for tenure-track work with their brand-spankin' new Ph.D.'s, it will likely be a while before they're making $70k/year as their base salaries.
But if you know of some institution that really does just anyone, even without a completed Ph.D., at a starting salary of $70k/year, please do let everyone know where. I'll give you some addresses where you can post the info, as I imagine many a person would move without a second thought for that opportunity.
cumhail
Originally posted by: shinerburke
Originally posted by: preslove
Being a professor is a job, too. They don't get a lot of money, either (which is partly why the phd is not that desirable), so how are they not in the "real world." Please give some examples of the real world issues that they don't participate in?
edit* a proff has to teach students as well as publish, which means they usually work 50 or 60+ hour weeks at least (if they're good and want any chance of a tenure track at a respectable university).
Bull....back when I was working on my advanced degrees I was looking into professorships. I could have had one starting at 70k without even having finished my PhD.