Assistant Professor vs Associate Professor vs Full Professor
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- Опубліковано 2 чер 2024
- On this episode of Navigating Academia, Dr. Singh discusses the most common form of the academic ladder found in North America which is assistant professor, associate professor and full professorship.
This is usually what's referred to as the tenure track because there's other kinds of being a professor.
What is an adjunct professor? An adjunct professor means that you essentially are a contractor. You come in and you're teaching one or a few classes but it's usually not your full-time gig.
There are people who just teach adjunct in courses across multiple universities to make their salary
What is a clinical professor? A clinical professor usually means that you're working in some kind of a practicum setting and if you are giving workshops and such it's not in the context of kind of a normal faculty member you're not gonna get tenure or anything like this.
What is a research professor? Research professors usually get compensated not by teaching and by students and tuition but rather by grants.
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Author of over 75 peer-reviewed articles and books, he completed his graduate doctoral studies in psychiatry at the University of Oxford and clinical psychology at Universitat Konstanz. He was named the youngest tenured Full Professor in Norway in 2014 and, since this time, has become the only psychology professor to have lectured for all eight Ivy League universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn) as well as both Oxford and Cambridge. Dr. Singh is a charismatic academic mentor and coach who uses evidence-based practices to improve the lives of academics of all levels. #phdlife
I'm an adjunct in the northeast (part-time, as I am a psychotherapist in private practice by trade) and wow(!) while I totally get cultural differences, it's ridiculous that person reported you to the supervisor. Some people in academia really have a narcissistic chip on their shoulder. My mindset toward academia is that I'm here to serve my students and my profession, not the other way around (esp. not to be worshipped). Thanks for the vid!
Good to hear from you!
Loving this channel. Packed with information!
Thanks, Charles! - please do share some links with your friends and colleagues (as well as on social media) so we can grow :)
Thank you for the video. I found it enlightening. I am coming to the end of a 30 year career in national security and considering academia as an encore career. I doubt I will work long enough to make full professor, but should I get into a university, I'll better understand the strata of tenured professors now!
Terrific!
It's a really helpful video for me! I just received my Master degree offer in biochemistry and molecular bio and planning on going into PhD. However, it really bother me before whether to be a professor or just be a researcher in a pharmaceutical company. After watching this video, it makes me understand my PI in the lab better and decide to do research in the company lol! Really appreciate the video!!!
In pharm that’s a good plan - industry for the win!
Thank you for your channel. Great information 😊
Thanks, Tadia, we appreciate your kind words and taking "the journey" with us as we grow the channel. Please do ask your friends to subscribe and share any of the videos you enjoy on social media, as it will help us out a lot :)
Prof. Singh, thanks for this! :)
You're most welcome, Michael! Hoping you are having a great week
@@NavigatingAcademia I am a new Assoc Prof and I know that I still need to do a lot of work. Thanks for the tips. For now I just want to enjoy the journey. :)
This is so awesome! Especially since I am preparing to apply to an MA/PhD program. I would love to connect with you Dr. Singh.
Great to hear from you, Thomas! I liked checking out your channel and passion for poetry. Happy to connect to talk about your preparations and how to maximize the chances for application success. I've got a website where sessions can be booked for that purpose which is www.jayphoenixsingh.com
I learned so much in this video, truly valuable. New Subscriber :)
Welcome aboard, Stephane! Thrilled to have you with us
@@NavigatingAcademia Me too! I would love it if you could make a video highlighting the factors a Ph.D. student should consider when selecting a program. Especially if there are similar and appealing. Things such as advisor, stipend, location, etc. Thanks! :)
The publish or perish culture in the U.S. is bad for both the professors & students. Great video. Cheers.
Thanks! Def check out our publish or perish video and we appreciate your subscribing!
I really appreciate this video. I am interested in this difference and how it looks in the UK and South Africa. I will be finishing up my doctorate by the end of the year. After spending 20 years as a teacher, the idea of starting from the very beginning of a new career in academia is unappealing. I have started submitting to journals now some of my research.
That's terrific that you're submitting to journals!
This was very clear!
Thanks, Tiffanie! Please do consider subscribing :)
Thank you so much for your great channel! In Israel we have another position: when you get the tuner track you are a Senior Lecturer, and few years after you can apply for Associate professor rank and of course full professor
Indeed! I was a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa, and we had some delightful Senior Lecturers
Very informative. Very different from my country. I am doing a paper on comparing and contrasting the various professor appointments.
Fascinating, Arlene! Please do share a link for your paper when you're done!
Awesome information
Thanks man!
Yes, yes, yes, make the video on the 10 years topic, please. We need all the videos that you can provide to us. In addition, could you make a video for those students, like myself, are adult learners (38+) and just started with this long but amazing career journey?
Thanks 👽♥️♥️♥️
Absolutely - we have a bunch of those types of videos on the channel - be sure to check them out!
I really like the graduation music playing in the background because I graduate with my Masters in December and I plan on pursuing a PhD afterwards. I have a question in reference to achieving tenure/full professorship. I heard that when one of my professors was up for full professorship all the other full professors at the time voted no. However, the university accepted her and now that professor is a full professor. With that being said, when it comes to becoming a full professor/getting tenure, is it something where the university has the last say despite what other full professors/professors with tenure vote on?
This differs depending on the university - that said, the professor in question must have been bringing in substantial external funding or be a prolific researcher, if they overrode the faculty’s decision.
@@NavigatingAcademia Thanks so much for clarifying this!
Thanks for this great video. One thing you did not touch on is the significance of endowed chairs: how does "endowed" status related to the assistant-associate-full professor line in terms of prestige and responsibility?
To my knowledge, an endowed chair/professor is primarily a tenured full professor position. It’s a pre-funded position and highly prestigious.
@@NavigatingAcademia would you rather hold an endowed chair as an associate professor or be a full professor with a "regular" line?
Endowed chair 100%
Hey I'm from Belgium and was wondering if you could give me some advice on which traject I should be taking in becoming a professor.
We've got 2 different ones and I'm just not entirely sure which would be the best option for me:
1. Get a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Biotechnology specialization in teaching, after which I'll go into an educative Masters of 2 years (each year prepares you for teaching later on). This will allow me to immediately become a professor at college level, though I'd have to find a free spot in academia for that. With this position, It'll allow me to get even more teaching experience in to put on my resume, while allowing me to study further for a PhD and become a professor at university level.
2. Get a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Biotechnology specialization research, after which I'll go into a master of 2 years focused on research in my specialization (no teaching preparation). After this I'd still have to do a PhD to become a professor at university level. I'd graduate without any teaching experience, but with a PhD a few years earlier.
I'd really appreciate your input on this and thanks for the informative video, really enjoy your channel!
Hmmm tough decision - It depends on whether your dream eventual position involves more teaching or research. If teaching, then choose the first but if research then choose the second. The reason is that the first option will end up giving you more teaching experience at the end of it but the second option will give you a longer “runway” during which to publish.
Can you do a video about when one is overqualified for Lecturer and Assistant Professor positions? If someone has, say, over 20 publications in top journals and a book or two, is that too much for these positions?
Hi Lili - it depends on a number of factors such as who else is a faculty member in that department and their bibliometric stats, the nature of the university (e.g., if a teaching rather than research university, then pubs and books matter less than teaching evals), competition for the same position in a given year, and so on. My recommendation is that if you feel overqualified is to only apply for Associate Professor level positions. 20 pubs and a book or two is a great track record - if you've also got a solid record of teaching evaluations and professional service, you can consider applying for such jobs. When it comes to assistant professorships, most programs will take what they can get - so if you apply and are overqualified, they'll still take you over a less qualified person.
Nice! Subscribed .
Thanks for the sub!
Great video
Thanks!
True. In my undergrad my Spanish professor wouldn't allow you to call her professor, she was doctora. The others didn't really care.
🙏🏽
I could never be tenured anything because I need to keep it moving.
I hear that 😎
Are there any tricks to getting hired directly as an associate professor instead of an assistant professor? (some context: MD physician in academic radiology with ~20-25 publications)
Personal connections (esp getting hired where the coauthors of your papers are at) combined with careful reading of job postings (often they will say if they are open to hiring someone as an associate/full or just an assistant prof) combined with having great teaching evaluations (adjunct for a few semesters to get those) or a new grant ($100k minimum - bring it to them so they can get the indirect from it)
Also, make sure your h-index due to those 20-25 publications is 8+ in the past five years (track that on Google Scholar for ease)
@@NavigatingAcademia these are very helpful, thank you! I am currently finishing up med school with 14 pubmed-indexed publications, 30 citations, and an h-index of 3. Hoping to get more impactful publications (first and solo author as per your advice) and citations in the next 6 years before actual academia job search (5 years of residency + 1 year of fellowship). Fingers crossed!
Ah, an h-index of 3 with 20-25 publications is going to raise eyebrows. If you do not have an h-index of a minimum of 5-8, you will not be taken into serious consideration. But try and focus on getting more citations on the papers you already have (e.g., disseminate them in a targeted fashion to people who actively publish in your area) to try and get those numbers up. Definitely nothing wrong with being an assistant professor with the current credentials.
Get competing offers at two different schools. They will have to bid against each other and one will likely take your file through the tenure process prior to hiring you and thus offer you an Associate Prof. job. This is not standard, not likely, but I've personally experienced it as part of a contract negotiation while I was an Assistant Prof.
Hey Professor-I'm a tad late to this video, but I hope you spot my question and,,,....Anyway, I watch MSNBC, and (having been a prosecutor myself) I notice that all the legal experts, mostly ex DOJ etc and NOW profs at NYU, Uni of Mich etc-so my question is, given that these folks are not career academics, what Kind of professors could they be?
Thanks.
Good question - they’re all either assistant, associate, or full professors. In the USA all three levels are referred to as “professor” generically. They could also simply be adjunct professors or lecturers.
I must say that this video was very knowledgeable for me. If you are a tenure/associate or full professor and decide to leave and take a job at another university, does your position follow you, or do you start over again as an assistant professor?
Hey Corey! Thanks for the question - your position routinely follows you. That said, if your position at the initial university was based on - let's say - primarily teaching, and at the subsequent university is based on - let's say - research output, then you may want to apply for a lower ranked position. Certain "Calls for Positions" will specify the rank you are applying for, whereas others are open to applying for any rank.
Doing a post doctoral, does it qualify me to become an assistant or associate professor?
Assistant
Are these three positions full time jobs? Also, could you just only teach and not do research in this career field?
Yes - full time. Yes, you can just teach and not do research.
Q: Do you see this landscape as the same now as you did when this video was posted?
Good question: In what regard?
If I wanted to work as a professor without getting tenure, what is the highest level I could get to? Like can I be an assistant professor and not even try to get tenure?
A few options. As a tenure track professor, you won’t be able to go past assistant professor and will be fired if you don’t go up for tenure before the (usually) 4-5 year tenure clock expires. As an adjunct professor you don’t have tiers, so you’ll always be a generic adjunct professor (not assistant, associate, full). As a research professor you “eat what you kill” and only have money to survive on if you can win grants consistently (one of the hardest skills and longest processes in academia) but you won’t ever get/need tenure. Other than that, no options in the US system at the very least.
PS Some schools though like Shenandoah University don’t have tenure and just give you 3 year renewable contracts so I suppose you could do that.
I am confused to choose academia OR industry?
Good question - I’ll make you a video response and post it. What are your current thoughts on the pros and cons of both?
@@NavigatingAcademia
academia with job security but hard to find one and boring but flexible working hours ... Industry just the opposite ... I also think of jet an academic job and then spend rest of my time on a second job like investment in stock market ...
Academia does not provide more job security than industry (that's a myth) and the working hours are flexible but in the aggregate are more than the average industry job. Investing in the stock market is a long-game making 8.33% on average annually over 20 years (compounding along the way, of course). If you are planning on doing short-term investments, over 85% of all investors lose money, because it is gambling and not investing. Eventually you will lose. Put your money into diversified ETFs or give your money to a manager - do not manage it yourself unless you are going to spend at least a year reading about fundamental-investing vs. technical-investing and then several hours a day monitoring the news and market fluctuations. Hence, I recommend getting a stable job with a strong benefits package and upwards mobility (in academia you won't have the chance to make as much money as in industry or to get more than 2-3 promotions).
@@NavigatingAcademia
Thanks for such valuable and great information. It was highly impressive. If you could make videos on this, it will be will very attractive to people like me (phd students in Engineering who need to decide about their future shortly).
Nice bandli❤
thanks
Sir what is your salary as a professor? Nice video.
Thanks for the compliment. I don’t discuss my earnings.
@@NavigatingAcademia any range for full professor in usa sir
Does not discussing your earning help or hurt you or your colleagues? Is it cultural?
Great question, Dan - earnings can come from a variety of sources to create gross annual income (university salary, grants, external trainings, and so forth). I have not encountered a culture out of the 6 countries I've lived in across 3 continents where individuals would be willing to publicly post their annual income (other than people trying to "flex" and show-off, of course). My general guideline for life is that if something does not help but could possibly hurt, then never do it.
And emeritus?
What about it? "Emeritus Professor" is a largely honorary title for a professor who has retired or is no longer full-time (this is different from adjunct professor, of course). I do not consider it one of the main types of professor due to its largely honorary nature.
Thanks
so prof and dr aren't synonymous?
Correct - they are not
Something I am curious about is this: I am pursuing my Master's Degree in Vocal Performance to work as a Voice Teacher and have my own private studio; but I'd also like to work at Universities. Is this possible with a mere Master's Degree? I know it is at the Community College level (albeit I'm in Iowa, in California I've observed that every Voice Teacher at a community college seems to have a Ph.D., and one must audition before being accepted by an individual voice teacher!). Also, it's my understanding that with a Master's Degree in a given state comes a license to teach in that state. But what if I move? Must I reapply somewhere for a new teaching license in a new state, and how would one go about doing that?
In terms of being an adjunct professor, yes it’s possible (and no, there’s no license to be a professor in any state). To become a tenure track professor with a masters is highly unlikely unless you have significant achievements in your performing arts background (eg 10 years as lead vocal performer at a well known opera)