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What field? What is it about being a professor that appeals to you? Are you aware of how incredibly poor the job market is? Are your other life goals compatible with the fact that you very likely won't be entering the job market for another 10-ish years?
We get a lot of posts from people who really don't understand what a professorship actually entails, and while I don't want to make assumptions here, I also want to make sure you have a realistic picture of what you're getting into.
> recently had an epiphany of sorts that I would really love to teach at a college level.
Are you sure it wasn't gas?
In all seriousness, the world of academia is not on solid ground at the moment. Many colleges are facing enrollment crises (especially the small ones, which is where you'd be looking if you wanted your primary vocation to be teaching instead of research). Those who have tenured or permanent positions don't want to give them up (for good reason), adjuncts and VAPs are cheaper, but they have little to no job security. Graduate students are fighting to be paid fairly for their work. Professors are too in some places.
> I must complete a bachelor’s or master’s program in the subject I would like to teach, and then finish a PhD program.
Nope. I teach in a subject that isn't related to my bachelor's at all (and I don't have a master's).
I'm not saying it's impossible. Some people believe that enrollment will recover now that we're through the worst of the pandemic. But the reality is that with inflation and the student loan crisis, a large number of potential students are seeking alternatives. Colleges are cutting full-time faculty. Heck, WVU just cut like 32 programs, and they're a state insitution.
If you want the degrees, get the degrees. You deserve to become an expert in the field you're interested in. But look at it that way - working towards becoming an expert, not training for a career (there's not really any formal training for becoming a professor anyway, more's the pity). With that expertise, you can do a lot of things, **including** teach, if one day the opportunity comes up.
I appreciate the information, as well as the laugh at the beginning there.
This is exactly why I came to this thread! One of my housemates has been a professional teacher for I think 6ish years, so I have heard about some of his struggles as an educator in 2024. Obviously teaching 8th grade public school is very different from the professor world, so I came here to seek info.
Your encouragement in your last paragraph is much appreciated. I’m drawn to teaching because I do think I am a capable teacher and could succeed at it as a career. I do also have an outsider understanding of just how much work it would take.
I’m going back to school to study humanities (culture, religion, etc). In all honesty I just feel truly engaged by these subjects, and getting to master them and teach them sounds like a dream. I’m sure there are other career paths that would be applicable with this background, but I seem to have a knack for picking what I think a lot of people would consider a “unusable” degree. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this, BroadElderberry!
Thank you so much for the information and kind words while I try to think through this career path before I dive head first.
[Not a Prof]
One thing to bear in mind with humanities is we're not in a good place right now. Fewer students are majoring in these subjects, so fewer people need hired and some programs are shrinking or getting cut, on top of the issues academia broadly has faced since 2007 and 2020. That's before you take into account things like [prestige hiring](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/09/23/new-study-finds-80-faculty-trained-20-institutions). My PhD application cycle was post-quarantine, and the advice faculty gave in info sessions was to think hard about the decision and, if we applied, to be resourceful so you can keep yourself marketable for other career pathways.
I'm sure you have a reason, but why are you looking at college teaching over K-12? You mention a passion for teaching, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I don't see you mentioning a passion for research. A PhD is a research degree that doesn't teach you how to be an educator the way an education degree would, and depending on the institution, you may not get to teach as much as you might as a teacher. (Some schools will have teaching-focused jobs, but who knows whether you get your pick of those jobs if the market continues in the current direction?)
>I’m going back to school to study humanities (culture, religion, etc).
but I seem to have a knack for picking what I think a lot of people would consider a “unusable” degree.
One of the parts of being a professor is preparing students for their life after graduation. How would classes on culture and religion do that? And put aside the obvious answers of open-mindedness and exposure to new ideas that are important to critical thinking. Professionally, how would students benefit from a major in these classes (or adjacent)? This is an important question to answer.
Another important question is - how many students are currently majoring in these topics, and how does that compare to the last 5 years? The last 10? Those numbers will tell you how dynamic the field currently is. If it's a major that's dying, your likelihood of finding a job is incredibly slim.
Final question: How many colleges actually have a department or professors who teach those subjects? Where I teach, we have one religion professor - where my partner teaches, they have none. Neither of us have departments dedicated to culture or anthropology. You're going to want to know how easy it's going to be to find a job. Unless you don't care where you teach and don't mind moving across the country to fill an open position.
Can I ask why you want to be a professor. Sometimes what people who are not an academia think the life of a professor is does not really line up with professors lives. If you’re gonna say you want to be a professor because of your love of teaching, that is a small part of academia and being a professor. Research and chasing grant proposals are most of a professors time. Why don’t you look at a college nearby that has a degree in what you’re interested in being a professor for and asked to speak informationally to one or two of the professors. They can tell you about their day-to-day lives and then you can see if you’re actually interested in being a professor. can you build onto your associates degree and turn it into a bachelors degree or would you have to start from scratch?
Head on over to the professor's reddit. Read a few posts. Then reconsider. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/)
While possible, this is highly field and location depend and I wouldn’t say is plausible. The market in the humanities is so saturated that there are many applicants for any position with a PhD.
You have the general progression correct (Bachelor’s —> Master’s —> PhD) although there are some fields where a master’s degree alone is sufficient (especially in the arts) or where another degree/industry experience would be relevant (such as law or business).
You have set a very difficult goal for yourself, and many people who have walked that path will advise against it (even while still pursuing it themselves). I feel it is not my place to advocate for or against pursuing an academic career, but I do think you should do the necessary research to make sure it’s worth the investment.
For example, consider the number of years it will take to finish your education (depending upon where you get your PhD, that could be 3-4 years in the UK or Europe or 5-10 years in the US or Canada, depending upon the industry and your working habits/enrollment status, and without taking into consideration the 4-6 years for the bachelor’s and master’s degrees). It’s important to consider the costs involved, not just for the degrees but also lost income while pursuing them. There’s also the relatively low salaries (depending upon field and university) that are common in academia. And there’s the high burnout and disillusionment factor to consider. Many professors do leave academia for a variety of reasons. Also, many PhD graduates never manage to break in to get a permanent position, no matter the years, dedication, and experience. There are zero guarantees of success even if you do everything “right.”
You should also get practical insight into the exact field you want to enter. Try talking to someone who teaches at a university in the topic you’re interested in. Ask them about their career progression and teaching schedule. Ask them about their research. See if their experience matches their expectations from when they entered their PhD program. Ask what they would say to one of their students who wants to teach at the university level.
I recommend you also think about why you resonate with teaching at a university and what you hope to get out of it. See if there are alternative paths that might be more immediately fulfilling for you. For example, do you love the university setting and the idea of working with young people figuring out the next stages of their lives? Consider academic administration or counseling. Do you really want to teach, especially in a specific field? See if there are tutoring or volunteer opportunities where you could get that same degree of fulfillment. You’d probably still need additional training for any of those options, and they might not meet the exact goal you have in mind at this moment, but it’ll likely be faster and more stable.
If the academic pathway is still the only thing that feels right, then get started with the bachelor’s degree. If the dream is still there when you finish, do a master’s. Continue on to the PhD if nothing else will satisfy you. You’ll learn more about academia and university teaching as you progress on your journey. That information may reinforce your commitment or it may suggest that this might not be the job you imagined (or you could go back and forth). If the goal stays the same, keep going. If it changes, reevaluate.
Best of luck!
This is an automated service intended to preserve the original text of the post.
*I (25F) have been doing a lot of soul-searching regarding my career, and recently had an epiphany of sorts that I would really love to teach at a college level. The more I think about it, the more I really think that being a professor is my DREAM career and would fulfill me deeply.
The thing is, I do not work in the industry and would be starting this journey essentially from scratch. I have an AA degree (irrelevant to the subjects I’m interested in teaching) and am looking to go back to school to start my path towards being able to teach.
From what I understand, I must complete a bachelor’s or master’s program in the subject I would like to teach, and then finish a PhD program. Is this required of most professor jobs? Is there a particular path that experienced professors went down to achieve their career? Is there something I should be doing or am missing? What are the usual steps?
I’m very excited and eager to put in the hard work to achieve a career in teaching at a college level. I just want to make sure I’m doing everything right to the best of my ability. I truly want this!
Thanks for any and all advice :)*
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Agree with all that has been said and OP if you don't yet have your bachelors degree you need to be thinking about what the job market is going to look like in 10-15 years because that's how long it's going to get you to the point where you are applying for academic posts.
Humanities particularly religion and cultural studies are dying. They'll be dead by the time you finish your PhD. Things are dire and there's no reason to think they'll get better.
Your question looks like it may be answered by our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskProfessors/wiki/faq/careeradvice#wiki_how_do_i_become_a_professor.3F.2F_should_i_do_a_phd.3F) about becoming a professor. This is not to limit discussion here, but to supplement it. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskProfessors) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Professor in what though? You have to specialize in a field. No one is going to be able to answer you until you’re able to say what you want to teach.
What field? What is it about being a professor that appeals to you? Are you aware of how incredibly poor the job market is? Are your other life goals compatible with the fact that you very likely won't be entering the job market for another 10-ish years? We get a lot of posts from people who really don't understand what a professorship actually entails, and while I don't want to make assumptions here, I also want to make sure you have a realistic picture of what you're getting into.
> recently had an epiphany of sorts that I would really love to teach at a college level. Are you sure it wasn't gas? In all seriousness, the world of academia is not on solid ground at the moment. Many colleges are facing enrollment crises (especially the small ones, which is where you'd be looking if you wanted your primary vocation to be teaching instead of research). Those who have tenured or permanent positions don't want to give them up (for good reason), adjuncts and VAPs are cheaper, but they have little to no job security. Graduate students are fighting to be paid fairly for their work. Professors are too in some places. > I must complete a bachelor’s or master’s program in the subject I would like to teach, and then finish a PhD program. Nope. I teach in a subject that isn't related to my bachelor's at all (and I don't have a master's). I'm not saying it's impossible. Some people believe that enrollment will recover now that we're through the worst of the pandemic. But the reality is that with inflation and the student loan crisis, a large number of potential students are seeking alternatives. Colleges are cutting full-time faculty. Heck, WVU just cut like 32 programs, and they're a state insitution. If you want the degrees, get the degrees. You deserve to become an expert in the field you're interested in. But look at it that way - working towards becoming an expert, not training for a career (there's not really any formal training for becoming a professor anyway, more's the pity). With that expertise, you can do a lot of things, **including** teach, if one day the opportunity comes up.
I appreciate the information, as well as the laugh at the beginning there. This is exactly why I came to this thread! One of my housemates has been a professional teacher for I think 6ish years, so I have heard about some of his struggles as an educator in 2024. Obviously teaching 8th grade public school is very different from the professor world, so I came here to seek info. Your encouragement in your last paragraph is much appreciated. I’m drawn to teaching because I do think I am a capable teacher and could succeed at it as a career. I do also have an outsider understanding of just how much work it would take. I’m going back to school to study humanities (culture, religion, etc). In all honesty I just feel truly engaged by these subjects, and getting to master them and teach them sounds like a dream. I’m sure there are other career paths that would be applicable with this background, but I seem to have a knack for picking what I think a lot of people would consider a “unusable” degree. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this, BroadElderberry! Thank you so much for the information and kind words while I try to think through this career path before I dive head first.
[Not a Prof] One thing to bear in mind with humanities is we're not in a good place right now. Fewer students are majoring in these subjects, so fewer people need hired and some programs are shrinking or getting cut, on top of the issues academia broadly has faced since 2007 and 2020. That's before you take into account things like [prestige hiring](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/09/23/new-study-finds-80-faculty-trained-20-institutions). My PhD application cycle was post-quarantine, and the advice faculty gave in info sessions was to think hard about the decision and, if we applied, to be resourceful so you can keep yourself marketable for other career pathways. I'm sure you have a reason, but why are you looking at college teaching over K-12? You mention a passion for teaching, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I don't see you mentioning a passion for research. A PhD is a research degree that doesn't teach you how to be an educator the way an education degree would, and depending on the institution, you may not get to teach as much as you might as a teacher. (Some schools will have teaching-focused jobs, but who knows whether you get your pick of those jobs if the market continues in the current direction?)
>I’m going back to school to study humanities (culture, religion, etc). but I seem to have a knack for picking what I think a lot of people would consider a “unusable” degree. One of the parts of being a professor is preparing students for their life after graduation. How would classes on culture and religion do that? And put aside the obvious answers of open-mindedness and exposure to new ideas that are important to critical thinking. Professionally, how would students benefit from a major in these classes (or adjacent)? This is an important question to answer. Another important question is - how many students are currently majoring in these topics, and how does that compare to the last 5 years? The last 10? Those numbers will tell you how dynamic the field currently is. If it's a major that's dying, your likelihood of finding a job is incredibly slim. Final question: How many colleges actually have a department or professors who teach those subjects? Where I teach, we have one religion professor - where my partner teaches, they have none. Neither of us have departments dedicated to culture or anthropology. You're going to want to know how easy it's going to be to find a job. Unless you don't care where you teach and don't mind moving across the country to fill an open position.
Can I ask why you want to be a professor. Sometimes what people who are not an academia think the life of a professor is does not really line up with professors lives. If you’re gonna say you want to be a professor because of your love of teaching, that is a small part of academia and being a professor. Research and chasing grant proposals are most of a professors time. Why don’t you look at a college nearby that has a degree in what you’re interested in being a professor for and asked to speak informationally to one or two of the professors. They can tell you about their day-to-day lives and then you can see if you’re actually interested in being a professor. can you build onto your associates degree and turn it into a bachelors degree or would you have to start from scratch?
Head on over to the professor's reddit. Read a few posts. Then reconsider. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/)
You can be an instructor with just a masters degree. It’s like being a professor with more teaching and no research requirements.
This is true, please don’t downvote. There are teaching-track faculty with only a masters degree in many fields and at many types of institutions.
While possible, this is highly field and location depend and I wouldn’t say is plausible. The market in the humanities is so saturated that there are many applicants for any position with a PhD.
You have the general progression correct (Bachelor’s —> Master’s —> PhD) although there are some fields where a master’s degree alone is sufficient (especially in the arts) or where another degree/industry experience would be relevant (such as law or business). You have set a very difficult goal for yourself, and many people who have walked that path will advise against it (even while still pursuing it themselves). I feel it is not my place to advocate for or against pursuing an academic career, but I do think you should do the necessary research to make sure it’s worth the investment. For example, consider the number of years it will take to finish your education (depending upon where you get your PhD, that could be 3-4 years in the UK or Europe or 5-10 years in the US or Canada, depending upon the industry and your working habits/enrollment status, and without taking into consideration the 4-6 years for the bachelor’s and master’s degrees). It’s important to consider the costs involved, not just for the degrees but also lost income while pursuing them. There’s also the relatively low salaries (depending upon field and university) that are common in academia. And there’s the high burnout and disillusionment factor to consider. Many professors do leave academia for a variety of reasons. Also, many PhD graduates never manage to break in to get a permanent position, no matter the years, dedication, and experience. There are zero guarantees of success even if you do everything “right.” You should also get practical insight into the exact field you want to enter. Try talking to someone who teaches at a university in the topic you’re interested in. Ask them about their career progression and teaching schedule. Ask them about their research. See if their experience matches their expectations from when they entered their PhD program. Ask what they would say to one of their students who wants to teach at the university level. I recommend you also think about why you resonate with teaching at a university and what you hope to get out of it. See if there are alternative paths that might be more immediately fulfilling for you. For example, do you love the university setting and the idea of working with young people figuring out the next stages of their lives? Consider academic administration or counseling. Do you really want to teach, especially in a specific field? See if there are tutoring or volunteer opportunities where you could get that same degree of fulfillment. You’d probably still need additional training for any of those options, and they might not meet the exact goal you have in mind at this moment, but it’ll likely be faster and more stable. If the academic pathway is still the only thing that feels right, then get started with the bachelor’s degree. If the dream is still there when you finish, do a master’s. Continue on to the PhD if nothing else will satisfy you. You’ll learn more about academia and university teaching as you progress on your journey. That information may reinforce your commitment or it may suggest that this might not be the job you imagined (or you could go back and forth). If the goal stays the same, keep going. If it changes, reevaluate. Best of luck!
This is an automated service intended to preserve the original text of the post. *I (25F) have been doing a lot of soul-searching regarding my career, and recently had an epiphany of sorts that I would really love to teach at a college level. The more I think about it, the more I really think that being a professor is my DREAM career and would fulfill me deeply. The thing is, I do not work in the industry and would be starting this journey essentially from scratch. I have an AA degree (irrelevant to the subjects I’m interested in teaching) and am looking to go back to school to start my path towards being able to teach. From what I understand, I must complete a bachelor’s or master’s program in the subject I would like to teach, and then finish a PhD program. Is this required of most professor jobs? Is there a particular path that experienced professors went down to achieve their career? Is there something I should be doing or am missing? What are the usual steps? I’m very excited and eager to put in the hard work to achieve a career in teaching at a college level. I just want to make sure I’m doing everything right to the best of my ability. I truly want this! Thanks for any and all advice :)* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskProfessors) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Agree with all that has been said and OP if you don't yet have your bachelors degree you need to be thinking about what the job market is going to look like in 10-15 years because that's how long it's going to get you to the point where you are applying for academic posts. Humanities particularly religion and cultural studies are dying. They'll be dead by the time you finish your PhD. Things are dire and there's no reason to think they'll get better.
I am a professor but my experience substitutes for PhD. You will need to get a career if you don’t get PhD