5 ms·

Academia is NOT notorius for low salaries. Your average Professor makes $108,000 per year plus generous benefits and a lifetime pension (think about that one b

Academia is NOT notorius for low salaries. Your average Professor makes $108,000 per year plus generous benefits and a lifetime pension (think about that one because it means they don't have to save for their retirement which adds a lot to their bottom line) Source: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos066.htm http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos066.htm As for your chart have you asked yourself who funds all those research labs? Until you know that you can't really judge either way (where I live for example most of the "private" labs are funded in part by UCLA)

georgecmu 15y ago
Average _full_ professor, maybe? What percentage of PhDs make it to a full professor? What's the average salary for an average post-doc? Ultimately, research labs like Google, Microsoft Research, Boeing, Dow Chemical, or Pfizer are funded by consumers and taxpayers. Not sure what labs in your area are 'funded' by UCLA (most if not all of UCLA own labs, I'm sure, get government or private funding) -- if you can give examples, I would appreciate it. Having seen my university's financial statements, I can tell you that net tuition accounts for slightly less than 50% of our operating budget. The rest comes from external funding sources -- public and private funds. My department is fully funded from external sources and we're responsible for finding them.
- rdouble 15y ago
  Salary information for state employees can be found in many databases. I was surprised at how much professors at public universities make. For instance, at the University of Minnesota, one prof in the education department made $430,000. Almost every professor in the medical school made more than $400K. Economics professors made $350,000/yr and even some lowly liberal arts professors made more than $300K. Part time instructors don't do that bad either. At the engineering school, $60-$70K to teach two classes, use of all campus facilities (library, rec center, etc), full health benefits, only work from August 15 until mid-May. And you don't even need a PhD. Sadly, the site I used makes it hard to directly link to a specific query, but the tool I used is here: http://extra.twincities.com/car/salaries/ http://extra.twincities.com/car/salaries/ To me, this does not seem to me like poor academics suffering to do what they love. In fact, factoring in pensions, relaxed working hours and benefits it seems like much better overall compensation packages than almost any private sector job. Especially in Minnesota. Outside of certain physician jobs, nobody there really makes those sorts of salaries.
  - georgecmu 15y ago
    You mean you were surprised at how much professors at public universities may make. Certainly, the stars will be offered a lot of money, and professors in the top medical and business schools will be paid quite princely sums. But you might just as well argue that a career in sports or acting guarantees a future of wealth and fame. I'd be very interested in find out more about your Minnesota engineering school example. If you can't link in, maybe you can paste specifics here or on pastebin?
    - rdouble 15y ago
      No, that is not what I meant. Many of my family members are academics so I am familiar with the odds of getting a job in academia. However, I never actually knew the real salaries. In fact, this search began because a chemist uncle of mine was curious as to what he could have made if he went into academia instead of industry. (Academia won, envy of college roommate ensued) I was surprised at how much the professors actually do make. I realize it's hard to get a full tenured professor job, but I thought that once you got it, you maybe made $100K, tops. The University of Minnesota is certainly not a top school and the professors are by no means superstars, so their salaries were surprising. If a prof makes $300K at a 2nd tier university, I wonder what they make at a good school like Stanford or Harvard? The engineering school example is actually a job I am trying to get. After finding out these salaries I thought "wow that seems like a nice vacation after killing myself at startups the past 10 years," and started looking for a position I could do myself. I know the salary through personal negotiation. On the salary survey site it is probably one of the ones listed as "instructor." I would prefer not to post the job ad as I don't need more competition. :P
      - georgecmu 15y ago
        this search began because a chemist uncle of mine was curious as to what he could have made if he went into academia instead of industry .. and were successful in academia, instead of industry. The University of Minnesota is certainly not a top school and the professors are by no means superstars, so their salaries were surprising. UMN is actually up there in certain medical subfields (according to USNews, it's in the 30s overall, and #5 in primary care). In any case, as I said, med and business schools are in general a special case -- they have to compete with high salaries to begin with, and they can afford it -- professional students tend to pay their way. However, the two tenured research professors at UPMC (which is up there as far as med school rankings go) whose salaries I happen to know, make way less than 200K. And as far as I know, tenure no longer comes with a guarantee of salary -- you have to get your own funding, i.e. get lots of grants. In any case, I hope you get your 'vacation' and it turns out to be everything you expect )

georgecmu 15y ago

Average _full_ professor, maybe? What percentage of PhDs make it to a full professor? What's the average salary for an average post-doc? Ultimately, research labs like Google, Microsoft Research, Boeing, Dow Chemical, or Pfizer are funded by consumers and taxpayers. Not sure what labs in your area are 'funded' by UCLA (most if not all of UCLA own labs, I'm sure, get government or private funding) -- if you can give examples, I would appreciate it. Having seen my university's financial statements, I can tell you that net tuition accounts for slightly less than 50% of our operating budget. The rest comes from external funding sources -- public and private funds. My department is fully funded from external sources and we're responsible for finding them.

rdouble 15y ago
Salary information for state employees can be found in many databases. I was surprised at how much professors at public universities make. For instance, at the University of Minnesota, one prof in the education department made $430,000. Almost every professor in the medical school made more than $400K. Economics professors made $350,000/yr and even some lowly liberal arts professors made more than $300K. Part time instructors don't do that bad either. At the engineering school, $60-$70K to teach two classes, use of all campus facilities (library, rec center, etc), full health benefits, only work from August 15 until mid-May. And you don't even need a PhD. Sadly, the site I used makes it hard to directly link to a specific query, but the tool I used is here: http://extra.twincities.com/car/salaries/ http://extra.twincities.com/car/salaries/ To me, this does not seem to me like poor academics suffering to do what they love. In fact, factoring in pensions, relaxed working hours and benefits it seems like much better overall compensation packages than almost any private sector job. Especially in Minnesota. Outside of certain physician jobs, nobody there really makes those sorts of salaries.
- georgecmu 15y ago
  You mean you were surprised at how much professors at public universities may make. Certainly, the stars will be offered a lot of money, and professors in the top medical and business schools will be paid quite princely sums. But you might just as well argue that a career in sports or acting guarantees a future of wealth and fame. I'd be very interested in find out more about your Minnesota engineering school example. If you can't link in, maybe you can paste specifics here or on pastebin?
  - rdouble 15y ago
    No, that is not what I meant. Many of my family members are academics so I am familiar with the odds of getting a job in academia. However, I never actually knew the real salaries. In fact, this search began because a chemist uncle of mine was curious as to what he could have made if he went into academia instead of industry. (Academia won, envy of college roommate ensued) I was surprised at how much the professors actually do make. I realize it's hard to get a full tenured professor job, but I thought that once you got it, you maybe made $100K, tops. The University of Minnesota is certainly not a top school and the professors are by no means superstars, so their salaries were surprising. If a prof makes $300K at a 2nd tier university, I wonder what they make at a good school like Stanford or Harvard? The engineering school example is actually a job I am trying to get. After finding out these salaries I thought "wow that seems like a nice vacation after killing myself at startups the past 10 years," and started looking for a position I could do myself. I know the salary through personal negotiation. On the salary survey site it is probably one of the ones listed as "instructor." I would prefer not to post the job ad as I don't need more competition. :P
    - georgecmu 15y ago
      this search began because a chemist uncle of mine was curious as to what he could have made if he went into academia instead of industry .. and were successful in academia, instead of industry. The University of Minnesota is certainly not a top school and the professors are by no means superstars, so their salaries were surprising. UMN is actually up there in certain medical subfields (according to USNews, it's in the 30s overall, and #5 in primary care). In any case, as I said, med and business schools are in general a special case -- they have to compete with high salaries to begin with, and they can afford it -- professional students tend to pay their way. However, the two tenured research professors at UPMC (which is up there as far as med school rankings go) whose salaries I happen to know, make way less than 200K. And as far as I know, tenure no longer comes with a guarantee of salary -- you have to get your own funding, i.e. get lots of grants. In any case, I hope you get your 'vacation' and it turns out to be everything you expect )