Teaching at the University level

[Cheeseburrito]

Howdy!
My wife has a Master's in Communication from SNHU she earned 2 years ago. She made the Dean's list, etc. But she hasn't made use of the degree. She's currently working a new job she just got, and is earning 55k in Los Angeles. It's entry level and she was told there is little to no room for advancement when she got it, but she wanted less stress so she took it.

Now she wants to do what she's always wanted to do: teach.

Does she need any additional schooling to apply for non-tenure positions? Some postings ask for a sample lesson plan and such, how would she go about making one of those if she has never taught a class before?

I guess more generally the question is: how does one with an MA start a career as a college/University proof?

Many thanks!

[cookderosa]

With her RA masters in communication, she's qualified to teach COM courses at a community college. There are not TONS of these, fewer if she needs to teach online (a community college may only have 2-3 courses in COM, but the size of the CC will determine how many sections of each- big CCs will have MANY sections, small CCs will have few). Start local. The kind of job she wants (full time) is very competitive, and 99% of the time a CC will only hire someone as a part time (adjunct) faculty member first. That's teaching 1 class / 1 section / 1 semester / 1 contract. The pay will be about $1200 - $2200 divided by number of pay periods in the semester. People sometimes adjunct as a side hustle, as a part-time gig on purpose, to get into teaching, etc. She should apply for every COM adjunct job she can find. Schools hire a full semester in advance, so hiring now for summer / fall. Schools that had someone flake on them might be willing to take someone now for spring if they are desperate.

As for a 4 year university job, they tend to want a PhD, but there are exceptions, it doesn't hurt to look. The title of professor is an academic rank, and not all colleges use them, so if she wants to become a professor, that's something else entirely. It is unlikely that she would be HIRED IN as a full professor, especially without a PhD, but there are tons of assistant professor / associate professor jobs at the master's level, so unless she really really really has a love affair with that job title, skip it and find a teaching job.

best site to watch for jobs like this is HigherEdJobs.com - set up an alert to get instant emails. She'll need her resume ready and should apply immediately when they post. (also, contact the dept chair at your local CC for communication - that's probably her best bet)

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With her RA masters in communication, she's qualified to teach COM courses at a community college. There are not TONS of these, fewer if she needs to teach online (a community college may only have 2-3 courses in COM, but the size of the CC will determine how many sections of each- big CCs will have MANY sections, small CCs will have few). Start local. The kind of job she wants (full time) is very competitive, and 99% of the time a CC will only hire someone as a part time (adjunct) faculty member first. That's teaching 1 class / 1 section / 1 semester / 1 contract. The pay will be about $1200 - $2200 divided by number of pay periods in the semester. People sometimes adjunct as a side hustle, as a part-time gig on purpose, to get into teaching, etc. She should apply for every COM adjunct job she can find. Schools hire a full semester in advance, so hiring now for summer / fall. Schools that had someone flake on them might be willing to take someone now for spring if they are desperate.

As for a 4 year university job, they tend to want a PhD, but there are exceptions, it doesn't hurt to look. The title of professor is an academic rank, and not all colleges use them, so if she wants to become a professor, that's something else entirely. It is unlikely that she would be HIRED IN as a full professor, especially without a PhD, but there are tons of assistant professor / associate professor jobs at the master's level, so unless she really really really has a love affair with that job title, skip it and find a teaching job.

best site to watch for jobs like this is HigherEdJobs.com - set up an alert to get instant emails. She'll need her resume ready and should apply immediately when they post. (also, contact the dept chair at your local CC for communication - that's probably her best bet)

I did a search using LA & Communication - you should be able to see the results:
https://www.higheredjobs.com/region/sear...&CatType=3

[sanantone]

I just want to clarify something. Assistant, associate, and full professor are part of the tenure track. All of these positions usually require a PhD or an equivalent doctorate even at schools that don't grant tenure. If you're in law, you can teach with a JD. If you're in the fine arts, then you might be able to find a position with an MFA. Otherwise, associate and assistant professor positions at 4-year colleges require a doctorate 99% of the time.

An assistant professor position is for someone with little to no experience. Once the assistant professor gains tenure, then he or she becomes an associate professor. After many years, you can work your way up to becoming a full professor. They are all professors, though.

In short, unless she has a JD or MFA, she will almost have no chance of becoming an assistant professor at a 4-year college. However, she can become an adjunct instructor, lecturer, or visiting professor. Visiting professors are usually people with high professional accomplishments.

She can possibly become a professor at a 2-year college, but these openings are not numerous compared to the number of people applying. Someone with only a master's degree will not be competitive because a lot of people with doctorates are also applying for these positions. There are full-time instructor jobs at for-profit colleges that require a master's or less.

[sanantone]

With her RA masters in communication, she's qualified to teach COM courses at a community college.  There are not TONS of these, fewer if she needs to teach online (a community college may only have 2-3 courses in COM, but the size of the CC will determine how many sections of each- big CCs will have MANY sections, small CCs will have few).  Start local.  The kind of job she wants (full time) is very competitive, and 99% of the time a CC will only hire someone as a part time (adjunct) faculty member first.  That's teaching 1 class / 1 section / 1 semester / 1 contract.  The pay will be about $1200 - $2200 divided by number of pay periods in the semester.  People sometimes adjunct as a side hustle, as a part-time gig on purpose, to get into teaching, etc.   She should apply for every COM adjunct job she can find.  Schools hire a full semester in advance, so hiring now for summer / fall.  Schools that had someone flake on them might be willing to take someone now for spring if they are desperate.

As for a 4 year university job, they tend to want a  PhD, but there are exceptions, it doesn't hurt to look.  The title of professor is an academic rank, and not all colleges use them, so if she wants to become a professor, that's something else entirely.  It is unlikely that she would be HIRED IN as a full professor, especially without a PhD, but there are tons of assistant professor / associate professor jobs at the master's level, so unless she really really really has a love affair with that job title, skip it and find a teaching job.

best site to watch for jobs like this is HigherEdJobs.com - set up an alert to get instant emails.  She'll need her resume ready and should apply immediately when they post.  (also, contact the dept chair at your local CC for communication - that's probably her best bet)

---

With her RA masters in communication, she's qualified to teach COM courses at a community college.  There are not TONS of these, fewer if she needs to teach online (a community college may only have 2-3 courses in COM, but the size of the CC will determine how many sections of each- big CCs will have MANY sections, small CCs will have few).  Start local.  The kind of job she wants (full time) is very competitive, and 99% of the time a CC will only hire someone as a part time (adjunct) faculty member first.  That's teaching 1 class / 1 section / 1 semester / 1 contract.  The pay will be about $1200 - $2200 divided by number of pay periods in the semester.  People sometimes adjunct as a side hustle, as a part-time gig on purpose, to get into teaching, etc.   She should apply for every COM adjunct job she can find.  Schools hire a full semester in advance, so hiring now for summer / fall.  Schools that had someone flake on them might be willing to take someone now for spring if they are desperate.

As for a 4 year university job, they tend to want a  PhD, but there are exceptions, it doesn't hurt to look.  The title of professor is an academic rank, and not all colleges use them, so if she wants to become a professor, that's something else entirely.  It is unlikely that she would be HIRED IN as a full professor, especially without a PhD, but there are tons of assistant professor / associate professor jobs at the master's level, so unless she really really really has a love affair with that job title, skip it and find a teaching job.

best site to watch for jobs like this is HigherEdJobs.com - set up an alert to get instant emails.  She'll need her resume ready and should apply immediately when they post.  (also, contact the dept chair at your local CC for communication - that's probably her best bet)

I did a search using LA & Communication - you should be able to see the results:
https://www.higheredjobs.com/region/sear...&CatType=3

As proven by this job search, almost all of the assistant/associate professor positions require an MFA or PhD. Only one will accept an MA or MBA, but a doctorate is preferred. Additionally, the positions asking for an MFA are typically not in communications.

An MFA is much longer than your typical master's degree, and it's considered a terminal degree.

[cookderosa]

I just want to clarify something. Assistant, associate, and full professor are part of the tenure track.
_____

All of these positions usually require a PhD or an equivalent doctorate even at schools that don't grant tenure.

No, this is not universal. My husband's current faculty title is at associate professor and his university does not offer tenure. Further, he was hired in with a bachelor's degree (instructor) and received this rank advancement WITHOUT his master's. Universities advance faculty based on a ton of things (university service, student service, community service, etc.). My husband did earn an MBA this year but because promotions and rank are not willy-nilly, he isn't eligible for another rank advancement yet for another 2 years. At that time he will probably advance again - next rank up is assistant. Still, the only way for him to become a full professor is with a PhD or Certified Master Chef. Many of his colleagues will tell you that teaching contracts are far better than admin contracts (which was the reverse of my experience 20 years at the CC where I had an admin contract which was better than teaching contracts) but the point is that I don't think he will EVER pursue full professor, yet is very much a full-time educator with amazing benefits, amazing salary, and an amazing contract. (His contract only requires working 108 days per year but he's paid 365 days).
I want to encourage Cheese's wife to push forward. There are MANY jobs out there - don't let others discourage you..a Master's degree is enough. Keep looking.

---

As proven by this job search, almost all of the assistant/associate professor positions require an MFA or PhD. Only one will accept an MA or MBA, but a doctorate is preferred. Additionally, the positions asking for an MFA are typically not in communications.

An MFA is much longer than your typical master's degree, and it's considered a terminal degree.

His wife wants to teach - the end. She is absolutely qualified to teach at a community college with a masters in comm. Rather than telling someone what they can't do (anyone can do that), with your educational expertise and insight, it would be much more helpful to tell them how to augment what they have so that they can accomplish their goal. She has a simple request- to become a teacher. Whether or not it has the "job title" or "rank" of professor is irrelevant.

[dfrecore]

I have a friend teaching EMT courses at our local CC without even an AA! He's a firefighter, former military, and a great teacher - so they hired him to teach part-time, and he's been doing it for years. They had to do a special thing to get him on board (I think they rewrote the job to do "or equivalent experience), and he probably can't get another job teaching without a degree - so he's going to work on that for when he retires as a firefighter. But he is definitely teaching at a CC.

[sanantone]

I just want to clarify something. Assistant, associate, and full professor are part of the tenure track.
_____

All of these positions usually require a PhD or an equivalent doctorate even at schools that don't grant tenure.

No, this is not universal.  My husband's current faculty title is at associate professor and his university does not offer tenure.  Further, he was hired in with a bachelor's degree (instructor) and received this rank advancement WITHOUT his master's.  Universities advance faculty based on a ton of things (university service, student service, community service, etc.).  My husband did earn an MBA this year but because promotions and rank are not willy-nilly, he isn't eligible for another rank advancement yet for another 2 years.  At that time he will probably advance again - next rank up is assistant.  Still, the only way for him to become a full professor is with a PhD or Certified Master Chef.  Many of his colleagues will tell you that teaching contracts are far better than admin contracts (which was the reverse of my experience 20 years at the CC where I had an admin contract which was better than teaching contracts) but the point is that I don't think he will EVER pursue full professor, yet is very much a full-time educator with amazing benefits, amazing salary, and an amazing contract.  (His contract only requires working 108 days per year but he's paid 365 days).  
I want to encourage Cheese's wife to push forward. There are MANY jobs out there - don't let others discourage you..a Master's degree is enough.  Keep looking.

---

As proven by this job search, almost all of the assistant/associate professor positions require an MFA or PhD. Only one will accept an MA or MBA, but a doctorate is preferred. Additionally, the positions asking for an MFA are typically not in communications.

An MFA is much longer than your typical master's degree, and it's considered a terminal degree.

His wife wants to teach - the end.  She is absolutely qualified to teach at a community college with a masters in comm.  Rather than telling someone what they can't do (anyone can do that), with your educational expertise and insight, it would be much more helpful to tell them how to augment what they have so that they can accomplish their goal.  She has a simple request- to become a teacher.  Whether or not it has the "job title" or "rank" of professor is irrelevant.

Did you skip over the part where I said 99% of the time at 4-year colleges? Your husband is an outlier, and he is teaching a vocational subject. Communications is not a vocational subject.

You disproved yourself with your own link. There are NOT plenty of communications assistant professor positions that only require a master's degree. All you have to do is search. The jobs are NOT plentiful. It does no good to get people's hopes up with misinformation. You tell people all the time that social science degrees aren't good for jobs.

Anecdotal stories often mean nothing. I have my own anecdote. I have been a college instructor too, but I was not in a vocational field. I was in a field that goes up to the PhD level just like communications. I have had job alerts set up for professor/instructor positions for years, my university sends out job openings to doctoral students all the time, and I have scoured university websites. Even though criminal justice is more applied than communications, there are NOT plenty of professor jobs at 4-year schools that only require a master's degree. There are, however, adjunct instructor positions that pay peanuts.

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I have a friend teaching EMT courses at our local CC without even an AA!  He's a firefighter, former military, and a great teacher - so they hired him to teach part-time, and he's been doing it for years.  They had to do a special thing to get him on board (I think they rewrote the job to do "or equivalent experience), and he probably can't get another job teaching without a degree - so he's going to work on that for when he retires as a firefighter.  But he is definitely teaching at a CC.

This is a CC job in a vocational field. Accreditor guidelines allow for a bachelor's degree or less in vo-tech programs. A master's degree is the guideline for academic programs such as communications.

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How is the "professor" title irrelevant when the OP and YOU (Cookderosa) talked about it? I was just clearing up the inaccuracies in your post.

[cookderosa]

Sanantone,
I'm happy to address questions to clarify what I said to Cheese, but I have no interest in playing games with you.

[sanantone]

Sanantone,
I'm happy to address questions to clarify what I said to Cheese, but I have no interest in playing games with you.

This is your tactic when you don't want to admit that you were wrong.

For anyone else who is interested in accurate info rather than feel good info, try searching for doctoral programs in culinary arts and see how many you find. You cannot compare vocational programs to academic programs. The accreditation guidelines for instructor qualifications are different.

[videogamesrock]

I think the future of teaching is selling pre-designed course with recorded lectures to universities. In the interim, your wife should get as much experience as possible.