Doing research that makes a difference

[dfrecore]

I know the research I did was on a very small scale, but I hope to do more applied research in the future. Becoming a tenure-track professor is becoming less and less appealing to me. Even at "teaching colleges," they're looking for publications in academic journals. I had a professor tell me that he didn't have a lot of time to do the kind of research he wanted to do because he had to do stuff that had a higher chance of being published in order to qualify for tenure. I also had another professor say that she has to settle for be a B-grade teacher in order to be an A-grade researcher because that's what the university is expecting, especially since it is trying to become a Tier 1 school.

This is something I've noticed for many years. I have to say that the teachers I had in CC or GGU (a small private college that prides itself on having professors who are part-time at the college and full-time working in their fields), all were so much better than a lot (most) of the professors I had at a large state university.

A lot of courses had 250 people in there, or were taught by grad students (many of whom are Chinese or Indian, English is not their first language, and they are all but impossible to understand). it was obvious to me that the school just did not care about giving their students a quality education, but in getting their name in the paper. It was terrible. I didn't see how anyone could thrive in that type of environment; I certainly couldn't.

When I decided to go back to school at the CC, it was SO much better - the teachers all actually cared, were there because they enjoyed teaching, and were experts in their fields. At GGU, the professors ALL worked in different areas of business, leadership, consulting, psychology, etc. They were really, really good, and the courses were meaningful. I never felt like any of the things I was doing wouldn't apply to my job or my life.

I've kind of given up on the university system here in the U.S. I'm not excited for my kids to have to go to these schools, and am encouraging them to do CC first, before making any decisions on whether to go on or not. I think they will get just as good of an education at CC that they would from a grad student teaching them at a large 4-yr college.