<p>DH and I have been considering major career changes having had careers in business for 3 decades. We’ve also lived in NYC for that time and are anxious for a gentler way of life. Our last started college this past Fall and we have no more excuses not to make the move.</p>
<p>I would love input from those teaching at colleges or those who’ve retired to college towns and those who have made dramatic lifestyle changes.</p>
<p>I think it would be great to retire to a college town.
[Consider</a> a College Town for Retirement By Jan Cullinane](<a href=“http://www.nabbw.com/articles/article_column_219.html]Consider”>http://www.nabbw.com/articles/article_column_219.html)</p>
<p>Are you interested in teaching at a college or just moving to a college town?</p>
<p>We would teach. Neither of us wants to stop working. As we’ve considered different U’s and talked to potential future colleagues, we see that some of the things we assumed were naive. Like no politics.</p>
<p>Taught 6 years at a university where H has now taught for 16 years. We moved here because of the lure of teaching, being in a college town, etc. </p>
<p>As one of my college prof friends says, there are lots of office politics at universities because the stakes are so low.</p>
<p>Colleges also are less efficient and less well organized than are places such as, for instance Fortune 500 companies.</p>
<p>The plus is that people in general are well educated and one can find lots of activities, though college theater and museums aren’t as good as the opportunities one would find in a major city.</p>
<p>In looking ahead to when I’m really a senior citizen, most of my older friends are very intellectually active, and also are active in the community. Some are working on doctorates or other degrees even if they already have advanced degrees. Some are getting involved in things like community theater even if they never acted before or they are doing things like taking language or art classes for fun. Many are active in community service and similar activities. These people include retired professors and their spouses. </p>
<p>People tend not to just sit around watching TV or lazing in their rocking chairs. They are really interesting.</p>
<p>My parents did this kind of move in their late 40’s. They had been living in Baltimore, working in some high power jobs in Balto and D.C. At one place they were asked to speak in a conference/retreat, another attendee, who was a college president, invited them to move and teach. It was a small rural New England private college for students with SAT’s averaging 500, emphasizing close personal relatioinships with students including their LD students. </p>
<p>At first the transition was hard because they discovered petty college politics and they were accustomed to big, noisy D.C. style politics. My mom had imagined a community of learning, but sometimes it wasn’t all that. And a bit scary, as soon as they arrived, severe financial difficulties almost tanked the college, which added to the political stress that predated them. They survived by NOT getting into the politics or taking any sides. They just taught as effectively as possible and counted on their student evaluations to keep them employed. </p>
<p>WHen I’d visit, I was happy for them. It was often romantic, with students cross-country skiing right up to my mom’s kitchen door. She’d advise them while stirring soup, and had them haul in wood for the woodstove. They both found many applications of their most sophisticated skills to their adopted community, including political action to resist locating a hazardous waste dump there. My dad became member of a the state parole board and a radio commentator. Both served terms on the town’s Board of Selectman, which in New England is like being one-third of a mayor. My mom got elected a few times to the state legislature, for the grand sum of $l00/year but was able to help pass legislation affecting screening for breast cancer among low-income women. All this was “big fish in a small pond” and they wouldn’t have had all these opportunities in their big city where they both grew up.</p>
<p>The college itself wasn’t quite the heavenly place they’d imagined. It had its lmitations, but as a whole their second career life was wonderful. They bought a big old farmhouse in the village center, and never farmed but enjoyed being more centrally located than “back-to-the-land” deepwoods. Relatives and friends came to visit them often because of their rural location and unceasing hospitality. </p>
<p>They didn’t make as much money as if they’d extended their urban careers, but were extremely content for 20 years, right to an honored retirement. They’re both rather brassy intellectuals, though, and had to learn to talk calmly with townspeople, whose skills and conservative perceptions my parents came to respect.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, I so agree w/ your 2nd and 3rd paragraph!</p>
<p>hmom5–do you and your H have PhD’s?</p>
<p>Paying3tuitions, I love your parent’s story! That’s just the romantic scenario I came at this hoping to find. Yet the career profs often seem burned out and not romantic in the least. I see myself cooking with students and sitting down for a vigorous debate.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, thanks for your input. We’d love to be active in the community and try new things. And I’m looking to reduce nights like tonight, with DH stuck in bad weather waiting for a plane to take off.</p>
<p>No morrismm, no PhD’s. Just a lot of industry experience which schools are surprisingly interested in. We have offers to teach both undergrad and MBA courses. We’re also not interested in tenure, just teaching a few classes and taking a few too.</p>
<p>Pay is so low for part-time faculty that I am not surprised you have garnered offers to teach. More and more schools are moving to staffing with adjuncts for the cost savings. Of course, that puts a larger workload for all the additional tasks that are traditionally executed by full-time faculty on the smaller full-time faculty. The actual teaching and advising interactions with students are a pleasure. It’s the other stuff that proves problematic and although you would make less money as adjunct faculty, you’d avoid those headaches.</p>
<p>My SIL has a PhD and works in information technology in the managed health care field. She has taught one course off and on the last 4 yrs at a Ca state university. She is presently teaching one evening a week in addition to her regular job. This year she is teaching both semesters and is using the money to fund a vacation to her home country. Her plan once she retires from her field is to teach one or two courses a semester to supplement her retirement. She teaches the same course each semester and after the first two times has figured out her teaching style and course so she has minimum prep work.</p>
<p>2VU, you’d be surprised, we were. Schools really want teachers from industry in their business programs so the pay is considerably higher than what a humanities prof gets. There are even special funds at some schools to attract teachers from industry. Though I’ll add that money is not a major consideration in our decision. Really only one kid left with tuition payments after June.</p>
<p>To the OP,</p>
<p>You may want to try teaching 1 or 2 night classes to see if it is really your thing. I work for a college located at a military education center. Our home campus is a traditional campus with both undergraduate and graduate day and evening programs. Our satellite locations (such as the one where I work) only offer graduate courses and only at night. Our satellite campus students are working adults in the military, government, and private industry sectors. Our adjunct faculty must be currently working in the field that they teach.</p>
<p>I’ll add some perspective from two different angles. My father was a U administrator for much of my life-retired now. There is definitely an intellectual atmosphere, small town politics, and lots of cultural activity in a college town. Life changes dramatically for a few months every summer, particularly when the college is the only major game in town.
As far as teaching, he did some teaching (has a PhD in his field) one semester during a sabatical (spelling?) from his regular job. He was very shocked at the lack of work ethic among the students who were all in a Masters program. Discouraged and found he didn’t enjoy teaching anymore. He had taught during his PhD process.
Here in my town a local lawyer I know is teaching a community college class. He has taught it two semesters and told me recently this time will be his last.
He too is discouraged by the work ethic of his students.<br>
I would definitely try teaching a night class or two to see if it is your thing.</p>
<p>I have a relative, although not retired, has been teaching as an adjunct. He does not have a PhD, but does have a terminal degree in his field. He is making a living, but he does not get benefits (ie: pension, and health care). Health care is not an issue because he gets that through his wife’s employment. It would be difficult to make this job work if one is under 65 unless one had healthcare benefits through their spouse’s employment.</p>
<p>ebeeee, it is too bad about the lawyer that you know. My relative told me that the students he has taught in a community college were much more enthusiastic about learning the ones that he has taught at private college (guessing midrange SAT scores at the private would be 470-580 range).</p>
<p>Reading through this thread I’ve been trying to think of a few success stories to share. Unfortunately, the closest I could come was a number of part time adjuncts. Of course here in the northeast there’s a certain amount of myopia about credentials which may not be present everywhere.</p>
<p>Read carefully post#9 by 2VU0609 as it is shows one clear pathway to success. If you teach well and don’t interfere with the ever smaller and ever more burdened full time faculty, then you’ll be an asset to them and valued. Good luck with your new life!</p>
<p>Having colleges/even universities in a town/city does not make it a college town. Some are very blue collar and not in the least intellectual, just as colleges vary greatly in the same way. Not all college towns are hotbeds of liberalism and intellectualism. Not all professors are intellectuals, either (even if the ones posting on CC are). We want to be near the intellectual atmosphere of a college/university in retirement but know many places with colleges listed in various sources won’t do- I’ve seen some places touted as having thus and such college but know they are not places I would choose for the elite atmosphere.</p>
<p>The institutional politics can be good or not. A lot depends on the administration and what is modeled/encouraged. My experience has been that they’re mostly bad, and it’s best to avoid them. </p>
<p>From the time I entered grad school, I knew I wanted to teach and that hs was not for me. For more than 15 yrs, I taught a foreign language in 3 different colleges as a regular faculty member. I was very good it, have a number of students who have gone on to successful careers using that language with whom I am still in touch, won awards most years that I taught, and developed a national reputation in several areas related to teaching that language. For the last decade or so, I have been on the same campus as H but do not teach. I am an administrator for a grant funded program which gives me a lot of independence, but I do miss having students, although I work with teachers. H is a scientist and researcher. He is an excellent but demanding teacher, but has an international reputation in his field and hundreds of publications. </p>
<p>I always thought it was ideal. Summers and sabbaticals gave us the opportunity to travel and visit family. When Ss were small, one or the other of us had the flexibility to stay home with a sick child. We had the same vacations they did. We had access on campus to all sorts of advantages–library, sports facilities, music lessons, lots of cultural / entertainment programs organized on campus or scheduled on campus. </p>
<p>Our town is small, and the biggest employers are the university and hospital. But we have students from all over the world. It is an educated community on the whole with a diversity of ethnic restaurants. It was a great place to raise kids, and now that they’re grown, it’s a nice place to live. It would probably drive us crazy if we didn’t get away to other places regularly as it is quite insular, but we don’t have to worry about our house when we’re away, the COL is reasonable, and it’s easy to get to know neighbors/teachers/business people. </p>
<p>I always teased my big city friends that when kids were in school and one in hs, one is elem. school on opposite sides of town, I could leave work at 3 p.m., pick up each one at his respective school, take them home, and be back to work by 3:30, unless there was a train which took 5 min. longer. </p>
<p>I agree with a previous poster that today’s students are less motivated, more consumer oriented, and have sometimes unrealistic expectations. They often treat their studies as a consumer. They (their parents) are paying, and they expect to succeed without much effort. I always found, as a teacher, that if you were clear in your expectations and instituted evaluations (papers, tests, quizzes, homework) at very regular intervals, you saved yourself a lot of trouble. I abhor grading curves, because I think they create argument from students and dissension among students toward those who “break the curve.” If they have chosen all along not to do the assigned work and have received regular feedback (grades), they generally do not argue about grades at the end of the semester. </p>
<p>Good luck in whatever you decide to do.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all of these very helpful answers. This decision is far more complex that we thought it would be.</p>
<p>My H has been teaching as an adjunct at a small, undistinguished private college in our area. He too has an MBA and various other professional designations, as well as years of experience in the business world.</p>
<p>The pay scale is appalling: something like $2,500–no benefits, of course–for a class that meets 3X per week. More to the point, the students are even more appalling. He taught a math course that our kids probably took during junior year of HS. Historically, 50% of the kids who take this course at this school fail outright. There were perhaps three genuinely competent students in his class. When I say “competent,” I don’t mean “doing A work.” (Only one earned an A.) I mean able to do the bare minimum expected of students who know how to learn. </p>
<p>Despite the fact that they were failing, or at the D level, these students would not come to office hours, even when specifically asked to do so. They would not take advantage of tutoring offered by the college. Many of them would not even attempt to actually DO the homework problems, instead copying the answers from the back of the book. When given a multiple choice test, they would not even attempt to solve the problem by plugging in the various values to see which one worked!</p>
<p>H went over all of the problems that would be on the final in class. In detail. Showing exactly how to do them. One of the flunking students complained that they had never been taught how to do some of the problems. Apparently having been taken step-by-step through an identical problem with different values simply wasn’t good enough. (Of course, she habitually left class early so perhaps she missed that one…) The head of the department commented that the only thing H could possibly have done to help them further was to actually give them the solutions to the actual problems in advance. And even then I’m sure many would have flunked.</p>
<p>In addition, a group of them clearly cheated, despite being warned in advance that the school took cheating seriously. They all gave the same wrong answers: answers that made not even the faintest bit of sense. These students weren’t even prepared to cheat competently!</p>
<p>This semester he will be teaching an investment course. It remains to be seen whether the students are more motivated and more able than those in the math class. I think it likely.</p>
<p>Another friend of mine had a lifelong dream of teaching math. She took a leave of absence from her job in order to take a position as a long-term sub at a good HS. (An entire semester.) While she enjoyed teaching AP Stats, she was simply horrified by the students in her lower level classes. She ultimately fled back to the business world, saying she was glad she had gotten it out of her system. </p>
<p>I would suggest that you try teaching a few classes, preferably in a comparable setting, before you take any irreversible steps. :)</p>
<p>My parents moved to a college town (Lexington VA) where my Dad had a second career basically in charge of an campus program - he didn’t teach so he was less involved in politics. They had an awfully good time there - my father belonged to a men’s club that wrote scholarly papers and delivered them to each other, the campus museums often had nice exhibits, there was theater, and a pretty good bookstore. </p>
<p>DH is at a med school - but the New York area is not exactly the small college town atmosphere. However there is plenty to do! I’ve been asked if I wanted to teach a course in architectural history at the local college - but I’m pretty sure that the amount I’d get paid as an adjunct professor would be tiny, while the amount of work I’d have to do to put a course together and run it, would be huge. Now if someone asked me to teach a watercolor painting course that would be a different matter. I’ve done it before and it’s a lot easier!</p>