<p>So, it’s a delicate and rather political dance that you have to do around this subject. (This advice is targeted towards people in the sciences and social sciences.)</p>
<p>Most people want to get a PhD to become a professor. I, like you, want to teach at a liberal arts college. And the truth is, the vast majority of PhDs will not end up at an R1 - they’ll end up at a small state university, a liberal arts college, or a community college teaching 3 or 4 classes a year (perhaps more).</p>
<p>HOWEVER…the goal of a PhD (theoretically) is to do research. Moreover, if you are applying to very prestigious/competitive programs, they’re going to be focused on your research career with the expectation that you end up at an R1 or maybe a research institute or something - but the ultimate accomplishment is if they replicate themselves and put you at a Wisconsin-Madison or a Harvard or such. And if you’re perceived at the outset at being interested in teaching, you might turn them off - because they’re going to think you’re going to spend too much time investing in improving your teaching record and not enough time and interest on conducting research. I’m at a top R1 now and both of my advisors are “warning” me about spending too much time TAing and not enough time doing research, even though since ending up here I’ve expressed my interest in being a professor at an undergraduate liberal arts college and mentoring students at the undergrad level in research.</p>
<p>SO. Retain your dreams and goals and don’t let them (graduate school) change you. However, be selective about what you say. When you write your SOP, you can certainly say that you are interested in being a professor and teaching - but say it in the context of research AND teaching. And always emphasize the research more than the teaching. You want to give the illusion, so to speak, that you are focused on a long career as a researcher publishing in top journals and making your alma mater look good.</p>
<p>As an additional note…wanting to teach is an admirable thing, and you do need a PhD to do so, and you are far more likely to get a position as a professor with an interest in the biomedical sciences. However…I hope you are really passionate about research too, because that is what you are going to spend the VAST majority of your time doing in graduate school. You may TA one class a year, and they might not let you TA in your first year, and any more TAing or - God forbid - teaching a full class on your own may be frowned upon. I told my advisor I was thinking about being a lecturer for a full psychology class during this or next summer and he looked at me as if my eyeballs had just rolled out of my head. He told me straight up that he basically thought that was a waste of a graduate student’s time - and this is a professor that is always very supportive of my desires and goals. He doesn’t mind that I want to teach at a liberal arts college, but despite that he feels like I should be publishing and researching instead of teaching.</p>
<p>As another aside…mentioning your teaching aspirations IS really useful in fellowship applications. For my NSF application (which I got)I mentioned my experience mentoring students and my desire to be a role model and mentor for students, especially those from underrepresented groups, to go into science and research. The Ford really wants that kind of statement, too. So save it for the fellowship applications :)</p>