After visiting our last college last week, I proposed this question to my daughter. I figured the answer might give us both insight into her top choices. We visited many schools in the northeast, primarily LAC’s. We both chose Middlebury. Pretty campus, nice town and many outdoor activities to do year round we my reasons, along with good academics. My top three choices would be:
I would prefer to be a professor at my alma mater. Nice weather, relaxed student body, lively sports, proximity to beaches and no income taxes make it hard to beat. The only downside is the lack of quality bagels.
University of California San Diego. Surfing, sun and perfect weather.
I would love to be a professor at a college that is very student focused, because that is what I enjoy most. Possibly a liberal arts college out in California, Boston, or my own alma mater
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Community college.
None of the above. Too isolated, too much in a bubble, too far from real cities, and god, too cold! Professors in schools like that get very depressed. I know two who teach at two of the schools you listed. Both urged their kids to go to LARGE schools in urban areas. (They were too tired dealing with hungover kids who party all.the.time because there’s nothing much to do at Colby or Middlebury in the middle of a bitter winter.) The only time they’re really happy is out of the country on a sabbatical/grant-subsidized research. “Tenure seems like a sentence,” one told me recently.
BTW, read Richard Russo’s very funny novel, Straight Man. It was based partly on his experience while teaching at Colby. Some of the characters are based on real-life Colby professors. After you read this book you will not want to be a professor at any of these schools. Trust me.
University of Hawaii…for obvious reasons:)
Ideally, I’d opt to teach at a selective/highly selective research I or teaching-centered university with reasonable teaching loads in urban areas or suburban areas located within commuting distance of large cities.
While I graduated from a respectable LAC, one thing about them that’s a minus in my book other than the isolated rural/suburban locations is the expectation of maintaining a high teaching load(5 classes a year) for Profs at all ranks…including full-Profs along with research/publications expectations which aren’t that much lower than the respectable/elite Research I universities.
Very ironic considering one Prof friend taught at U Hawaii for a few years after getting his PhD only to jump ship to come back to the NE as soon as he was able.
High costs of living and what he perceived as the greater academic lackadaisical attitude of the majority of students in his undergraduate classes compared to the NE college he currently teaches(Elite NE LAC near an urban center).
katliamom, the last person who said “trust me” was Donald Trump saying he knew more about ISIS that the generals, so I’ll pass on trusting you. :))
I’ve seen too much of academia to want to teach at any college. But if I’d love to be able to walk through the Caltech campus every day. And at least when I worked there I really enjoyed the quirky students. (I was the librarian for a professor who taught African history and made his huge book collection available to students for the classes.)
Fair enough, @Akqj10 
Faculty at research universities are paid considerably more than those at LACs. According to the AAUP, the average full professor at Middlebury makes about $120K—not bad, but just about the average for all 4-year colleges and universities. At Colby it’s a bit higher at $133K, at Saint Michael’s well below average at $96K. (Entry-level salaries are, of course, much lower, about $78K for assistant professors at Middlebury and Colby, $60K at Saint Michael’s).
In contrast, at a leading public research university like Michigan the average full professor makes about $160K.
Full professor salaries are even higher at the top private research universities: Harvard $215K, Yale $200K, Princeton $195K, Stanford $220K.
Granted, the averages for research universities may be skewed upward a bit by the inclusion of business, law, and medical school faculty who are generally paid more than people in the arts and sciences, but I think if you go field-by-field the same pattern would hold. Money isn’t everything, but it’s not nothing. Combined with professional prestige, superior research facilities, access to graduate students to work as research assistants, better employment opportunities for working spouses, and in most cases greater amenities and cultural opportunities found in large university communities and/or major metropolitan areas, and it’s pretty much a no-brainer that tenure-track positions at the leading research universities are the jobs most coveted by entry-level candidates just coming into academia. And those who manage to land at that level almost never want to leave.
My “personality” is split on this question. I am a professor. For my line of research, I need to be at a large university so that I have advanced technology, administrative support for grant administration, graduate assistants for research, interdisciplinary research opportunities, and, um, a high salary. I completed my PhD in a major research university, and my career has been spent in one.
For my teaching at the undergraduate level, I would prefer to be at a small or midsized college with a student body that is intellectually engaged and demanding. I attended such a small college for my BA.
Living in Maine, I would agree that Colby would not be desirable. It’s in WATERVILLE! It’s not a quaint, charming town. It’s a town with a main street with stores like Home Depot, Ruby Tuesday’s, Staples, etc. That road is always crowded, too, because Waterville is the last good-sized town before people head out into the western mountains.
We have a friend whose daughter did post-doc work at Harvard and is now a professor at Colby. She has found that a lot of the teachers live halfway between Waterville and Portland and try to come to campus as little as possible. They socialize in Portland. If you’re a professor who lives in or near Waterville, you’re pretty isolated.
My dad was a professor for 52 years at UT-Austin. He had an excellent salary, a named chair, and lots of interesting research. Since he was in engineering, a selective school, his students were all pretty bright. Plus, he got to live in Austin!
Barnard…a LAC in NYC!
@mackinaw If you could get a position at a good LAC at the same pay you have now, would you take it?
Except that the average full professor at Barnard makes $151K while across the street at Columbia the average full professor makes $201K. And Columbia’s endowment per capita is roughly three times the size of Barnard’s, which means Barnard is a much more resource-constrained environment.
Barnard is a great school with a great faculty, many of whom are very happy to be there. But a lot of 'em wish they were on Columbia’s faculty.
I am not a professor. I would choose a small LAC in the middle of nowhere, but with reasonable access to life. I don’t care about cities at all, but Airports are important. I prefer country living so easy access to the country side is important. I would definitely want engaged and interested students. My first vote goes to Bates, becuse I love Bates and it’s worth the drive to Boston. Based on my criteria, I also vote for Vassar, Kenyon, Lafayette, Franklin and Marshall, and the small colleges of the five college consortium.
ETA: Also, Lewis and Clark in Portland, because Oregon is gorgeous and Portland is cool. Reed sounds too intense.
A large part of that is due to the higher teaching loads and not much lower research/publications requirement to gain tenure and to continue getting promotions/raises compared with their Columbia U/peer elite Research I U counterparts.