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How is the job market for college professors?

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BRG253

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I'm thinking that since the freedom movement is one of my highest values, one of the most noble things I could do would be to become a professor of economics, political science or philosophy. But what is the likelihood of being able to pull this off? With the economy decending rapidly into the toilet, universities will be slashing their budgets, eliminating faculty and making it damn near impossible to get a job in an already competitive job market. Do you think I could seriosly consider this, or is it a lost cause?

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Its a matter of whether or not you can contribute to one of these fields. Start an undergraduate degree and study the essentials of philo, math + econ, and poli sci and then towards the end of your undergraduate career you should be able to read academic papers and participate in research. If decide that academia isn't for you you'll still have an education which will pay for itself. If you've studied hard this will also give you an advantage in the job market.

If you go to graduate school and don't get a professorship - you'll still make significantly more in the private market. Also people who have gone to graduate school without finishing tended to make more money proportional to the number of years they spent in graduate school. If academia is something you desire you literally cannot afford not to try.

Edited by Q.E.D.
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As jobs become scarce, enrollments go up, and if that trend is sustained (it does not take long, just a couple of years), there will be faculty hiring to satisfy the increased demand. Thus your underlying economic theory was wrong. The structural consequence of the increased labor supply (which has expanded much more than demand) is that administrations are changing job requirements and compensation, essentially because beggars can't be choosers. The position "professor" will become scarce, compared to instructor / lecturer. It may then come to pass that to get the position professor, you will have to be spectacularly good, 1 in 5000 quality, but the requirements for lecturers would be lesser.

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