How many hrs a week do political science professors work?

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm currently an undergrad majoring in political science. I'm hoping to go to grad school after undergrad and hopefully become a college professor in political science. However I was hoping if I could have some insight into how many hrs a week political science college professors work. I know it varies but I'm assuming I'll be a assistant professor on tenure track position at a big state school (which I know might sound unrealistic or arrogant but one can dream right?). And I'm assuming that political science professors work a lot less than those in natural sciences and humanities? I'm assuming this because I know natural science requires lab work and humanities the job market is horrible which encourages professors to overwork (as you can see I'm coming here with a lot of assumptions some of which are probably unfounded)? </p>

<p>I know this is a forum for grad students but I guess you guys must have a lot of contact with your professors so I'm assuming you know a thing or two. </p>

<p>BTW I've heard that college professors work about 40 hrs a week which I have no idea if its true. Another thing is, and this question is probably more geared toward this forum, what other career opportunities are there besides academia? I know there are opportunities in industry and government with reasonable hrs but are these jobs people do for life or are they just temporary things people do to beef up their resumes for academia?</p>

<p>Anyway have fun answering my questions!!</p>

2

<p>It may not seem like your professors are working 40 hours a week because they don’t need to keep their hours 9 to 5 like the rest of the world. But they DO work from home simply because they feel more comfortable there and it’s more convenient, especially if they have family. I’m fairly sure that the professors I’m close to work more than 40 hours a week given how BUSY they are that even a half-hour is a precious piece of time for them. And I’m talking about a range of rankings. Even if you become a full professor, it’s what you make of it.</p>

<p>People with political science PhDs work in the industry and government just because they find them more appealing than over-theorizing academia. Sometimes it’s a good thing if you’re working out there for quite some time because you’ll be able to bring experience into the classroom but the key is maintaining your contact with the academia. You still have to publish and make a name for yourself when you interact with other political science PhD holders at conferences and meetings. But are they for life? Depends what it is. Like if you wind up working in an elected official’s circle, your job depends on his ability to be re-elected or re-appointed. They’re still not secure as obtaining a tenure in the academia.</p>

3

<p>I cannot say for poli sci, but my science profs work easily 60hrs+ a week.</p>

4

<p>I know a polisci professor who works literally over 70 hours each week. His research is his life.</p>

5

<p>poli sci professors work just as much or as little as any humanities professor. the academia job market for poli sci profs is really no better than for historians and only marginally better than for literature profs.</p>

<p>you can decide to sit back, or not, once you get tenure, but in order to get tenured, you’re looking at probably 60-70 hours a week in work, whether that’s done in the office or at home. one of my professors (historian) gets around 5 hours of sleep max a night and is frequently seen nodding off during department talks. s/he has tenure, so that level of work is up to him/her, but the job (if you do it properly) takes a long time.</p>

<p>you have to teach. you have to do the readings for whatever you’re teaching. you have to prepare lectures or discussion questions. you have to mark papers (unless you get a TA lackey, and that’s usually only if you’re teaching a low level survey). you have to advise your honours and graduate students and (hopefully!) read all the drafts they send you. give them notes, recommend them books (which means you need to keep up on your reading yourself), write them letters of recommendation for every grant, fellowship, job application. you need to contribute to your academic community. it’s hard to be well-liked by your colleagues if you never serve on a single committee. so that takes time. are you on a job search committee? the graduate admissions committee? a fellowship committee? you have to read many, many long applications and sort through them. also time consuming, but not year-long, at least. and THEN you have to get to your own research. all the secondary reading, the search for primary sources (or whatever poli sci profs use), the applications for research grants, the proposals, the conference presentations, research, research, research, writing, writing, writing, finding a publisher, rewriting, rewriting, rewriting, proofing. all while also writing shorter articles on the topic of your longer work and submitting them to as many journals as possible.</p>

<p>and then, somewhere in there, you’re supposed to eat, sleep, have a family, and maybe a hobby or two.</p>

<p>or you can get a tenure-track gig, not do those things, not produce anything of value, and then get denied tenure. it is an extremely time-consuming job that follows you home. when you’re 50-ish, you can choose to sit back and rest on your laurels and get paid to talk to some young people a few days a week, but… you won’t really be respected for sitting back like that.</p>

<p>on a semi-related side-note, see if you can figure out ahead of time how often your potential advisors sleep, and for how long. because that will be a pretty good indication of how much sleep you’ll get as their advisee.</p>

6

<p>Thank you all for the replies. They were very informative and helpful. I was hoping to ask one more question. Alot of the answers are geared toward big research universities (obviously because I asked about it). I was wondering are things any different at small liberal arts colleges?</p>

7

<p>They’re not different and in fact will probably be more demanding depending on the small liberal arts college. I went to a SLAC and my professors told me that research is still a big part of their tenure package - not as big as at a R/VH or R/H institution, but still a big part. In addition to that, they usually have heavier teaching loads. For example, my advisor (an assistant professor at a prominent R/VH university) has a 1/0 load. He teaches one class in the fall and no classes in the spring. Of course, he’s expected to have high research productivity.</p>

<p>At a SLAC you may have a 4/4 load (4 classes each semester) and still be expected to have decent research productivity - running your own lab, mentoring undergraduate students in research (most SLACs are really big on that), publishing and going to conferences. On average you’ll also probably have less financial support to do those things with. And although you’re not expected to be as productive as an assistant professor at an R/VH institution, on the flip side you’ll be expected to be a better teacher than most R/VH professors are expected to be. Teaching doesn’t really mean jack here as far as the tenure process goes (I went to a meeting about tenure just to see what was up and the provost basically said just that) but at a SLAC being a bad teacher can get you booted before you get tenure.</p>

8

<p>168 hours give or take -ehh, 120/130?</p>