<p>Just wondering as a career in the academia appeals to me quite a lot. </p>
<p>Also, what does it take to land a professor position at a major research university?</p>
<p>Average salary for a full-time full professor at the University of Chicago is $184,000 a year - the third highest in the nation.</p>
<p>Average salary for a full-time associate professor at the University of Chicago is $146,000 a year.</p>
<p>Average salary for a full-time assistant professor at the University of Chicago is $97,000 a year.</p>
<p>[U</a> of C ranks third highest in national survey of prof salaries – The Chicago Maroon](<a href=“Scalzi: From the U of C to a galaxy far, far away – Chicago Maroon”>Scalzi: From the U of C to a galaxy far, far away – Chicago Maroon)</p>
<p>It is extraordinarily difficult to land a professor position at a major research university like UChicago. After getting your PhD, you typically need many more years of post-doc to demonstrate your research/grant-landing prowess.</p>
<p>If you look at the profiles of UChicago professors, they usually have a huge number of publications in respected journals, often over a hundred. Anyone who understands how much effort it takes to publish even a single article will appreciate just how accomplished this makes UChicago professors (and also how difficult it is to snag a UChicago research/teaching position).</p>
<p>Full professors at major universities, including top publics, usually make over $120k/year. Getting to that position takes a LOT of time, though, and you usually have to spend 5-10 years as an assistant professor, sometimes at a variety of institutions, before you get promoted to a full professor. And often, you have to spend a few years as a postdoc before you can even snag an assistant professor position. Which means: if you count time spent as a PhD candidate, postdoc, and assistant professor, it usually takes 15-20 years until you can get to be a full professor. Sound frustrating? Yeah, it is.</p>
<p>Salaries at all ranks vary tremendously by field. Faculty members in arts and sciences, by and large, will make less than those at most of the professional schools; within arts and sciences, those in economics will make more than those in most other departments and those in the sciences will generally make more than those in the humanities.</p>
<p>^Do you happen to know what schools mandate equal professorial pay for all, regardless of field?</p>
<p>^None that I know of. The differential is generally due to the fact that law, business, and medical school faculty have many opportunities for lucrative careers outside academia, which is not the case for most arts and sciences faculty (with the exception of those in economics and, to a lesser extent, some of the sciences). The other reason for the differential has to do with grant and other outside funding opportunities, which are available much more readily to those in medical and scientific fields than to those in the social sciences and, especially, to those in humanities.</p>
<p>Thanks guys for your responses. Yea the enormous amount of time and effort required to get a professorship does sound quite frustrating, given the rather modest salaries (relative to what one with the intelligence and ability of a potential professor could make in more “practical” careers). However, a career in the academia is for the passionate, not for one who wants to become rich (although some do suddenly become incredibly rich after publishing some best-selling hits). To those who truly love knowledge and intellectual pursuit, the pleasures (and relative freedom and flexible time schedule) are rewards more than enough to keep them in the academia. I love learning a lot and would like to contribute to growth in human knowledge, but I’ll see how things go before I decide on my future career. Time for a high school senior to stop daydreaming and go back to her studies. ;p</p>
<p>Agreed. Generally being a professor has more to do with the life of the mind than a big paycheck. But as map noted, professional school faculty (and stars in other fields) can do well:</p>
<p>[A</a> Star Law Professor And Expert Witness Is Selling His Fancy New York Condo For $15.9 Million](<a href=“http://www.businessinsider.com/daniel-fischel-apartment-for-sale-photos-2012-2]A”>A Star Law Professor and Expert Witness Is Selling His Fancy New York Condo for $15.9 Million)</p>
<p>Well, I’m sure that person did not make his fortune as a law professor. Also realize that professors are fairly intelligent in general, and so they can also make a lot of money on the side through wise stock picks, book deals, etc.</p>
<p>At least in some fields such as economics, professors can make substantial money on the side by consulting fees.</p>
<p>@phuriku I don’t think his UChicago salary bought the condo by itself. 
But he sort of leveraged his faculty reputation. The article says “He has appeared as an expert witness for the defense in several high-profile securities cases, including the trials of Enron executives Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay, and “junk bond king” Michael Milken.”</p>
<p>Hmmmmm… I hope he was arguing to throw the book at them, but I imagine he was an expert on their behalf and their attorneys said, “Look, this outstanding UChicago prof says you shouldn’t make me spend the rest of my life in jail.”</p>
<p>Condo in return (paid for by witness fees.)</p>
<p><a href=“Explainer for Enron”>Explainer for Enron;
<p>I think that Freakonomics guy (Steven Levitt) did well with his book:
[url=<a href=“Freakonomics - The hidden side of everything”>http://www.freakonomics.com/]Freakonomics[/url</a>]</p>
<p>etc., etc.</p>
<p>Dan Fischel is/was a first-rate law-and-economics academic who joined then-colleague Richard Posner in forming a consulting firm, Lexecon, in the late 70s. It made them both (and a lot of other Chicago professors) quite rich, even though Posner was only involved for a few years before he became a judge. It still exists today, as Compass Lexecon, and is one of the top companies for providing economic experts for legal cases in the world.</p>
<p>For these alien workers* employed by UChicago , their pays are quite different.
(* these work with an H-1 visa, i.e., without U.S. citizenship or permanent residency status).
DATA reference: Department of Labor, Foreign Labor Certification Data Center, FY 2009-FY2010</p>
<p>JOB_TITLE and Wage </p>
<p>(The next 5 entries are hourly wages: $/h)
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE PROFESSIONAL 18
LAB SCHOOL TEACHER - CHINESE 24
RESEARCH PROJECT PROFESSIONAL 26
DATA ARCHIVIST 27
RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 34</p>
<p>(The following is annual salary, $/yr)
VISITING PROFESSOR 100000
SENIOR PROGRAM ANALYST & INFORMATICIAN 103799
CLINICAL ASSOCIATE 120000
CLINICAL ASSOCIATE 120000
INSTRUCTOR/ ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 120000
CLINICIAN EDUCATOR: INSTRUCTOR-PROFESSOR 167600
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 32781
RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 33051
RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 33824
RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 33824
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 34000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 34000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 34000
RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 34258
RESEARCH PROJECT PROFESSIONAL 34258
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 34320
RESEARCH TECHNICIAN 34528
RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 34528
RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 34528
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 35000
RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 35006
RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 35235
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 36996
RESEARCH PROJECT PROFESSIONAL 37131
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 37368
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 37996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 38000
RESEARCH RECRUITER 38000
SENIOR RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 38388
SENIOR RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 38388
POSTODOCTORAL SCHOLAR 38700
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 38700
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 39000
RESEARCH PROJECT PROFESSIONAL 39000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 39249
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 39360
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 39996
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 40000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 40000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 40000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 40000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 41000
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 41000
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 41174
SENIOR RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 41200
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 41796
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 41796
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 41796
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 41796
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 42000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 42000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 42000
CLINICAL MOLECULAR TECHNOLOGIST 42000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 42000
LECTURER 42000
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 42866
BIOSTATISTICS ANALYST 43000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 43000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 43000
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 43000
LECTURER 43200
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 43260
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 43428
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 43428
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 43428
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 43533
INSTRUCTOR - PROFESSOR 43800
RESEARCH ANALYST 43846
RESEARCH ANALYST 43846
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 44000
INT’L PROGRAMMING & CONTINUING EDUCATION MANAGER 44000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 44600
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 44730
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 45000
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 45000
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) 45000
SENIOR STATISTICAL PROGRAMMER ANALYST 45000
LECTURER 45000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 45000
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 45000
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 45048
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 45048
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 45048
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 46350
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) 47000
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) 47000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 47000
STATISTICAL GENETICIST 47000
SENIOR RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 47736
MOUSE/ES CELL MICROINJECTIONIST TECHNICIAN 48000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 48000
SENIOR RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 48464
SENIOR RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST 48464
RESEARCH SCIENTIST 50000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 50000
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) 50000
RESEARCH SCIENTIST 50000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 50000
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR 50003
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE/ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 51500
CLINICAL TRIALS INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYST 52000
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE/ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 53000
COLLEGIATE ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 53000
RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATE 53560
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) 53560
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) 53560
SCIENTIFIC APPLICATION SUPPORT SPECIALIST 56000
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) 57000
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE/ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 57867
L.E. DICKSON INSTRUCTOR 60000
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 60000
L. E. DICKSON INSTRUCTOR 60000
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 60000
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 60000
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 60000
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR 60000
SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST 60000
SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST 60000
SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST 60000
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 60000
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 60000
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) 61800
L.E. DICKSON INSTRUCTOR 62000
L.E. DICKSON INSTRUCTOR 62000
L.E. DICKSON INSTRUCTOR 62000
L.E. DICKSON INSTRUCTOR 62000
L.E. DICKSON INSTRUCTOR 62000
SENIOR STATISTICAL PROGRAMMER ANALYST 62386
INFORMATICS AND TECHNOLOGY ANALYST 63000
SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER 65000
SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE 65000
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE/ASS’T PROFESSOR 70000
COMPUTER SYSTEMS PROGRAMMER 71749
COMPUTER SYSTEMS PROGRAMMER 71749
PROGRAMMER 73287
PROGRAMMER 73287
HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTER SYSTEM RESEARCHER 75000
HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTER SYSTEM RESEARCHER 75000
LEAD RESEARCHER 75000
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE/ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 76500
SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER 77019
COMPUTER SYSTEMS PROGRAMMER 77050
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 78000
CO-DIRECTOR OF SCIENCE LIBRARIES 84977
CLINICAL ASSOCIATE 85000
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) 85000
CLINICAL EDUCATOR: INSTRUCTOR - PROFESSOR 85000
INSTRUCTOR-PROFESSOR 90000</p>
<p>Are there very few Asian professors/assistant professors at UChicago or other major research universities?</p>
<p>Chemistry faculty:
[Faculty</a> - Chemistry Department - University of Chicago](<a href=“http://chemistry.uchicago.edu/faculty/faculty/index/id/1.html]Faculty”>Faculty | University of Chicago Department of Chemistry)
Pediatrics:
[Faculty</a> Listing :: The Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago](<a href=“http://pediatrics.uchicago.edu/faculty.aspx]Faculty”>http://pediatrics.uchicago.edu/faculty.aspx)</p>
<p><a href=“https://ssa.uchicago.edu/faculty-listings[/url]”>https://ssa.uchicago.edu/faculty-listings</a></p>
<p>[Marketing</a> at Chicago Booth](<a href=“http://www.chicagobooth.edu/macb/thought-leadership/faculty.aspx]Marketing”>http://www.chicagobooth.edu/macb/thought-leadership/faculty.aspx)</p>
<p><a href=“Wiki Restricted”>Wiki Restricted;
<p>You could search by yourself. I estimate 15~25% Asian faculty.</p>
<p>
Most university faculties have remarkably little racial/ethnic diversity. Many graduate programs are similarly homogeneous, for that matter. </p>
<p>Chicago’s faculty is broken down as follows:</p>
<p>70.9% white (1504)
15.1% Asian (321)
7.26% international (154)
3.35% black (71)
2.73% Hispanic (58)
0.66% multiracial (14)
0% Native American (0)</p>
<p>
An excellent pedigree, a long list of publications racked up while likely maintaining a rather cavalier attitude toward teaching, and a great deal of luck. The last element should not be underestimated. </p>
<p>Berkeley recently did a very frank and informative analysis of what it takes to get tenure in several fields. The results were as interesting as they were disturbing. (I highlighted some of the best bits [previously](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12959852-post2.html]previously[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12959852-post2.html)</a>.)</p>
<p>[eScholarship:</a> Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication](<a href=“http://escholarship.org/uc/cshe_fsc]eScholarship:”>Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication)</p>
<p>The fuel of a university is its reputation and prestige. Teaching ability does not aid in that cause, which is why research ability is more highly evaluated. Fortunately, Chicago seems to highly evaluate teaching ability in its search for professors, although even in Chicago’s case, research ability is likely viewed as incrementally more important.</p>
<p>I fear that the study you cite, warblersrule, has its data disproportionally influenced by public research universities, which provide a large portion of the quality research in the US. Public universities, even top schools like Michigan and Berkeley, do not seem to emphasize teaching at all in their recruiting. I would like to think that top privates are a bit better in that regard.</p>
<p>Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but UChicago does give professors the added perk of their children basically guaranteed a lab school education (not sure if they don’t have to pay tuition though). I’ve also heard that the school pays for professors’ children to go to any college, which, if true, is pretty awesome.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Professors’ kids are no longer guaranteed spots at the Lab School because there are so many people who want to get in, but faculty’s children are given higher priority over all others. The Lab School waives half of their tuition. The school does pay for professors’ children to go to any college, but it does not pay for the full price. This is called tuition support. I think it’s somewhere between 50 and 75%, which is still a pretty significant percentage. That being said, UChicago is not the only school that does this.</p>