<p>First of all, I have to say that I am in awe of the differences between the undergrad forums and the graduate school forums. It just seems to me the degree of intelligence and (more importantly) maturity is clearly distinct. </p>
<p>Anyway, after getting my undergrad degree, I would like to continue my education at a graduate school.</p>
<p>I have always wanted to teach--no joke here--and the idea of getting a PhD in IR or Poli Sci has begun to be my goal after getting my Bachelor's. </p>
<p>My first question is, how does one pay for grad school? </p>
<p>Secondly, I've perused through some of the threads regarding the the somewhat hostile relationship between MA/PhD in IR to the job market, but I would like to know what it would take to become a college-level professor. </p>
<p>Please forgive me if I sound so naive, I really have little knowledge in this field.
Much help and guidance will be appreciated.</p>
<p>First, read the first 2 pages or so of the Grad School 101 thread.</p>
<p>To answer your questions directly:</p>
<p>1) You don’t pay for grad school - they pay you in exchange for research and teaching (with exceptions like MBA programs and others where the degree is actually a job credential).
2) To teach at the college level you will need a PhD.</p>
<p>The funding really depends on the school. Some schools only have full scholarships for the top incoming students, so you might be responsible for some or all of the tuition depending on how competitive you are. As for TA positions, they aren’t always as readily available as you might think. I would ask the individual schools you are interested in about these things. They might be able to provide you with stats on what % of the students get financial help. </p>
<p>They state that TA positions are not that numerous and that funding is based on financial need. Getting a stipend might not be covered in all of the fellowships offered, so you need to factor that cost as well.</p>
<p>Well if you want to get technical (to put it bluntly): You can lecture or adjunct at a junior college or at a handful of LACs with a master’s. But for a full-time, tenure-track college professor position at a research institution or decent LAC you will need a PhD (as well as a strong research background, teaching experiences, etc.). Teaching and research go hand-in-hand. If one solely wants to teach, then he/she is better off teaching high school, and if they want, competing with increasing numbers of PhD’s for junior college positions.</p>
<p>Yeah, in terms of getting a Ph.D., you really want one if you’re going to teach. With a master’s you could of course be some adjunct faculty who teaches Intro to Political Science or something…maybe. And you wouldn’t really be considered part of the “real” faculty.</p>
<p>As for research, it definitely is important that you are interested in research if you want to get your Ph.D. Research is what you will mostly do in grad school. It is how you will get your teaching jobs. It is how you will get tenured.</p>
<p>However, I would think that if you’re interested in political science and want to teach, then research doesn’t fall far from the tree. In subjects like math, physics, etc. there is a very very big difference between teaching Calculus 1 versus researching Representations of C*-algebras by uniform CT-bundles and operator theory. They teach subjects completely distinct from their research, because their research is so far beyond the classes they teach.</p>
<p>However, as a political science teacher, you can be researching something in asian politics, and teaching a class on asian politics, and include your research in your lectures, which is a definite plus.</p>