Professors of Different Fields Make Different Amounts

We had dinner last night with the manager of the Jazz Lab in our new small town. She was a wonderful guest who came bearing wine and fancy cheese which accompanied my pasta dish.

Over dinner, she mentioned the salary of the jazz professors, those with doctoral degrees and years of experience, and I was surprised that it was much lower than what Bryan is making.

Apparently, that's the case. And for my economist husband, it was obvious that those of different fields would make different amounts. But for those of you who think like me, let me break it down:

According to Salary.com's Salary Wizard (median salaries),
an accounting professor makes $104,000
a business professor makes $75,111
a chemistry professor makes $51,445
a civil engineering professor makes $68,311
a communications professor makes $52,450
a drama professor makes $48,380
an economics professor makes $67,573
an education professor makes $53,000
an English professor makes $50,750
a music professor makes $49,500

Bryan explained to me that part of the salary for anything represents your opportunity cost which is typically what you could do somewhere else.

If you think about an accountant, in order to get her to be a professor, you'd have to pay her at least what she would make in the business world. You won't get people to leave the business world unless you pay well. Also, there's the difficulty in the field of study that contributes. Accounting is really difficult; it's complicated, and that's why they make more money. It's all about opportunity cost, apparently.

Interesting. I learned something new.

Don't Send Emails Like This

Oh my god brian for the love of god I will send it to you today im so sorry I haven’t even checked my email thank you so much for reminding me im so sorry. And thank you for the update!
-J

Examples To Use in Class

As I help grade the multiple choice section as carefully as possible, Bryan furrows over his students' handwritten attempts at economic theory.

Reading over questions 16-20, I giggle. Bryan is using the country of Dortugal (Strongbad, anybody?) and for his goods: Pogs and Slammers in his international trade section. I asked Bryan if he knew that he was the coolest professor ever. Of course, he's bashful and tells me to stop. But then he listed for me all the great (and eccentrically Bryan) examples he uses for his students.

Dr. Buckley's Top Examples of Goods
-rubber ducks
-slinkies
-skip its (commercial - I was a skip it addict as a child)
-rubber chickens
-koosh balls
-toobers and zots
-legos
-drunks
-wine and cheese
-orphans and movies: Brad and Angelina (comparative advantage)

I want to take his class next fall.

Excerpts from Dr. Buckley's Syllabus

Tests are par for the course in college. Dr. Buckley is no different: he offers three exams. And he has the coolest exam policy I've ever heard of.

There are no makeup exams - for any reason. According to the syllabus, you can decide not to take either the 1st or 2nd exam. If you opt not to take the 2nd exam, then the 15% of your grade represented by that exam gets shifted to your 1st and Final Exams, so that they are worth 17.5% and 27.5% respectively. You can not choose to miss both the first and the second exam, and you must take the final.

Those are the rules. Do what makes you best off.


Can you say live your life according to what you teach? This man is such an economist.

Big News

This morning, I've made it public internet knowledge that my husband, the professor, has accepted a tenure track job at NSUOK. What's the big deal? I had no clue. When I was a student, I didn't pay much attention to the professors and their career tracks. Here's the breakdown, as I understand it from Bryan.

GRAD STUDENT: teaches a section or two; no real respect in the research world
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR: teaches just a few sections, usually by choice
VISITING PROFESSOR: one to two year contracts, focus on teaching, most PhDs start here anywhere from 1-15 years
TENURE TRACK PROFESSOR: THE job, after 5-6 years teaching and researching, you are eligible for tenure, stability and prestige
TENURED PROFESSOR: after being a great teacher and generous with research, you've "hit it big" aka you can teach whatever you want and can't get fired
CHAIR OF DEPT: you can decide who stays and who leaves, runs department

Now you know.

Writing for Publishing

Everyone knows the saying "Publish or Perish" but does anyone know how to publish? I didn't know, and last night, Dr. Buckley enlightened me.

Here's my interpretation of How to Write a Publishable Research Paper in Economics
1. First, think of a clever idea, preferably something topical to current news and social awareness (i.e. environmental economics or political economics).
2. Develop a mathematical model (90% of the time, it's calculus) that is solvable, applicable and interesting.
3. Cleverly find a data set to use for your mathematical model. This is the big one. It's not really a skill, but luck: finding a set that is complete and manageable. Then it's crunching numbers and crunching more numbers. Remember to account for differences in characteristics (i.e. whether a state is a coastal state).
4. Apply a clever econometric method.
5. Revise, edit and revise.
6. Submit to one journal at a time. If you are accepted, great; add it to your resume. If you are rejected, select another journal and resubmit.

Additional note: you might have a good idea and find that there is no data. And that sucks.

Apparently, you have to be an economist, a statistician, a calculus mathematician and a writer to pull this thing off. I'm already exhausted.

Teaching as You Learn

I always thought you could learn the most from someone who has been teaching the same thing for years, you know, an expert. Well, Dr. Buckley offered an interesting alternative.

He claims that a teacher who just relearned the material might actually end up being a more effective teacher. Without the routine lecture, a teacher who teaches something new to their course catalogue could offer more insight, having just refreshed their own knowledge, they would be better able to know which parts are more difficult and require extra time for understanding. Sometimes, Dr. Buckley says, teachers are so used to their line of thinking that it's difficult to see how someone might not understand.

Oh, the tough life of being a genius...