Not really. This school is part of the community college system. It is accredited, which is good.
The Wiki page for the system has some data on salary distribution - scroll down to faculty.
Don’t know what field you’re in, but due to the large population of well trained people here most community college teachers I know are local, often going into teaching when changing jobs. I’m not at all surprised they aren’t paying - California colleges have been under tight budget constraints recently. It is definitely not a scam.
I haven’t seen any articles on moves from teaching to industry as the economy improves, but it is possible. It is a much better time to be applying than 5 years ago. And the latest budget has more money for the college system.
And not at all for a community college, where salaries are set at state level, unless you are a superstar in a desired field.
I know what we are paying new MS and PhD students, and it is rather astronomical. When I moved here 17 years ago it was still a bit higher than my fairly good part of NJ - but it is a lot higher now.
If I had to work in Berkeley I would only consider communities along the BART line in the east bay. Anything that would require you to drive would add cost and time to each and every working day. BART adds additional costs, but saves you time and hassles of driving/parking/maintenance in that area (IF, they are not on strike).
Note: there is also the Amtrak Capitol Corridor train that runs from Sacramento to San Jose with stops along the east bay, including Berkeley. I would not recommend commuting from Sacto, but it is an alternative to BART and could offer some redundancy in case of BART labor squabbles.
If you are OK driving to a BART or Amtrak station from a town that does not have one, your radius opens up slightly. Good luck!
The advertised salary range in the job posting was about $51,000 to $78000. “Commensurate with qualifications and experience” which is what all schools say for every faculty position. I don’t think I have a way to know exactly what this means in terms of the actual number they will offer, or how negotiable it will be.
FTR I’m currently living on $50,000, in Indianapolis, paying $920/mo for a three bedroom apartment.
My friends with experience in the area have also said BART is the way to go. How much does it cost to ride BART? (“The BART?” I don’t know how to talk Californian.)
Community colleges almost never pay for interviewee travel expenses.
If this was a CSU or a UC, all faculty salaries would be publicly available. Not sure about community colleges. I’m certain they won’t pay enough to buy a house anywhere near Berkely proper.
I wouldn’t pay to interview there. the academic job market is crap. Pleny of phds are looking for CC jobs as they can’t find positions at 4 year institutions. They certainly have a stack of potentials a meter high.
Let me see if i can dig up the salary info. If they are state employees (rather than city) the data are public by law.
It’s not a flat fee and is based on distance/number of stops. Crossing the bay also adds a surcharge. E.g. college is downtown, so from El Cerrito Plaza to there is $1.75 if you just buy a ticket with no discounts. They can be bought for whatever amount and hold the remaining value.
If you’re going to use “the,” you might as well move to SoCal. Definite articles are hella lame.
I agree with the BART advice because it gives you more places to look, but $78,000 is going to be pretty tight for the Bay Area if you have a family, and that’s the top of the range.
Zillow shows a few choices in your price range, and not all the way out in Gustine, either. That said, though I last lived in the Bay Area in 1999, I cannot imagine trying to live in the East Bay on even 75,000 per year. I had to look high and low to find an apartment way back then, and I was grateful to be paying 800/mo. For a 1 bedroom apt, albeit conveniently close to light rail and a college in the South Bay.
And they’re making you fly out from the Midwest on your own nickel? I hope the proposed job will be worth it. Or that you can find another type of position while you’re in CA.
I am ignorant of your field and its career prospects, but I will just say that Texas is also a booming area, and the cost of living is quite a bit less. Or course, you’d have to live in Texas…
Didn’t know this. My job search just got a lot more expensive, assuming I get any other interviews.
But if I have an interview* I’d think that means I’ve gotten past the obstacles you’re describing. (And now we’re on to the part where we candidates all have equal opportunity to blow it through some social gaffe or other.)
*As mentioned above, though, it’s not clear on reflection whether what’s coming up is a phone pre-interview or an actual in person interview.
As stated, the cost for riding BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) depends on distance. I occasionally ride from Concord to SF and it is 11 round trip. BART can get crowded like sardines. You can by multi-ride passes to save . The Amtrak train is more costly, but more comfortable and they have wifi.
And no, we civilized people in NorCal do not use “the” to describe our roads and rails.
Back in the day, my ex-wife’s salary was around that range. It was not unknown for 3-5 of her co-workers to be sharing a house with each guy getting a room. These were licensed professionals, and they had to re-enact their college days to be able to afford to rent a house. While I’m sure they still had money for toys, Bay Area housing prices have been insane for a very long time.
How many hours a week would you be expected to teach? Because some professors teach at more than one school. My father did so; he was salaried faculty at one school and taught individual classes at several other schools, as the opportunities arose.
But, yes, a salary of under $70,000 is not going to be easy to live on, not in such a high-cost area.
The “hippies”? Lotsa places, although many are now landlords and business owners, you won’t get a break. Want somewhere free to stay, even if finding a free spot might be hard? People’s Park is your bet.
Guys, c’mon. The median household income in Berkeley is $60,908. A $70,000 salary won’t allow you to live in the lap of luxury but it’s hardly ZOMG slave wages. Plus, if you’re looking for a 3 bedroom house, the presumably means you have a spouse? Even a tiny bit of supplemental income would bring that up to a more comfortable figure. It’s also one of the few regions in the country with a low enough unemployment rate that picking up a decent supplemental job is not overly difficult.
The flip side of the insane cost of living is that the Bay Area is a great place to live. There’s great weather, lots of nature, an intellectual environment full of culture and a lot of big city amenities. I would at least consider it rather than dismissing it out of turn.
But the median family income is 98,000. And the average family size is less than three. (Mine’s six.)
I want to be convinced to do it, but right now I’m very pessimistic.
I haven’t even broached this topic with the wife yet. She is convinced (and I tend to agree) that with four kids, two of them not in school yet, supplemental income isn’t really possible–it’d cost more to get somebody to care for the kids than she would make at any part time job. Here in Indy we could possibly swing it because there are people who will watch kids for a hundred dollars a week, but I doubt I’d find such a value in Berkeley. (She does in fact make about a hundred a week, but she was very lucky to find work she’s allowed to bring her kids to. (The work involves watching other people’s kids.) This is nothing to count on if we were to move away from this city.
She could go back to school (she wants to–right now she’s thinking about nursing and coding, as in, computer programing, as possibilities) and we could live on my income plus her loans but she has serious moral qualms about loans.
The flip side of the insane cost of living is that the Bay Area is a great place to live. There’s great weather, lots of nature, an intellectual environment full of culture and a lot of big city amenities. I would at least consider it rather than dismissing it out of turn.
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Dude,
One income that you’re quoting, supporting six people in the Bay area is not going to happen. You will be taking a big hit in quality of life, chief among them are schools. Where ever you find cheap to live will have schools that will have multiple problems.