Well, that’s it. I’m dropping out.
This is generally true.
I got my PhD at 27 and took an assistant professorship at my alma mater the semester after I defended. It took me 5 years to reach tenure and I have been associate for three. I love my job it is rewarding both personally and intellectually.
ccwaterback said
I teach at a small liberal arts college, and I do this all the time. Hoever, I did it even when I was only an assistant prof. Why? Because I find it gives the students a degree of comfort and non-competitive lattitude to say and be who they truly are…Some classes I simply cannot do this, such as Psych 101, where I am usually dealing with 35-70 students, most of which just got out of highschool and are not accustomed to college life yet, ergo, still need to be reminded to quiet down and listen etc…etc…
But with my upper classmen and smaller classes I usually sit with them around a large table.
How I became a professor:
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Earned a BA, MS, PhD
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While ABD, I took a position at my (BA, MS) alma mater as a lecturer. What started out as a one-year sabbatical replacement appointment turned into a decent–if unstable and low-paying–part-time faculty position.
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After realizing that waiting around for someone to retire so that I could apply for a position at my alma mater was not a good carrer choice, I applied at every school that was looking for.
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After two years of non-tenure, part-time lecturing and constant applying with no results I finally got an interview and was hired into a full-time position… but alas, it was yet another visiting position and at least involved full-time pay and the “(Visiting) Assistant Professor” title! (Meanwhile, I finished my PhD.)
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Being a “visitor”–and working at a school I didn’t like–the round of applications began anew, which resulted in two interviews. I came in second for the first one, and first for the second one… and now, after actually working as teaching faculty for four years (three as a lecturer, one as a visiting asst. prof) I have the ever-elusive tenure-track Assistant Professorship.
(Which doesn’t mean it’s over… now it’s five or six years of teaching, good student reviews, research, annual self-evaluations, committee evaluations, etc., to keep me employed each year before I can apply for tenure!)
ZebraShaSha, there’s a lot of good advice int his thread. Let me try to summarize, and add a bit from my own perspective.
First off, I’m assuming you’re in high school currently. At this point in your life, I don’t think there’s any path to academia that would be faster than graduating high school, getting an undergraduate degree, going through graduate school to get a PhD or equivalent, and applying for faculty positions at that time. Even if, for example, you were to write a brilliant philosophical tome as your senior HS project, I can’t conceive of anyplace hiring you as a professor without demonstrating experience and competence in the other areas important in academia.
So, given that, you’ll spend, say, 4 years as an undergraduate and 5 or so as a graduate student. And, in many cases, additional time as a lecturer or postgrad researcher bulking up your resume. I would hazard a guess that there are very very few professors under 26 years old.
But first, as has been pointed out, you’ll have to cull your interests down to one specific subject. That’s part of what your undergraduate experience is for, to let you find what subject(s) you like the most and do the best in.
You also need to be realistic about your chances of obtaining a faculty position. Note that some fields are much more competitive than others, although even the least competitive fields have outrageous numbers of applicants for each position (anecdotally, I understand there are 500-1000 applicants/position in my field). However, you can increase your chances of getting hired by getting a PhD at a top-notch institution, working for a well-known faculty member, writing oodles of papers, and meeting other faculty at conferences.
In my case, I went to a top-5 graduate school in my field (mechanical engineering, if you must know), wrote more than the average number of papers during my stay, and made a point of presenting papers and meeting people at conferences. I got one offer and was a finalist for a second before I decided tenure-track academia wasn’t for me and declined both.
For you, that’s a ways off, though. First go to college, choose a subject, and get good grades. If you still think being a professor is cool, come back and ask again in four years.
-zut (Ph.D. ME, Adj. Prof)
…but, there’s always the coconuts!
And who knows, you might get lucky with Ginger! 
There are other ways that you all are dismissing. I’m now in grad school so I know the standard way and am well along the path towards professorship.
The teaching aspect of being a professor is usually (at least in the biological sciences) viewed as a chore to best be avoided. This is one reason why successful researchers often fail miserably at teaching. Highly recruited researchers (and ones getting tenure) often negotiate reduced teaching duties so that they can devote more time to research.
This sometimes leaves universities undermanned for teaching. I went to one of the largest public universities in the country, and most of my basic biology and chemistry professors were either PhDs or even MSs that did not run research labs. The MSs usually ran lab courses, which were TA’ed by grad students, although I can remember a few lecture courses given by MSs. One of my best teachers was a PhD who had graduated and was taking a few years off before doing a postdoc – I believe he was waiting for his wife. Technically, IIRC, at U of Texas these weren’t classified as “professors”; they held a non-tenure track “lecturer” position. But if you are interested in teaching college, this is certainly a low-stress way to go about it. I can’t imagine these jobs are plentiful, but at large undergraduate institutions, the ones that exist are probably around for the taking.
The title “professor” in the US is usually associated with tenure-track positions. In biology, this generally first means publish or perish, with only very slight consideration given to teaching skills. If teaching is what you are interested in, tenure-track positions may not be your best options.
The second way that I’m surprised nobody has mentioned is good old medical school. Four years medical school, three years residency, and you can be hired as an attending professor at a university. There is always a need for academic doctors – usually after a residency in internal medicine, one gets a primary appointment running or staffing the general medicine department at a hospital. One gets a rotating team of residents and students and teaches them every day while on rounds, going from patient to patient. Furthermore, in my experience, the medical school is always scrapping around for attending physicians who can teach the medical students. Since medicine residencies are not that competitive (except at the top tier), since academic positions are usually pretty availible, since medical schools are always looking for fresh teaching blood, you could find yourself lecturing to a class of 150 medical students 7 years after graduating from college, even if you are not the hardest worker or the sharpest awl in the toolshed.
Basically, a professor position is just like any other job. The employer (university) advertises an open position in journals relevant to the field and takes applications. The department which is hiring generally has a committee to select a few candidates from the applicants and these few are then interviewed in person. The committee may or may not recommend hiring one of the candidates.
At the moment, almost all universities are experiencing budget problems and may have hiring freezes. This means it’s a buyers market when a position does open up, and there are many highly-qualified applicants, some with a great deal of post-grad experience and publications. My wife is a professor and she frequently sits on hiring committees in her department and as outside advisor in other departments. It is not uncommon to have hundreds of applicants for an open position, and in some cases they are more qualified (in terms of degrees and publications) than some of the tenured professors already at the university. When I got my PhD. a great number of my peers wanted academic positions and about three of 20-30 were successful. These were really bright people from one of the top universities in the field and most had extensive research and publications, but there simply were not enough open positions in the country to accommodate them.
I don’t mean this to be discouraging, but I think Wendell Wagner was just being realistic. Aiming at becoming a university professor is kind of like aiming at becoming a senator or CEO of a Fortune 500 company; there are a limited number of positions available and even people with great qualifications may not succeed, so you should have a backup plan. Also, like a senator or CEO, it’s something you have to work toward. You might take a number of post-doc positions and/or jobs in industry (whatever is relevant to your field) before getting an opportunity to even apply for a position. If you want to be a professor, you should choose a field you like and try to excel. You can make career decisions with an eye on the goal of being a professor, but not to the exclusion of all other possibilities.
I think strong words of warning to the OP are quite warranted. In several of his fields of interest there are far, far more people applying for positions than are positions available. Unless the OP is extremely dedicated to an area, the chances of getting one of those positions is remote. Remember, the people the OP would be competing against, might, for example, have been dreaming about becoming a Physics prof. since grade school.
You really have to be obsessed. Dilitantes need not apply.
But some helpful advice: On your first year of college get in on the “inside” of the department. Become a paper grader, tutor, lab assistant, whatever it takes. Once on the “inside”, the professorial career track becomes a lot easier and clearer. I was paper grading my own section of Calculus the 2nd quarter of college. By my 2nd year I was working for both the Math (no CS then) and Physics deptarments. During my third year I was accepted into grad school in both. I was teaching college level classes at the age of 21. First tenure track position at 26.
Research has always been a breeze. I love problem solving and have been doing that since I was a little kid. You have to like what you’re doing to the point of obsession, 'cause there are others who are even more obsessed.
People have already answered in detail about the usual ways to become a professor. The other major way is to establish yourself in some profession and then be hired to teach on a consultant basis. This is most common in business and law, and perhaps medical settings. You also mentioned film-making, though, and I would expect that most programs in this area would want their faculty to have had some practical experience first.
Life’s all rosy for me now, but I’d heed the warnings above.
When I consider that all of my younger siblings have long been homeowners with steady “real” jobs and I’m just now–FINALLY–in a position where I can start looking to buy a house and leave the days of renting and an uncertain future behind (where I’m not changing states each year as I have for the past three) AND I still have to sweat until I get tenure, I sometimes wonder if I should’ve just gone to work for the petroleum industry or doing environmental work. Heck, all of my buddies that stopped with an MS and got jobs with environmental firms and/or oil exploration are all living the high life while my family is just getting by and we’re still renting!
Then I think about home much I love my job, love teaching college, love doing research, love my schedule, and love all of the time off during the year to do my research, travel, etc., and am glad I did it–but it sure wasn’t easy getting here, and a lot of luck was involved.
It is possible to become a professor without a PhD. I knew a few of them – it happens, although not terribly frequently, in new fields of study. The ones I knew were Computer Science (CS) professors. In the '60s, there really wasn’t CS, so professors would come from related fields such as Mathematics, Philosophy, Engineering, Physics, etc. However, with any new field, you’ll find some people with a lot of knowledge of the subject but who don’t really fit into any of the related fields, and never managed to get a PhD in a related field.
As for how young you can be, how about 21? http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~edemaine/. The youngest professor to teach me was 23 (got his PhD from some little unknown university named “Oxford”). The oldest person I know to become a professor was in her 50’s.
Though not precisely the same, you and I have similar situations. I was lucky to get the inside scoop on the position I now have, and I have been here almost 8 years and am tenured. During my mid-20’s I had a very rough road; school full time, work nearly fulltime, and a fiance who was doing the same…Luckily we both have turned out quite well in our respective careers. We are about to take on something even more challenging that all of that!
Having kids!! :eek:
Thank you for all your help, but I have yet to see some one mention an Art professer. Any major loopholes or kinks in the system for that field of study?
Oh, and least I forget the only thing I have been extremly deidcated to for as long as I can remember: destruction. I would love to be a demolition technician. But, just as I can find no colleges that offer that course, would it be just as hard to find a professing position in that field?
I know several art professors. The main difference from what’s been mentioned above is that there is usually no requirement for a PhD. I believe MFA (Master of Fine Arts) is the terminal degree in most art programs. The art positions I’ve seen filled recently have had even more competition than other fields. I believe this is true because there are so few “industry” positions for artists (compared to engineers, computer scientists or psycologists who have lots of opportunities outside academia). If you want to make a living doing art, being a professor is one of the very few ways unless you have immediate commercial success.
You might try Mechanical Engineering. I knew a lot of Mech Engineers who specialized in structures and/or materials and spent a lot of time breaking things.
I was a physics professor for a few years but I gave up a tenured position to start my own business. I have autonomy money and no more committee meetings!!
Great answers. ZebraShaSha, you seem to ask how to become professor with the least amount of work. The answers boil down to this: becoming professor is always hard work. However, if you pick the subject you really like and have a talent for, you won’t mind the work so much.
So go to college, find out what you like (or revers this order, even better), then continue single-mindedly on this path. Even if you take the outside route, as some exceptional individuals have managed, you still need to excel in your subject.
FWIW, forget about physics (string theory): that is the single most competive subject. If you have to ask which subject to take, you don’t have the dedication it takes for physics. Same goes for math. You might like philosophy, though. Art/film making are indeed different subjects in which the usual rules do not apply, so you could try that. But even then you need to be talented.
Good luck, whatever you decide to do!
(now follows a slight hijack)
Sorry for asking, but do you really live in The Netherlands? Then you should be aware that the German system is rather exceptional in Europe; AFAIK no other country has the Habilitation requirement. In particular, in The Netherlands you can become a professor at a much earlier age, and some manage to. Ideal track:
18 - start of college
22 - finish with college degree, start PhD
26 - finish PhD. Become professor (which actually is full tenured professor, in U.S. terms).
There actually have been some 27-year old professors in law in recent years. Admittedly for other subjects there is something close to a ‘tenure track’.
I would imagine your best bet here would be joining the military. Although I suppose you could always find a demolitions company and fill out an application . . . ?
(frozen like a deer in headlights, thinking about methodical ways to tear things down)