Sociology Getting Hired at a Second Tier Liberal Arts College

Updated Baronial 1, 2018

As the annual job marketplace season rapidly approaches for folklore, you may be wondering if you want (to apply for) a job at a liberal arts college. None of u.s. earn our PhDs at liberal arts colleges and if you did not attend ane for undergrad you may merely be relying on myths most what information technology means to exist a liberal arts professor. Some of those myths may come from people who don't know much virtually liberal arts colleges either or want you to only utilise to large research institutions.

Like and so-called R1 institutions, professors at liberal arts colleges are responsible for and assessed based on their inquiry, didactics, and service, but at liberal arts colleges, the emphasis is different. The all-time way I accept heard it said is that at R1s when you are evaluated (peradventure for tenure) they start by looking at your enquiry. If that is non upwards to their standards, they don't intendance how good you are as a classroom instructor. At a liberal arts higher, they offset evaluate your educational activity. If your teaching does not accomplish loftier standards, they don't actually care if you are a rock star researcher. Occasionally, you volition see a news story of students at an R1 in an uproar because their favorite professor was denied tenure, even though they were incredibly engaging and inspiring, readily available for advising in office hours, and taught them how to call up critically unlike anyone else.

This doesn't mean that yous are gratuitous to completely focus on teaching at a liberal arts college.

Well-nigh liberal arts colleges that rent tenure-track positions still desire/require you to exist engaged in your field of inquiry. Yet, this may mean they expect that you will publish 2-5 articles or a unmarried book before tenure (practical for in twelvemonth six), not per year. Additionally, some R1 departments have expectations that your piece of work will exist published in a very limited number of summit-tier journals (AJS, ASR, etc.). Liberal arts colleges desire you to publish your work in double-blind, peer-reviewed journals, only many will provide much more elbowroom regarding the journal's rank.

Some liberal arts colleges are better at facilitating enquiry than others. What is the education load? Are you required to teach 2, 3 or four classes a semester? If you lot teach a two:2 you lot should accept ample fourth dimension to also appoint in more than enquiry and you will likely be expected to produce more. A 3:3 load? Well, you can crunch things out in the summer. A 4:iv load? Forget it. Does the college provide a pre-tenure research leave or form reduction? Some now requite tenure-runway faculty a semester without pedagogy responsibilities in their fourth or fifth year. This can be a huge assistance in getting new projects underway or finalizing revise and resubmits. Are there internal research funds available? Tin y'all hire students as RAs? When because these jobs, wait for the signals the liberal arts colleges are sending regarding the importance of your inquiry. Are they setting yous up for success? Exercise the resources they provide align with their expectations of productivity? Hopefully, the Dean of Kinesthesia is professional and articulate regarding their expectations. I was fortunate enough to accept a very clear picture show from a Dean of what was expected of me to increment my chances of tenure (a ballpark number of articles, positive or improving form evaluations, and being an engaged member of the faculty/campus community). I know of others who are not as fortunate. Sometimes a new Dean wants to raise the ranking of the college and places the responsibleness on the kinesthesia to publish in the highest ranking journals, even though there is no other institutional back up to help you brand that happen. Others I have talked to become only vague, fifty-fifty opaque responses when asking about the expectations for tenure and one colleague even said her Dean wouldn't count publications from her dissertation!? Of course, the Dean of Kinesthesia is not the merely 1 contributing to that decision, only can certainly be a hurdle.

Thinking most the tenure procedure, they are offer you a job for life. They likely want to make certain yous are not a "one-hit wonder" in regards to your inquiry. Did you squeeze a book or a few manufactures out of your dissertation? Great. That's definitely the first step, but then before tenure, your section and if you accept a promotion committee will want to see that yous accept at least taken the initial steps in establishing another line of inquiry. What else tin can they await from you?

In the by six years at a liberal arts college, I have had numerous inquiry assistants (paid for by the college), received coin from the college to help collect survey data and travel to distant research sites, and had a semester gratuitous of teaching to piece of work on new projects and wrap upward manufactures from my dissertation. This institutional support matches their expectations that I publish from my dissertation and brainstorm new projects.

At a liberal arts college, you lot volition need to take teaching seriously.

They want you to do more than give a multiple-pick midterm and final exam. You will spend a lot of time grading paper assignments, essay exams, and other more engaging assessment tools. You lot will non be able to use TAs to assist you class. Fortunately, your class size at a liberal arts college is typically much smaller than what you have seen or experienced at an R1. Introductory courses may be as many as 30 students only advanced undergraduate classes may only have 10-12 students. I typically run upper-level undergrad courses more like a graduate seminar with lots of discussion, more than extensive inquiry papers, and, at least in office, the direction of the class led past student'due south particular interest in the topic. Faculty at R1s that teach undergrad courses with hundreds of students are understandably limited in their pedagogical choices.

Service at a small liberal arts college is likewise more extensive than at an R1. Many liberal arts colleges are extensively faculty governed.

Our entire faculty, of the higher, not just the department, meet once a month to go over policies and other college business organization. Depending on the size of your department, you will also likely serve as the counselor to at least a dozen, peradventure several dozen students. Other examples among the numerous committees include a sustainability commission, human subjects research committee (in lieu of a total IRB), disciplinary judicial committee, curriculum committees, and MANY more. Wait to spend more fourth dimension in meetings every bit function of beingness a liberal arts professor. Committees I am on meet once a week throughout the unabridged school yr.

What are the students like?

Coming into the job, I held onto the myth every pupil at a liberal arts higher was well-prepared, dedicated, and politically engaged. Nope. I accept both astonishing students and I have some that are clearly still non sure they desire to be there. I have some that are intellectually curious and some that the class assignments are a low priority on their long list of things to do. My point is, but like the R1 students you may have served as a TA for, at liberal arts colleges there is a mix of students. A professor from Northwestern University once told me that he thinks that the top students at every college are fairly similar, in that location are just more of them at elite institutions.

Additionally, like larger R1 classrooms, your students will come to higher with a wide range of educational experiences. Some will have attended higher prep loftier schools and be prepare to write a research paper from day one, others will non have been exposed to or given the opportunity to develop the skills needed to succeed in the higher classroom. Be prepared to spend some time teaching writing, reading, and disquisitional thinking skills.

What kind of colleague practise you need to exist?

At a liberal arts higher, you will probable exist in a small department, sometimes VERY minor. In my department, there are four other faculty members. Collegiality serves a prominent part in such a small group. You don't need to exist best friends with anybody, but you need to exist professional and expect to see plenty of your colleagues. You volition likely be THE expert in your subfield. Nobody else in my section teaches (or does inquiry on) globalization, environmental folklore, or social movements. My colleagues are engaged scholars and can oftentimes offer a completely different angle in discussing my work with me, but if I desire to get into the nitty gritty depths of ecosocialism or globe society theory, I need to reach outside of the college and stay in touch on with others past attention national and regional conferences.

What can you do now to authorize yourself to be a professor at a liberal arts college?

You need to teach. A CV without ANY didactics feel will get rapidly passed over as an applicant. If you have the opportunity, teach every bit many unlike classes as possible while in graduate school. Yes, course prep is difficult and takes time away from your dissertation, but y'all need to evidence how you will contribute to a small section. This may exist contradictory advice from what you receive from your counselor who wants you to focus on research. In only my first four years as a faculty member, I taught 9 different courses! You will be expected to teach foundational required courses like Introduction to Folklore (and maybe anthropology) and possibly a methods or theory grade.

Additionally, y'all can't just teach the same elective course over and over every semester. Y'all tin can't just be an instructor of a unmarried subfield. Electives may rotate back into the schedule in a small-scale department only every three years. I teach three courses a semester. Every spring I teach Survey Methods and Analysis with a lab, and I usually teach one, mayhap 2 sections of Introduction to Sociology and Anthropology every year. That leaves me equally many as iii other courses per year. And so, for case, since leaving graduate schoolhouse, I added Race and Ethnicity to my repertoire of courses and developed a offset-year studies class on climatic change. I as well regularly teach Environmental Folklore, Social Movements, and Globalization.

If you lot have limited opportunities to teach during graduate school, you can show that you take teaching seriously in other ways.

For your application to a liberal arts college, prepare a few additional class syllabi for classes you are prepared to teach, even if you accept never taught them. This demonstrates that you are thinking nearly teaching. Additionally, you can attend educational activity related sessions at ASA and indicate that on your CV. If your university has a Preparing Future Faculty Program, participate in the seminars. Find a liberal arts college virtually you and arroyo a kinesthesia member about being a mentor or shadowing them so yous can say that yous have a good understanding of what it means to exist a professor at a liberal arts college. While I was at IU, I shadowed someone from DePauw and went to IU's PFF briefing every year. You should also customize your CV and embrace letters to each school. When applying to liberal arts colleges, be sure you talk nearly teaching first in your cover letter and practise not bury whatever education feel deep in your CV. I normally listing information technology very early on – right after my educational credentials.

Teach well, information technology matters.