What does it take to be a Community College Algebra professor?

brightpromis3

Just as the thread title says, what does it take?
The reason why I am asking this is because I've been a math tutor for the past 2 years and I actually enjoy helping and tutoring students with algebra. Algebra is definitely my strongest subjects that I tutor and people find that I make most of the concepts much clearer and easier to understand. I am actually a Civil Engineering major and completed all the math that is required (Calculus 1,2,3, Differential Equations and Linear Algebra). I plan on minoring in math once I transfer because the minor only requires two more courses at the university. But back to the question, I was wondering if I would be able to teach Algebra even though I will receive a degree in Engineering. Is it possible? What should I do? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

owlpride

I am not an expert on this topic, but I was under the impression that community colleges expect at least a Master's degree in subjects where a Master's degree is available.

Vanadium 50

First, there is a difference between a community college instructor and a community college professor. The former is a low-paid, often part-time position, and the latter is full-time, tenure track, and somewhat less poorly paid: but much harder to get. The local community college has one physics professor (the department head) and 9 instructors. In mathematics the department is larger, but they have many, many part timers: virtually all are local high school teachers looking to supplement their income by teaching a class at night.

Professors require a PhD. Most, if not all, instructors have a MA/MS.

eri

Community colleges require at least a masters degree to teach. You don't necessarily need a masters degree in math to teach math, but you DO need a minimum number of credits in math at the masters level to teach anything above remedial math courses at the college level. Not all people with masters degrees are teaching part-time at community colleges - both my aunt and uncle teach at a large CC in NY, and they're both tenured professors with only masters degrees in their fields (and they're making more than some of the professors at my state university).

mrb

I don't think this is quite true. Maybe it's different in different areas. I know a couple people who were teaching math part time at a community college but who were in school to get a master's because they needed it to teach full time (and they subsequently couldn't hack the basic classical analysis course and dropped it; reach whatever conclusions you wish).

eri

OK, I'll rephrase. A community college will expect a masters degree or more to be hired full-time, but many will hire you as an adjunct after completing a certain amount of masters coursework in the field you want to teach. But the ones in my area (which admittedly have rather low standards) still expect at least a year of masters coursework before they'll consider you as an adjunct.