Should I apply to adjunct teaching positions?

[CP3]

To make a long story short, I applied to PhD programs last year, did not get admitted. I'm wondering if I should apply to adjunct teaching positions. I have a Masters degree, which in my field (music) doesn't get you very far. The PhD is required for 90% of jobs in the field.

 

My question is this: Is it even worth applying to adjunct jobs hundreds of miles away? My wife is looking for jobs at the public school level, without any luck. There are few music adjunct jobs out there. Apparently, they don't pay jack. I don't think it's worth it to move multiple states away for a part time teaching position.

 

Any advice from anyone out there in the same boat?

 

FYI, I'm re-applying PhD programs next Fall.

[danieleWrites]

Adjunct jobs don't pay well. You should apply if you want to teach these classes and it's within your financial means to do so. However, if it will cost you more to do the job than you will earn (driving more than 100 miles away, one way, sounds like a bad idea to me), then you're better off not doing that. The caveat has to do with the needs of your particular field. However, it seems that a gap year isn't that big of a deal.

Instead, you can maintain your scholarship by doing music things in your area and keeping up with the research as you work a regular job. Do whatever it is that you do. As an English lit and composition person, I would found or join a writing group, do volunteer literacy work, be a tutor or a teacher in education programs, and so on. I would also continue to write and do what I could to get published as well as reading the journals in my field. Of course, I did live near my former university and had access to the library and its databases, so I could keep up for free. I would also apply to be a substitute teacher with the local school district.

[gr8pumpkin]

I would say no.  Do everything you can to become Supercomposer.  Spend your time that way. 

 

Here's some perspective.  Check out the biographies of composers at University of Alabama.

 

http://music.ua.edu/faculty-staff/

 

These people are eminent.  Eminent.  And the market has determined that their landing spot is at, let's face it, a state university in a location that not all academics would consider desirable.  That's your market.  If you want a tenure-track composition job anywhere at all--- even at the Alabamas of the world--- I would say focus on being Supercomposer and nothing else.  The adjunct job won't pay that much and won't help your resume much.  Spend your time sending Eighth Blackbird a piece every week until they call you back. 

 

ETA: This is not meant as a diss on Alabama.  It's just that in the field of music they're not particularly well-known, and that's the kind of school eminently qualified music PhDs and DMAs wind up teaching.  You have to have a stellar resume just to teach at a school like Alabama.  So I'm definitely coming from the don't-waste-time perspective. 

Edited March 8, 2014 by gr8pumpkin

[juilletmercredi]

No.

Adjunct jobs pay by the class, and the average is $3,000 a class.  A normal full-time courseload at a teaching-heavy institution is 3-4 classes per semester.  Even if you taught 4 classes per semester, you would make $24,000 for the year, with no benefits - probably not even an office.  And that's if you even GET 4 classes per semester.  A lot of people have to work at two or three colleges in order to get that many classes.  There is zero point in moving hundreds of miles away for that, and it won't help you get into PhD programs.  Whatever the equivalent of scholarship is in music is what's going to get you in.

Furthermore - and this is a more structural issue - the more of us there are that are willing to scrape by cobbling together classes to make full-time work, the more universities are willing to exploit us this way.  I know in some cases there are extenuating circumstances and I don't fault people who need to work as full-time adjuncts.  But generally speaking, if no one is willing to work for these crap jobs, universities will have to make them into better jobs.  Adjuncting was never meant to be done full-time.

[Viviennev]

Hi, if you're looking for a job or an internship I recommend you www.strike-jobs.co.uk, there is a special section for teaching positions together with useful tips about work life and how to face an interview.

Hope this helps