Are All College Teachers Professors? (Answered)

College life may be very interesting for you but the confusion never ends. When you get to college you will be in doubt about what subjects to take, who are your professors, where are your classes, etc. One thing that most of us are not sure about is the difference between college teachers and professors. Therefore to help you out with it, here we will be discussing whether are all college teachers professors or not.

Quick Takeaways

• When you are in college there are a lot of different positions like professor, assistant professor, college teacher, etc.
• The college teachers are not known as the professors.
• The main difference between both of them is that the college teacher will only teach the students. Whereas, college professors will also perform a lot of different roles like visiting officers, research associates, etc.

To get a better understanding of are college teachers call professors you must read till the end. 

Are All College Teachers Professors?

Everyone believes that college teachers are also known as college professors. But in reality, it is not true as there is a big difference between both of them. There are a lot of teaching roles in the colleges like instructors, research associates, lecturers, assistant professors,  etc. All these roles including adjunct professors and even the individuals who hold Doctor titles are known as college teachers. But not all college teachers are professors just like not all professors are doctors. Also, the duties of college teachers are generally much lower than the duties of college professors. Further, we have discussed the difference between a college teacher and a professor for your better understanding. 

What are the duties of a college teacher?

The following are the duties that you need to perform as a college teacher-

• The biggest duty of a college teacher is simply to lecture the college students. 
• Generally, the college teachers will teach you for lower division classes.
• You will be more involved in teaching than in research work or postgraduate teaching. 

What are the duties of a college professor?

The following are the duties of your college professor-

• You will be lecturing the college classes. 
• As a college professor, you will be involved in the research work. 
• You will also become a visiting professor for other colleges.
• Being a college professor you can get into a higher administration position like Chancellor, Vice-chancellor, Dean of faculty, registrar, etc. However, as a college teacher, you will not be able to get into this position.

What is an academic rank in a college?

Academic rank shows the importance of you and your power in the set-up of an institution. The academic ranking of each of the colleges is different for each of the countries. This ranking helps to give the responsibility to you based on your position. Although the ranking system is different for all the colleges some of the common ranks that you can see in all of the colleges are Professors, Associate professors, assistant professors, Chancellor, etc.

What is the salary of a college professor?

How much a professor is paid varies with a lot of factors like area of living, type of institution, rank you are at, etc. Usually, the salary that you will get for private institutions is around $137,000 and for a public institution is around $129,000. It will also depend upon the different levels you are studying. The following tables will help you to understand the average salary you get for different levels for different types of institutions –

LEVEL	PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
Professor	$140,426
Associate Professor	$101,941
Assistant Professor	$87,287
Instructor	$62,538
Lecturer	$68,781
No rank	$68,480
Combined	$103,043

LEVEL	PRIVATE INSTITUTION
Professor	$188,375
Associate Professor	$115,557
Assistant Professor	$100,610
Instructor	$76,925
Lecturer	$90,251
No rank	$72,438
Combined	$132,225

To know more about how much a college professor is paid you must refer to this guide. 

How to become a college teacher?

To become a college teacher you will need to follow the given steps-

• You must try to get a bachelor’s degree in the subject you want to teach the students.
• Try getting a further education through a master’s degree in the areas which is required to become a faculty member in many universities. 
• If you want to get hired as a full-time lecturer you may need to have a PhD which will help to show your area of specialization. It is one of the most important requirements to become a college teacher.

How to become a college professor?

To become a college professor you will need to have the following things-

• You must have better grades starting from high school. 
• You must be able to teach during the holidays and in your spare time. 
• Select the major you are interested in teaching.
• When you are an undergraduate you must have good grades.
• Try getting in contact with other professors who are in the area of your interest.
• You must try to research and publish some articles to boost your CV. 
• Go to graduate school by taking up necessary exams including the GRE.
• Get good grades in your grad school and complete your master’s thesis.
• After completing the graduation school apply for for teaching assistant roles. 
• Get into the PhD and complete it by publishing your own research projects. 
• Complete your Ph.D. thesis and finally apply for the full teaching roles in the college you want to teach. 

Can you become a college teacher with a bachelor’s degree?

As a college teacher is a lower rank than a college professor you can easily get a college teacher role just after the bachelor’s degree program. However, if you are thinking of becoming a college professor with a bachelor’s degree, then it is hard for you to become a college professor. You will need to have a master’s degree to become a college professor.

Conclusion

Being in a college, you must be confused on ‘are all college teachers called professors or not. The simple answer to it is that college teachers are not known as professors. It is simply because most of college teachers will only be giving lectures to the students. Whereas if we talk about college professors, they perform a lot of different activities along with teaching the students. They will also be going as a visiting professor to other institutions. There are a lot of academic ranks in the college which may be different for each of the colleges and the area of living. Also, you must remember that the full-time professor earns more than the other professors.

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