What kind of money do adjunct Professors make? How is it paid-weekly, by the student(s), etc.? Do you have to have a specific degree like an MBA or a master's in history, etc.? Can you have a generic degree like a professional studies, liberal studies degree? I think that I heard that you must have at least 18 hours in a specific discipline. Give me some information.
There are hundreds of threads here that address those topics. 1. Depends on the school. I have courses that pay $990 and courses that pay $3300. I have schools that pay bi-weekly, monthly, in portions and after the course is done. Most are straight contract but a few are per student. 2. Yes. 3. Maybe. 4. Yes. At least 18 hours. More and more schools are requiring a terminal degree - even for undergraduate positions.
I was hired with a masters degree in 2008, but the school now requires all new applicants to have a doctorate. There are a jillion industry experts who also have doctorates, so there is no short supply of applicants with doctorates.
Also certifications, it is really hard to be able to land an accounting teaching position without a CPA or CMA. The same stands for IT, you should have at least one known certification to grab the attention of the employer. Devry pays around $3200 per 3 credit course but others like the UoP around $1000 bucks for a 3 credit course. Devry is a lot more demanding than UoP as it has high standards and requires you to grade a final exam. The terminal degree seems to be the standard now for an online teaching position. If you don't have the budget to pay 50K+ for a PhD, there are cheaper options with some foreign schools in South Africa and the UK. You can check the forum for information for these options. It is worth mentioning that a lot of people that teach online have PhDs from places in South Africa and the UK.
Not only does it very widely from school-to-school, it even varies widely within individual schools. Expect to be paid somewhere between $1200 and $2400, but there are plenty of exceptions.
Lets just skip to the end: from a compensation perspective, which school pays the most? Thanks, plenty.....
There is a huge crowd-sourced online database of adjunct pay, by school and program, at the Adjunct Project. Browse for yourself. For example, they currently report that University of Phoenix Online pays a median rate of $1,354 for a 3-unit course. Rates vary, from $1,038 in English to $2,012 in Computer Science. For comparison, DeVry Online reportedly pays $2,750 to $2,900. The highest paying adjunct positions, generally in the $6,000 to $10,000 range for a 3-unit course, are typically at well-known B&M universities or liberal arts colleges, not at online schools.
My "best" is King University (Bristol, TN). They pay $6600 for 2 sections of the same course. Course lasts 5 weeks with 20 students in each (for a total of 40 students). My "least" (which will remain unnamed) pays $1000 for 5 weeks with 8 students in each. FWIW, I get $1,440 per 9-week course for UOP and teach their max (as I have for likely 5 years now). It's totally autopilot as there are only 2 real papers in the 9 weeks.