Hello everyone! I’m a new poster on this forum, but I’ve been following it for some time now, and have found it helpful. I have a quick question about masters programs for all you who teach at community colleges and online schools. Currently, I want to get either a MA in Communication (to teach speech, interpersonal communication, etc.) or History. Ideally though, I would like to teach both subjects, and so I am strongly considering getting a whole MA in one subject and getting 18 credits in another. The drawback to this plan is that I would have to spend extra time and money just to get to teach both. However, I have recently come across a whole masters degree that allows you to get 21 credits in History plus an additional 15 credits in another area (I would pick Communication). If I took just one extra class in the additional area, I would have the credits needed to teach both subjects in the time it takes to get just one MA. However, this particular MA is called a Master of Arts in Education, not History or Communication. However, as I said, it would actually be History or Communication classes that I’d be taking, not Education classes (weird, in my opinion). I was wondering if this would be any sort of drawback when I actually go to apply to community colleges or online colleges. Would they care if my degree is called an MA in Education when the actual courses I took, and would teach, are in a different subject? Would it be better for me to get a whole MA specifically designated as either History or Communication? Does the title of the MA really matter all that much, or do they look just the courses taken? Sorry about the long post! I hope I’m being clear, and that this isn’t a silly question, but I’m new to this whole thing. Thanks in advance for your help!
I'm far from an expert on this, but I can tell you about my experience. I teach traditional classes for our community college. The ONLY thing they cared about was my credits. My MS is in Education, but I have a bunch of credits outside of that. Sure, they're a part of a second masters program, but the people at the college only looked at the courses and their prefixes. They didn't look at what kind of program they were a part of. I do remember some exceptions to this though. I was going to be teaching a political science class, PLS 211-212. They told me I needed 18 hours in political science. They informed me, and actually warned me, NOT to take public policy classes because they stated this was a different discipline. However, then they made a comment about how a public policy class would actually count IF it were a required part of a political science program. So in that regard, they were considering the program, but mostly it was just the credits. -Matt
What are the prefixes of the courses -- HIS and COM or EDU? If they're EDU then it won't wash in most regionally accredited schools. I think it's stupid but they go by course prefix not course name. Case in point -- I got my additional 18 hours in one subject through a graduate independent study program and all the courses were things like "teaching sociology in elementary school" or "teaching writing in high school" yet the prefixes of the courses were SOC508 and ENG610 or LIT580. I also had a few English courses that fell under the EDU prefixes so those didn't count for anything at all. Yet those other courses counted because they had the right prefix. Stay away from EDU courses because they are a waste of time and money if you want to teach at the college level. I know because I have a MSEd and have taken additional grad credits (18 each) in several other subject areas. I sure wish I'd gotten a masters in a subject area and then added a few courses in other subject areas. Would have been a lot cheaper and far less time consuming doing it that way!
Okay, I have a master of administrative science degree, which is the management equivalent of an MBA. Like the MBA, it is somewhat general, but all of the credits have the same prefix, which is MAS. The subjects are: Theory & Practice of Administration, Organizational Decision-Making, Marketing, Leadership, Strategic Management, Human Resources Systems, Planning and Program Development, Managing Organizational Change, etc. Will these likely be accepted as one subject, since the prefix is the same?
Don't bother with history would be my advice, the job market for adjuncts is one of the worst, let alone full time positions.
What about this study http://www.careercast.com/jobs/content/JobsRated_Methodology that puts Historian in the top 10 careers in the US?
HAHAHA.... These people obviously have no idea of the job market for historians. Even BAs in history (which you actually can not be a historian with, as you need at least a MA to get a job) don't have a 29% hire rate in history related professions. The hire rate is closer to 2% for all history related jobs. Also, the pay is off significantly. 65k is at least assistant professor level, that is a PhD (99% of the times) plus tenure! Starting salaries are much lower. Yes there are a few exceptions, but in reality there are no jobs in history. I mean, even the government won't hire a historian without at least a masters degree, so the ratio of time spent working on degrees to future income is pretty pathetic. So, I am not sure where this site got their info, but historian is only a rewarding career if you get the job, since there are an over abundance of unemployed historians (estimated 1000+ PhDs unemployed) it is way too hard to a career to get into to be viable for someone just starting out.
