More likely to land you a job?

Which degree would be more likely to land you a college teaching job: a MA or MLA with 18 credit hours in two disciplines--such as English and History or English and Religion--or an MFA in creative writing?

In giving your opinion, please take into consideration all kinds of college teaching--community college, 4-year college, and adjunct.

 

MFA, without a doubt. An MFA is considered a terminal degree.

An MA in history, English, or religion probably won't open that many doors unless you have some "connections." An MLA would open even fewer. You might be able to adjunct some, but the likelihood of a full-time position is zero at a 4-year college and small for a community college, given the competition from individuals with PhDs.

 

That's what I was thinking, but I was wondering if an MA or MLA might be better, if I could teach in two subject areas.

 

I thought if I went the route of the MAIS or MLA, I might seek a doctorate from South Africa to save cost and maybe time, but even so, I'd still be looking at four years total, at least, as opposed to two for the MFA.

I must admit though that the MFA from National is very tempting in spite of the cost, for the reasons you have already mentioned. But $20,000 is very hard to swallow.

At my age , though -- 56 next month -- I feel I don't have much time to waste. But taking on a $20,000 debt at my age seems not too wise, either.

 

Anyone know what's wrong with UTEP's Creative Writing website? Can't get it to work.

 

Adjunctively yes. If you do not want a full-time position, it might make you more flexible. However, if your goal is to have a full-time position, I would suggest the MFA.

Competitively, a full MA in a subject > 18 hours within an MLA. Unless you have some solid connections or other factors, you may be theoretically able to teach both subjects but actually able to teach neither.

Think of it this way, if you were planning to hire an instructor, which would you prefer...someone with 36 graduate hours in a subject or someone with 18? The pay would be the same in most cases.

Now with the MFA, I would not recommend this degree unless you are truly a "creative writer." Someone with an MFA will be expected to produce in order to maintain a tenure-track position.

I would ask this: what is your purpose in obtaining the degree? As you mention, your age is 56 next month, so full-time positions may not be feasible. If you are getting this credential as a "hobby" or to create the opportunity to teach adjunctively, I highly recommend pursuing the least expensive option.

What areas of experience do you have? If you align your credentials with your experience, you will have the most opportunities.

 

Thanks again Stefan.

You make some very good points, and I will have to ponder them.

I'm not just doing this as a hobby. I need a job, with some security, so it seems like an adjunct position would not provide that. I need to earn enough to make a living, so again I wonder if I could do this as an adjunct.

As for experience, I am a published poet, including a book of self-published poetry. I also write songs.

I taught special education English and math for 12 years, and high school regular English for a year and a half.

I am an ordained independent minister.

I want and need to pursue a degree that will best prepare me to make a living utilizing my interests and talents, as time-efficiently and cost-efficiently as possible. I realize in this case that time-efficiency and cost-efficiency may not go together.

Please comment further, if you will.

 

Well, I called today to talk with the personnel directors and professors at four colleges close to where I live -- two community colleges and two universities. One community college told me that they had never hired anyone with a MFA degree, and the other said that if the course prefixes in the MFA were not designated as "ENG", they probably wouldn't hire either. So it seems that National's MFA in creative writing would not get me a community college teaching job around here.

One cc director's response when I asked about the MAIS and MLA was that these would be acceptable as long as I had 18 credits in one discipline; he said that 36 hours in one subject area would pay a higher starting salary, but that 18 hours in two areas might give me a better chance at getting a job.

One university professor -- head of the English department -- said that he wouldn't even consider hiring anyone with an online degree, MFA or anything else. I was never able to talk with anyone at the other university.

So, it seems the MAIS and MLA would qualify me to teach in community colleges her, but an MFA wouldn't; and an online MFA wouldn't get me anywhere with one university in the area, and I don't know about the other.

I guess what I draw from this is that WNMU's MAIS or Baker's MLA would give me more opps than National's MFA, at least in my locale. With the MAIS and MLA, I would qualify to teach at community colleges and "maybe" at a university, whereas with the MFA, I don't know if I could teach at all in these parts, even though this is a terminal degree!

That's where things stand, for now

 

Hi Michael - Please allow me to contribute to your analysis paralysis. As you know, lot's of teaching jobs are done online these days. Other schools that might be hiring people to teach online courses might have very different attitudes. If you're only interested in teaching jobs where you are standing in a classroom then clearly the opinions of your local schools are most important. However, if you are thinking at all of teaching online then this changes everything, doesn't it?

 

Honestly, I'm not sure that any of these options will quickly achieve this solution.

 

And I would definitely consider online teaching. In fact, Baker U. told me that they would hire adjuncts if they had at least 12 credit hours in a particular subject!

 

What would achieve it then, if I might ask?

 

It might give you opportunities to adjunct or to make some extra money on the side.

Full-time positions are difficult to obtain with only a master's degree, and you have already seen first-hand that a stigma exists for degrees obtained via distance learning.

Even if you could find a job, the pay might not be what you require. In my area, the local community college pays several thousand less for a first-year, MA-credentialed instructor than the local school districts pay for a first-year teacher with only a BA.

You mentioned security. In academia, this means you will want a tenure-track position. This is even harder to obtain with only a master's degree.

If you are unable to relocate, this is even more difficult. Online teaching won't help you here, either. You may be able to adjunct online, but I am not aware of any tenure-track positions teaching online.

 

Yes, I see what you mean.

I had thought and hoped that National's MFA would give me the best chance of getting a full-time job here, but that's not the case.

I don't really know where to go from here. I decided against school counseling, school librarian, and even gifted education because I don't want to stay in public k-12 education. But it seems that my chances of making a living college teaching are slim.

 

If this is truly the case, I would suggest that you avoid getting your degree online. If you want to work in-person at a B&M campus, your chances of a full-time job would be much better if you had a B&M degree. I have researched it to, and the schools I talked to were not at all interested in an online degree holder for a B&M position.

I love online education and I think it's going to continue to improve in stature, but there is still considerable prejudice against it in the B&M world.

 

Unfortunately, in my present circumstances, I don't believe I could get a B&M on-campus degree.

The community colleges I talked with today would accept an on-line degree for teaching purposes; maybe by the time I get the degree, the universities will have come around.

 

Did they say they would take it for full-time teaching purposes? That would be good information to know.

I highly, highly doubt the universities will have come around by that time.

 

Yea, me too. Going in-person is not an option. I'm encouraged that your CC contacts would consider an online degree holder. That gives me some hope too.

 

Yes -- if the degree was RA, which I assured them it would be.

Considering what I found out, if you were in my shoes, would you forget about the MFA and go for the MAIS or MLA?

 

I wonder why cc's are so much more open and accepting of online degrees than universities are?