Customer Reviews

How to Survive as an Adjunct Lecturer

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I loved this book! Dr. Carroll offers a refreshingly alternative point of view regarding careers in academia and provides the reader with clear-cut examples of successful employement strategies.
The thesis of the book is that being an adjunct lecturer need not be just a stepping stone on the way to a life of tenure, but rather, being an adjunct can be a successful and rewarding lifestyle in and of itself. Dr. Carroll views the adjunct lecturer as a free-lance consultant, like any other business consultant, and offers clear-cut advice on what to expect in academia and how to make it work. The examples in the book provide sample workloads and typical incomes and, especially helpful,candid discussions of the academic working environment and the types of attitudes which can be expected from others. The book also discusses the relative pros and cons of both adjunct and tenure track positions.
This book should be required reading for all graduate students pursuing advanced degrees as well as for anyone currently in the field of higher education. It lays out a simple yet effective strategy for crafting a successful lifestyle as an adjunct without the usual dire predictions for meager employement opportunities in higher education. Kudos to Dr. Carroll for thinking outside the Ivory Tower!

Wow, what a disappointment. I'm an adjunct teacher and have an interest in the economics of higher ed and would like to retire from my day job and teach part-time in the future.

Weighing in at a very stretched 109 pages, this would have made a so-so magazine column. Entire chapters could be summed up in 1 sentence. Chapter 1 - Adjuncts are cost-effectice resources for colleges, don't expect to get rich. Chapter 2 - laughingly called "The Entrepenuerial Model", can be summed up as: "You'll get paid less than full-time prof without benefits, so you'll have to teach more courses".

Glaring omissions include:
*Useful CV preparation tips, query letters.
*Any reference to online adjunct positions.
*Anything related to an "Entrepenuerial Model", such as tax strategies, LLC setup, etc.
*Any type of listing of colleges likely to hire adjuncts in specific areas.
*The salary "information" was a good laugh. "Nearly 70% of adjuncts earn over $2,001 per course". Then a TABLE showing that if you teach 5 classes at $2,500, that makes $12,500. 9 courses would be $22,500. Yes, it is that bad. Not one number showing what any real university pays at any point in time for any type of course.

Don't bother. A couple internet searches will yield better results.

This book is little more than a defense of the adjunct job market against charges of exploitation. It would make a fine magazine article, but it's much too thin to be worth a book.
I wanted concrete advice from this book: how to tailor my cv for adjunct positions, the differences between community colleges and universities, whether adjuncting is a viable option for parents of young children. I got none of that information, just some basic tips on recycling class plans and remedial money managment.
My advice: read Jill Carroll's columns in the Chronicle of Higher Education instead. You can get them for free online, and they are much more detailed and informative than this disappointing book.

I have met Dr. Carroll in Houston, and read her essays on surviving as an adjunct college instructor in The Chronicle of Higher Education. That a book such as this should even have been published speaks to the catastrophic educational situation in train at the moment, with half the American college courses now being taught for less than $3,000 a course by hapless individuals with no offices, no telephones, no job security, and no respect from the administrators who exploit them. They are being ripped off, and so are the students they "teach." This book attempts to rationalize a terrible situation about which the press says nothing and over-paid administrators carefully cover up. I hope this book sold well; Dr. Carroll and others like her need the money.