Chronicle List

Colleges With the Highest Average Pay for Assistant Professors, 2017-18

By Chronicle Staff

October 6, 2019

Four public doctoral institutions and one public master’s institution paid their assistant professors an average adjusted nine-month salary of more than $100,000 a year in 2017-18. Salaries over $100,000 were more common at private nonprofit doctoral institutions, with all 20 of the highest-paying colleges in that category providing average salaries in the six figures. Among all public institutions that were ranked highest for their average salaries for assistant professors, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign employed the most professors at that rank, with each having more than 600. Of the highest-ranked private nonprofit institutions, Cornell University and Boston University employed the most assistant professors, with each having more than 300. See The Chronicle’s database of faculty salaries to see what faculty members of varying ranks are paid at other institutions.

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Public institutions

Doctoral

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of assistant professors
1.	U. of Texas at Dallas	$111,599	136
2.	U. of California at Berkeley	$107,639	263
3.	U. of California at Los Angeles	$103,811	314
4.	U. of Texas at Austin	$101,404	320
5.	U. of Washington	$99,898	360
6.	U. of California at San Diego	$97,232	251
7.	Rutgers U. at Newark	$96,581	165
8.	U. of California at Irvine	$96,111	177
9.	U. of California at Santa Cruz	$95,296	126
10.	U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	$94,388	263
11.	Georgia Institute of Technology	$94,081	166
12.	U. of Maryland at College Park	$93,998	326
13.	U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor	$93,799	634
14.	U. of California at Davis	$93,574	321
15.	U. of California at Santa Barbara	$92,939	163
16.	U. of Houston	$92,456	254
17.	U. of California at Merced	$92,426	108
18.	U. of Massachusetts at Lowell	$92,393	139
19.	U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	$92,354	601
20.	Colorado School of Mines	$91,377	61
	Median for 212 institutions	$74,598	185

Master’s

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of assistant professors
1.	City U. of New York Bernard M. Baruch College	$109,597	112
2.	U. of Washington at Bothell	$96,686	65
3.	Pennsylvania State U.-Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies	$96,257	14
4.	City U. of New York Hunter College	$87,226	87
5.	California State U. at Fullerton	$86,806	234
6.	City U. of New York Brooklyn College	$86,668	111
7.	San Francisco State U.	$86,107	171
8.	U. of Washington at Tacoma	$85,654	55
9.	San Jose State U.	$85,195	217
10.	City U. of New York Herbert H. Lehman College	$84,947	97
11.	California State U. at Los Angeles	$84,433	151
12.	California State U.-Channel Islands	$84,090	67
13.	City U. of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice	$84,041	87
14.	City U. of New York Queens College	$83,665	89
15.	City U. of New York College of Staten Island	$83,579	90
	Median for 247 institutions	$63,835	73

Baccalaureate

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of assistant professors
1.	City U. of New York, York College	$81,308	43
2.	U.S. Merchant Marine Academy	$78,858	19
3.	U. of New Hampshire at Manchester	$77,941	12
4.	California State U. Maritime Academy	$77,913	18
5.	Pennsylvania State U. at Abington	$77,035	40
	Median for 86 institutions	$59,054	29

Associate and baccalaureate/associate

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of assistant professors
1.	Pennsylvania College of Technology	$92,587	87
2.	City U. of New York Medgar Evers College	$82,910	48
3.	City U. of New York, New York City College of Technology	$82,597	178
4.	Antelope Valley College	$78,654	6
5.	Ohio State U. at Newark	$76,801	11
	Median for 398 institutions	$54,524	21

•••

Private nonprofit institutions

Doctoral

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of assistant professors
1.	U. of Pennsylvania	$130,466	246
2.	Stanford U.	$129,641	221
3.	California Institute of Technology	$128,314	44
4.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	$123,897	164
5.	Harvard U.	$121,950	208
6.	Columbia U.	$118,637	224
7.	Georgetown U.	$115,225	96
8.	U. of Chicago	$115,056	281
9.	Northwestern U.	$114,013	250
10.	Northeastern U.	$112,211	181
11.	Cornell U.	$112,164	341
12.	Washington U. in St. Louis	$110,180	171
13.	Yale U.	$109,530	202
14.	Boston College	$109,323	195
15.	Rice U.	$107,036	105
16.	U. of Notre Dame	$107,025	192
17.	Claremont Graduate U.	$106,117	10
18.	Boston U.	$103,964	321
19.	Princeton U.	$103,703	195
20.	Southern Methodist U.	$103,662	97
	Median for 177 institutions	$72,923	99

Master’s

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of assistant professors
1.	Bentley U.	$117,620	42
2.	Suffolk U.	$107,554	60
3.	New York Institute of Technology	$91,356	71
4.	Keck Graduate Institute	$90,626	20
5.	Saint Mary’s College of California	$88,669	63
6.	Bryant U.	$87,979	13
7.	Saint Joseph’s U. (Pa.)	$87,078	80
8.	Rider U.	$85,399	43
9.	Molloy College	$85,005	70
10.	Fairfield U.	$84,675	84
	Median for 339 institutions	$57,958	34

Baccalaureate

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of assistant professors
1.	Pomona College	$93,674	31
2.	U. of Richmond	$90,999	85
3.	Wesleyan U. (Conn.)	$89,916	74
4.	Barnard College	$89,599	38
5.	Claremont McKenna College	$88,002	51
6.	Wellesley College	$87,731	50
7.	Colgate U.	$86,483	75
8.	Williams College	$85,184	69
9.	Vassar College	$85,040	39
10.	Harvey Mudd College	$84,538	30
	Median for 352 institutions	$54,630	25

Associate and baccalaureate/associate

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of assistant professors
1.	Johnson & Wales U. at Charlotte (N.C.)	$74,884	21
2.	New England Institute of Technology	$56,443	57
3.	Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology	$56,280	12
4.	Dunwoody College of Technology	$54,830	40
5.	Dean College	$53,880	15
	Median for 24 institutions	$48,793	15

Note: Figures are based on data from degree-granting public or private nonprofit institutions in the United States that are eligible to participate in federal Title IV financial-aid programs and that fall into the following 2018 Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education: baccalaureate, master’s, or doctoral for four-year institutions, and associate or baccalaureate/associate for two- and four-year institutions combined. The data, which are current as of November 1, 2017, cover full-time, nonmedical staff members who are engaged primarily in instruction. Salaries are adjusted to a standard nine-month work year. Institutions with fewer than four assistant professors and for-profit institutions are excluded. Questions or comments on the Chronicle List should be sent to Ruth Hammond.

Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data