Colleges With the Highest Average Pay for Full Professors, 2015-16

Public institutions that paid their full professors the most in 2015-16 tended to be in states with high costs of living: California was the top location for high-paying doctoral institutions, and New York for master’s and associate institutions. Public baccalaureate institutions did not follow the same pattern. Half of the institutions on that top-20 list were in Pennsylvania, where the cost of living is in the middle range. In contrast to public institutions, the nonprofit and for-profit institutions that paid their full professors the highest average salaries were geographically scattered.

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Public institutions

Doctoral

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	U. of California at Los Angeles	$184,509	1,038
2.	U. of California at Berkeley	$175,617	876
3.	U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor	$162,846	1,144
4.	U. of California at Santa Barbara	$160,830	511
5.	U. of California at Irvine	$159,678	546
6.	U. of Virginia	$159,066	564
7.	U. of California at San Diego	$156,672	593
8.	New Jersey Institute of Technology	$156,249	130
9.	U. of Texas at Dallas	$155,808	234
10.	Rutgers U. at Newark	$151,587	181
11.	U. of Connecticut	$150,318	491
12.	U. of Maryland at College Park	$149,328	691
13.	U. of California at Merced	$148,014	44
14.	U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	$147,816	503
15.	Pennsylvania State U. at University Park	$146,466	812
16.	U. of Texas at Austin	$146,430	980
17.	U. of California at Santa Cruz	$145,017	290
18.	U. of Delaware	$144,972	384
19.	U. of California at Riverside	$144,963	316
20.	U. of Massachusetts at Amherst	$144,864	458

Master’s

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Pennsylvania State U.-Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies	$141,399	7
2.	U. of Baltimore	$137,304	55
3.	Rutgers U. at Camden	$130,050	103
4.	U. of South Florida-Sarasota/Manatee	$127,719	5
5.	U. of Washington at Bothell	$125,415	25
6.	City U. of New York Bernard M. Baruch College	$121,698	203
7.	City College of City U. of New York	$121,563	242
8.	U. of South Florida at St. Petersburg	$121,095	29
9.	Ramapo College of New Jersey	$119,862	70
10.	Arizona State U.-Polytechnic	$118,728	30
11.	Arizona State U.-West	$118,404	31
12.	Pennsylvania State U.-Harrisburg	$117,279	34
13.	Fashion Institute of Technology	$117,153	53
14.	State U. of New York Institute of Technology at Utica-Rome	$116,874	31
15.	U. of Washington at Tacoma	$116,559	31
16.	William Paterson U. of New Jersey	$114,192	169
17.	U. of Michigan at Flint	$113,904	39
18.	City U. of New York Hunter College	$113,661	299
19.	City U. of New York Herbert H. Lehman College	$113,625	95
20.	City U. of New York Queens College	$112,995	212

Baccalaureate

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Pennsylvania State U. at Erie	$126,009	26
2.	Pennsylvania State U.-Schuylkill	$121,302	6
3.	U.S. Merchant Marine Academy	$117,045	30
4.	U. of New Hampshire at Manchester	$115,335	6
5.	U.S. Naval Academy	$114,219	159
6.	U.S. Military Academy	$113,571	42
7.	City U. of New York Medgar Evers College	$112,194	52
8.	City U. of New York, New York City College of Technology	$108,450	63
9.	Cheyney U. of Pennsylvania	$106,776	17
10.	Pennsylvania State U.-Brandywine	$106,704	12
11.	Pennsylvania State U.-Beaver	$106,569	4
12.	Nevada State College	$105,786	4
13.	Pennsylvania State U. at Altoona	$105,408	24
14.	Pennsylvania State U.-Worthington-Scranton	$104,706	4
15.	Pennsylvania State U. at York	$104,697	7
16.	Ohio State U. at Lima	$103,806	11
17.	City U. of New York York College	$103,680	44
18.	Pennsylvania State U. at Abington	$102,717	14
19.	Pennsylvania State U.-Berks	$99,153	21
20.	Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts	$98,523	38

Associate and baccalaureate/associate

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	College of DuPage	$121,590	138
2.	Suffolk County Community College Central Administration	$115,857	119
3.	Elgin Community College	$115,317	56
4.	Pennsylvania College of Technology	$113,580	11
5.	Nassau Community College	$112,230	170
6.	City Colleges of Chicago, Harry S. Truman College	$110,403	4
7.	Rockland Community College	$109,152	39
8.	Passaic County Community College	$108,117	10
9.	City U. of New York-Queensborough Community College	$107,802	68
10.	Harper College	$107,496	57
11.	Westchester Community College	$106,101	56
12.	City U. of New York Borough of Manhattan Community College	$105,570	107
13.	Middlesex County College	$105,309	37
14.	City Colleges of Chicago, Richard J. Daley College	$104,778	4
15.	Hostos Community College-City U. of New York	$104,463	37
16.	Miami U. at Hamilton	$103,752	12
17.	City U. of New York La Guardia Community College	$103,554	89
18.	City U. of New York Bronx Community College	$103,275	74
19.	Oakton Community College	$101,331	105
20.	City U. of New York Kingsborough Community College	$101,214	72

Private nonprofit institutions

Doctoral

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Harvard U.	$230,292	996
2.	Stanford U.	$227,259	689
3.	U. of Chicago	$225,729	595
4.	Columbia U.	$209,475	747
5.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	$204,138	643
6.	U. of Pennsylvania	$201,978	602
7.	Princeton U.	$200,403	478
8.	Yale U.	$198,369	586
9.	New York U.	$195,939	861
10.	California Institute of Technology	$193,941	237
11.	Northwestern U.	$192,897	604
12.	Duke U.	$187,731	632
13.	Georgetown U.	$186,750	309
14.	Rice U.	$185,247	305
15.	Vanderbilt U.	$179,172	383
16.	Washington U. in St. Louis	$175,734	369
17.	Dartmouth College	$175,239	242
18.	Boston College	$173,979	270
19.	Teachers College, Columbia U.	$172,746	79
20.	U. of Notre Dame	$171,135	421

Master’s

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Bentley U.	$158,364	85
2.	Bryant U.	$157,509	71
3.	Santa Clara U.	$155,511	153
4.	Chapman U.	$138,096	127
5.	U. of New Haven	$125,676	49
6.	Loyola U. Maryland	$125,388	85
7.	New York Institute of Technology at Old Westbury	$125,352	68
8.	Quinnipiac U.	$124,587	116
9.	Union Graduate College	$124,245	4
10.	Touro College (N.Y.)	$123,588	44
11.	Roger Williams U.	$121,608	93
12.	Fairfield U.	$121,077	73
13.	St. Mary’s U.	$121,005	89
14.	Emerson College	$120,240	28
15.	Stetson U.	$120,222	115
16.	Keck Graduate Institute	$119,133	19
17.	Trinity U.	$118,368	84
18.	Loyola Marymount U.	$117,252	223
19.	National U.	$116,838	102
20.	Seattle U.	$116,064	90

Baccalaureate

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Claremont McKenna College	$158,985	62
2.	Barnard College	$158,418	83
3.	U. of Richmond	$156,789	117
4.	Washington and Lee U.	$151,002	103
5.	Pomona College	$150,408	78
6.	Wellesley College	$149,940	108
7.	Amherst College	$149,760	93
8.	Swarthmore College	$146,601	92
9.	Wesleyan U. (Conn.)	$145,836	120
10.	Harvey Mudd College	$143,271	51
11.	Colgate U.	$141,219	105
12.	Bowdoin College	$139,032	65
13.	Williams College	$138,294	141
14.	Colby College	$137,187	69
15.	Lafayette College	$135,558	73
16.	Smith College	$134,811	160
17.	Hamilton College (N.Y.)	$134,271	88
18.	Scripps College	$133,407	33
19.	Vassar College	$133,083	94
20.	Bryn Mawr College	$132,669	57

Associate and baccalaureate/associate

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology	$102,636	12
2.	Johnson & Wales U. at Denver	$99,126	4
3.	Johnson & Wales U. at Charlotte (N.C.)	$98,046	14
4.	Mount Aloysius College	$71,856	7
5.	Landmark College	$69,210	9
6.	New England Institute of Technology	$67,860	14
7.	U. of Rio Grande	$64,467	16
8.	Cottey College	$62,964	12
9.	Florida College	$62,937	34
10.	Louisburg College	$59,931	5
11.	Baker College of Flint	$56,727	4
12.	U. of Northwestern Ohio	$55,656	5
13.	Delaware College of Art and Design	$55,188	5
14.	Harcum College	$53,721	8
15.	Boricua College	$52,893	6
16.	Manor College	$50,724	14
17.	Lackawanna College	$50,202	10
18.	Villa Maria College of Buffalo	$38,286	6
19.	Bacone College	$37,683	4
20.	Grace Bible College	$37,665	7

For-profit institutions

Doctoral

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Alliant International U. at San Diego	$97,254	58
2.	Grand Canyon U.	$75,474	8
3.	Argosy U. at Chicago	$71,037	5
4.	Argosy U. at Atlanta	$65,088	8

Master’s

	Master’s
Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Post U.	$91,521	4
2.	South College (Tenn.)	$86,652	10
3.	DeVry U. of New Jersey	$77,607	18
4.	Herzing U. at Madison (Wis.)	$76,770	13
5.	Ashford U.	$74,781	10
6.	DeVry U. of Ohio	$72,009	15
7.	DeVry U. of Arizona	$69,588	17
8.	DeVry U. of Texas	$68,553	25
9.	DeVry U. of Illinois	$67,734	118
10.	DeVry U. of Georgia	$66,474	18
11.	DeVry U. of Pennsylvania	$65,646	4
12.	DeVry U. of California	$64,368	43
13.	DeVry U. of Missouri	$63,414	4
14.	DeVry U. of Florida	$62,865	15
15.	American Public U. system	$54,045	49
16.	Sullivan U.	$51,642	16
17.	Full Sail U.	$44,766	464
18.	Bob Jones U.	$42,534	64
19.	Salem International U.	$33,390	8

Baccalaureate

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	DigiPen Institute of Technology	$82,377	8
2.	Herzing U. at Atlanta	$80,550	5
3.	Five Towns College	$58,680	6
4.	Waldorf College	$54,729	8
5.	Central Penn College	$47,529	37

Associate and baccalaureate/associate

Rank	Institution	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Akron Institute of Herzing U.	$79,497	4
2.	Herzing U. at Kenosha (Wis.)	$63,882	10
3.	ECPI College of Technology	$62,910	20
4.	College of Westchester (N.Y.)	$59,166	6
5.	Wade College Dallas Market Center	$42,534	7
6.	Long Island Business Institute	$33,660	31
7.	Madison Media Institute-Rockford Career College	$33,606	23
8.	Eastwick College at Hackensack (N.J.)	$29,583	4
9.	Hohokus School-RETS Nutley	$26,595	5
10.	Taylor Business Institute (Ill.)	$21,744	7

Note: Figures are based on data from all Title IV-participating, degree-granting institutions in the United States. The data cover full-time, nonmedical instructional staff (who are either engaged primarily in instruction or are engaged in instruction combined with research and/or public service) as of November 1, 2015. The salaries are adjusted to a standard nine-month work year. Institutions with fewer than four full professors are excluded. Categories are based on the 2015 Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education. For categories in which a limited number of institutions employ full-time professors, fewer than 20 institutions are listed. See The Chronicle’s complete database of faculty salaries at data.chronicle.com.

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