Which Colleges Pay Full Professors the Most?

Many of the public doctoral institutions that paid their full professors the most in 2016-17 were in cities known for their high costs of living, but others, like the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Virginia, were not. More than half the public institutions that paid their full professors the highest average salaries were in Pennsylvania, California, and New York. In contrast, the private nonprofit institutions that paid the most were more geographically scattered.

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Public institutions

Rank	Doctoral institutions	Salary	Number of professors
1.	U. of California at Los Angeles	$192,310	1,054
2.	U. of California at Berkeley	$181,996	867
3.	U. of California at Santa Barbara	$169,424	521
4.	U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor	$167,364	1,157
5.	U. of Virginia	$165,319	564
6.	U. of California at Irvine	$165,102	566
7.	U. of California at San Diego	$162,410	606
8.	New Jersey Institute of Technology	$160,468	133
9.	U. of Texas at Dallas	$159,642	235
10.	Rutgers U. at Newark	$159,247	183
11.	U. of Maryland at College Park	$154,774	713
12.	U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	$152,088	604
13.	U. of California at Riverside	$151,687	323
14.	U. of California at Santa Cruz	$151,453	286
15.	U. of California at Davis	$150,951	812
16.	U. of Massachusetts at Amherst	$150,082	454
17.	U. of California at Merced	$149,099	49
18.	U. of Connecticut	$148,599	489
19.	Pennsylvania State U. at University Park	$148,316	895
20.	U. of Houston	$147,941	395

Rank	Master’s institutions	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Pennsylvania State U.-Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies	$141,452	7
2.	U. of Baltimore	$137,051	50
3.	Rutgers U. at Camden	$135,185	104
4.	U. of South Florida-Sarasota/Manatee	$127,720	5
5.	U. of Washington at Bothell	$123,222	30
6.	City U. of New York Bernard M. Baruch College	$121,620	201
7.	Arizona State U.-West	$121,241	34
8.	City College of City U. of New York	$120,878	239
9.	U. of Washington at Tacoma	$120,536	40
10.	Arizona State U.-Polytechnic	$119,390	28
11.	U. of South Florida at St. Petersburg	$117,219	30
12.	Pennsylvania State U.-Harrisburg	$115,949	29
13.	City U. of New York Hunter College	$114,180	287
14.	U. of Michigan at Flint	$113,963	42
15.	City U. of New York Queens College	$113,345	213

Rank	Baccalaureate institutions	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Pennsylvania State U. at Erie	$125,671	30
2.	Pennsylvania State U.-Schuylkill	$125,618	5
3.	U.S. Merchant Marine Academy	$116,544	30
4.	City U. of New York Medgar Evers College	$112,833	52
5.	Pennsylvania State U. at Abington	$110,450	16
6.	U. of New Hampshire at Manchester	$110,268	4
7.	Cheyney U. of Pennsylvania	$109,013	18
8.	Pennsylvania State U.-New Kensington	$108,797	4
9.	Pennsylvania State U.-Beaver	$108,788	4
10.	Pennsylvania State U.-Brandywine	$108,622	13

Rank	Associate and baccalaureate/associate institutions	Salary	Number of professors
1.	College of DuPage	$124,512	132
2.	Elgin Community College	$118,099	55
3.	Pennsylvania College of Technology	$117,319	11
4.	Nassau Community College	$112,400	152
5.	Miami U. at Hamilton (Ohio)	$111,708	9
6.	Harper College	$110,153	57

•••

Private nonprofit institutions

Rank	Doctoral institutions	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Stanford U.	$234,549	690
2.	U. of Chicago	$224,812	598
3.	Harvard U.	$221,379	1,013
4.	Yale U.	$216,187	608
5.	Columbia U.	$215,094	782
6.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	$213,749	645
7.	U. of Pennsylvania	$209,219	608
8.	Princeton U.	$206,498	476
9.	Northwestern U.	$200,265	603
10.	California Institute of Technology	$198,916	243
11.	Georgetown U.	$194,903	316
12.	New York U.	$190,918	844
13.	Rice U.	$189,162	310
14.	Duke U.	$188,200	654
15.	Dartmouth College	$186,973	247
16.	Washington U. in St. Louis	$180,210	386
17.	Boston College	$177,855	281
18.	Vanderbilt U.	$177,005	389
19.	Teachers College, Columbia U.	$176,518	84
20.	Brown U.	$175,821	380

Rank	Master’s institutions	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Bentley U.	$165,055	83
2.	Santa Clara U.	$157,047	153
3.	Chapman U.	$138,779	148
4.	U. of New Haven	$132,537	49
5.	Quinnipiac U.	$127,711	114
6.	Loyola Marymount U.	$126,440	230
7.	Loyola U. Maryland	$125,966	87
8.	Roger Williams U.	$125,874	97
9.	New York Institute of Technology	$125,763	70
10.	Fairfield U.	$123,404	76
11.	Saint Joseph’s U. (Pa.)	$122,814	68
12.	Stetson U.	$122,766	111
13.	Trinity U.	$122,206	87
14.	St. Mary’s U. (Tex.)	$121,831	90
15.	Bryant U.	$121,647	70

Rank	Baccalaureate institutions	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Barnard College	$164,034	85
2.	Claremont McKenna College	$161,447	64
3.	U. of Richmond	$160,473	116
4.	Pomona College	$154,160	81
5.	Amherst College	$151,598	94
6.	Wellesley College	$151,049	112
7.	Washington and Lee U.	$149,803	112
8.	Wesleyan U. (Conn.)	$149,445	121
9.	Swarthmore College	$149,305	92
10.	Harvey Mudd College	$148,052	51

Rank	Associate and baccalaureate/associate institutions	Salary	Number of professors
1.	Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology	$105,718	12
2.	Johnson & Wales U. at Denver	$102,100	4
3.	Johnson & Wales U. at Charlotte (N.C.)	$97,907	19
4.	Mount Aloysius College	$72,237	11
5.	New England Institute of Technology	$70,050	12

Note: Figures are based on data from all public or private nonprofit Title IV-participating, degree-granting institutions in the United States. The data, which are current as of November 1, 2016, cover full-time, nonmedical staff who are engaged primarily in instruction. The salaries are adjusted to a standard nine-month work year. Institutions with fewer than four full professors and for-profit institutions are excluded. Categories are based on the 2015 Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education. See The Chronicle’s complete database of faculty salaries.

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