Sunday, August 8, 2010

I dream of an adjunct position...but I need some other ideas in case it doesn't pan out

So, I have a great part-time morning gig set up for the Fall, but I know that I need more money. I have loans to pay off and a family to feed. I just applied for an adjunct position that will likely not materialize. I am currently working a job in the evenings, which I cannot continue come Fall. What else can I do to bring in the dough? (I have an M.S. in Math and live in a rural part of the country). I would appreciate any suggestions.

Mathsquatch out.

10 comments:

  1. My first thought: Online adjuncting. It's a bit like selling your soul to the devil, but the money's pretty good relative to other adjunct gigs, and it doesn't matter that you live in a rural area. It's not the worst way to bide your time while you wait for better opportunities.

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  2. I do not live in an affluent town, but before I got a full time job, I used to make good money (relatively speaking) as a tutor for the public schools. You are supposed to have a secondary education certification, but they never have enough people with that willing to do it (or they did not 7+ years ago). It would not hurt to inquire with the Board of Ed for all the towns in your area. Once I became a regular, I tutored students in almost every subject (except Science and Math---but they tried to get me to do that too because it is more convenient to have the same tutor teach all the subjects the student needs). When I started with that, I had this pipe dream I'd be working with some wonderful student who wanted to learn but had a broken leg or something. Be forewarned: it was not like that at all. I worked almost exclusively with kids who had been expelled for the year (snowflakes on steroids).

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  3. Dude seriously. You can pull in about an extra grand a month by working 5-10 hours a week from home teaching/tutoring for online "universities." Avoid University of Phoenix (they have a 6 month unpaid training period and no guarantee of assigned classes) but everything from Grantham to Concordia to Kaplan needs maths people in this season.

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  4. Can anyone list the more "reputable"/reliable online colleges and Universities at which to work?

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  5. Lots of regular colleges offer courses that are entirely online now, so I'm sure you could look in standard college job listings. I work at a private uni on the East Coast, and we've had several proffies teach courses for us from places as far as Australia.

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  6. Reputable online univeristy - only one I've found that has full accreditation (ie: your diploma won't be a $25K piece of toilet paper) is Capella. Don't know if they do the maths.

    Um, it would suck, but high-school?? If you got a Perkins loan and agree to work in a rural or inner-city high-school for a set amount of time, the government completely wipes the loan out - pays it for you.

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  7. Many high schools (at least in my local areas) now demand a teaching certificate to even sub (thank you, nepotists & political hires!).

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  8. Private tutoring. Tout your attributes on Craigslist, and charge whatever other tutors in your area seem to be charging. This might be $10 an hour, or it might be $100 (depending on the local economy), and you'll end up primarily helping kids with their homework, but it's a good way to convert hours to dollars.

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  9. I know that most of you who gave ideas are probably not reading the comments on this post anymore, but I wanted to let you all know that I found a part-time tutoring gig to bring in the extra money. Thanks for all of your advice.

    Mathsquatch out.

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