Elite LACs

[lookielou]

A couple of posters on the Williams College VAP thread expressed interest in getting a discussion going about elite liberal arts colleges (LACs), such as Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Wellesley, Wesleyan, etc. I'm going to use the term "elite LAC" instead of SLAC, which some use in reference to selective and small LACs; the latter may not use "selective" criteria in admitting students.

FWIW, U.S. News rankings are available here: colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges

If you have a job at an elite LAC, what qualifications would you say helped you land your position? What advice would you give to those interested in working at an elite LAC? If you have your sights set on getting a job at this type of institution, what have you done to prepare yourself and your job application materials to indicate your suitability for an elite LAC?

Is getting an undergraduate degree from an elite LAC a requirement for getting a gig at an elite LAC?

Do VAP gigs at these places ever turn into tenure-track jobs?

If you're at an elite LAC and want to disabuse me of my starry-eyed dreams, please feel free to do so. Talk about service, student advising, and internal politics all you want.

Personally, I'm interested in working with motivated students at a place like an elite LAC because I have found working in a TT job at a top 50 R1 with unmotivated students to be soul crushing and unsatisfying.

[elacer]

Getting a job at an elite LAC, just like any LAC, is first and foremost about fit. These are small departments and they have needs which aren't very fudge-able. So if the ad says qualitative methods and you do quant, it's very unlikely you're getting to get interviewed.

Beyond that, elite LACs are also going to be concerned about your research, both what you have done and what you're planning to do. They want you to be a serious scholar and a serious teacher. So you're going to need publications. But you don't need 10 of them, and they certainly don't need to be at ASR/AJS. Good specialty journals and solid regional journals will get your CV's foot in the door. Being able to involve students in your research is a plus.

And you need to demonstrate competence and enthusiasm for teaching. As we all know, hiring is time consuming and expensive. They don't want to hire someone who's going to leave in a year or two. So they'll look for someone who knows what they're getting into and is committed to undergraduate education. Having gone to a LAC of any rank can help with that, as can having taught courses in grad school, being involved in mentoring students or training them as RAs, etc. You don't need to have taught a course every semester for the last five years by yourself, but you would need to demonstrate that you know how to teach.

These can be great jobs if you get them. The pay is generally good (equivalent to R1s), the research demands are meetable, and the students smart. On the downside, these schools will need you involved in governance, service, etc., from day one which can eat up time you'd otherwise devote to service. The students, while more like first year grad students than the average undergrad, can get demanding in terms of letters of rec (they apply for everything), thesis advising, etc. In short, you're going to have less time for your own stuff. Also on the downside is that there is just less scholarship going on, period. This means that there won't be as vibrant an intellectual culture as at an R1 and conversations tend to focus on teaching.

So there's a cost-benefit analysis. On the one hand you get a less stressful job with good salary, on the other you take a prestige and productivity cut. Either way, you're going to have to be sure that you enjoy undergrads because that's going to be the majority of your time.

[Get Plugged In]

I'm at a university that has a liberal arts tradition but which is a nationally-ranked university falling under the new Carnegie classification of RU/H (research university, high research activity). I agree completely with ELACER above.