Work Text:
If you're looking for some 'healthy' teacher-student options, then grad students are the way to go without getting icky. Grad students teach, but don't have the same level of power in determining final course grades, so it isn't unethical for a Grad student to date an undergraduate student (though it is unethical to date a student while currently teaching them). Graduate students do have relationships with faculty, which again isn't unethical unless they are dating their own thesis adviser (not to say it doesn't happen…)
In the US, a college tends to focus on undergraduate (bachelors) education only. A college will have at most only 1 or 2 graduate programs, but many don't have any graduate students at all. Universities teach both undergraduates (bachelors students) and graduate students in both masters and doctorate students. Specialized schools that focus only on one graduate program exist - they are your law schools, business schools, or medical (med) schools. These programs can also be specialized schools within a larger university.
Educational Timelines:
Most schools have 2 semesters, the fall semester goes from late August or early September until December (before Christmas). Spring semester starts in January and runs until May. Most schools start in mid or late January, but can go as late as the start of February, therefore going later in May. Midterms therefore typically fall in October and March (which is when Spring Break - a week off from classes) usually lands. Finals happen right before the semester ends - so December and May.
Summer classes are usually optional and happen on shorter timelines - often only 6 or 8 week long. Except by contract, most faculty are not expected to teach over the summer, but can for extra money. That is prime research time at big universities though so it's not often regular faculty teach the summers. Graduate students, summer is prime research time. They don't take classes and focus on making progress on their proposal or their dissertation (depending on phase). It's wonderful because campus empties out so parking and other things are far easier without the undergrads around. Undergraduates do not have to take summer classes, but may to try to get ahead, or to make up credits for failed or retaken classes.
A bachelor's degree (undergraduate degree) usually takes 4 years. Students typically start the fall after they graduate high school, but it is increasingly common to take a 'gap year' - especially in well-to-do families. A gap year can be spent travelling, or doing service work or internships. Typical undergraduates are 18-22 years old.
A Master's degree is started after the bachelor's degree, sometimes immediately after, or sometimes many years down the road. It can take anywhere from 1 to 4 years, depending on the discipline. One year Master's programs tend to be paired with a bachelor's degree, so that the student has actually taken many of the classes for the program before getting their bachelor's degree and are completed immediately after the bachelors. This is common with education and engineering especially. Library science tends to be a 1-2 year Masters. Sciences tend to be longer because of the research involved (but not always!). Master's students can be any age, depending on whether they went directly from their bachelors into the master's program, or if they took time off to work in between.
A doctorate degree (PhD) can be started immediately after a bachelors, or after a masters. They take from 4-7 years (or more). A superstar might complete theirs as young as 25, but late twenties is more common. I was 28 when I finished mine. Again, it's as common to work before starting the degree as it is to go directly from the bachelors. I started my doctorate at 21, but I was the youngest student in the entire department for 2 years. Most of my classmates had worked or gotten master's degrees before starting the program. This is discipline-specific though. Math students tend to just stay in school and rarely take time off to work before beginning the doctorate (again not always, I know people in their 40s starting a math PhD).
College Life as an Undergraduate:
Undergrads - these are the typical college students pursuing their associate or bachelor's degree. Most undergrads are 18-22 - these are the 'traditional' college students. The 'non-trads' are nontraditional students - including students who took time off before starting, or who have families while they are going to school. Obviously nontraditional students can be any age. We all read the story every May-June about the octogenarian who finally completed their bachelor's degree. A full time student will finish their bachelors in 4 years. An accelerated program might involve summer classes, and finish in 3 years.
Students typically take 4 classes a semester (some colleges do 5 if they are only 3-credit classes, and there are other cool but different variations that I won't get into here). Three classes (12 credit hours) is considered full-time, but taking the minimum means not graduating on time. The most traditional class schedule would be a mix of Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes, and Tuesday-Thursday classes. Monday-Wednesday only combinations are also pretty common, especially for afternoon or evening classes (NO ONE wants a class at 3PM on a Friday). Classes that meet three days a week tend to be about an hour long. Classes that meet twice a week are more like an hour and a half or so. Labs tend to be separate from the lecture. They often meet at a different time or on a different day. Labs are usually 2 ½ or 3 hours long, depending on the discipline. Some classes, like language classes also meet 4 days a week, or include an extra class period - the additional classes can be non-lecture classes - either a recitation section (meaning practice/discussion) or a conversation class for languages.
An undergraduate student usually only spends about 15-20 hours a week actually in their classes. However it's entirely common to have 20-40 hours of reading and homework, depending on the courses. A lot of the work of being a student is individual learning. Some students study well in their room, others will use the library. At my undergrad, seniors who were doing an undergraduate thesis or research could actually get their own private study carol in the library.
Freshman is an outdated term (in no small part due to gendered implications). First year students are simply called First years now. (Or sometimes Firsties). Students in their second year of college are called Sophomores . Third year students are Juniors . Students in their fourth (final) year are Seniors . Students who take longer are sometimes jokingly referred to as Super Seniors. First years are referred to as underclassmen. Juniors and seniors are upperclassmen.
Undergraduates typically live in campus housing (dorms), especially the first couple years. Dorm rooms usually house 2 students and come furnished with a bed, desk, dresser and wardrobe or closet. In many places the furniture is somewhat convertible (using Allen wrenches) so you can bunk the beds or loft them or customize the room in various ways. This varies though. As an undergraduate, I lived in triples and quads as well. Singles are common for upperclassmen. There is often a shared common room (lounge) and a common/shared bathroom (multiple stalls, multiple showers) for a hall or suite of rooms. Halls can be coed or single-sex. There are often special housing dorms such as quiet housing, which has longer quiet hours than other dorms) or substance free housing (which prohibits residents from drinking in the dorm, or coming home when drunk), or honors housing, which may have special privileges. Seniors often live in apartments. Some schools actually have their own apartments on campus managed by the school and included in their regular room and board. Or else the students can live in regular rentals in the local town with all that entails.
Depending on the size of a school there can be one to many cafeterias or dining halls on campus. Where I currently teach has only 400 students, so there is only one dining hall, but my undergraduate of 1800 had 3, each with their own distinct personality and menu. Pretty universal across dining halls are the standard breakfast-lunch-dinner. Often weekends will offer just brunch and dinner. Like any good cafeteria, there is often a range of choices of entrees, a salad bar, an ice cream bar, and a soda-juice bar. Students who can't get to the dining hall for a meal can often get takeout from the cafeteria. It's also common to be able to pickup brown-bag meal with sandwich, chips, cookies and drink. Students who live off campus can often get a partial meal plan which allows them to eat a certain number of meals a semester in the dining hall.
Many schools also have late night bars, grills, or convenience stores that take real money, or food points. Many school meal plans include a certain number of meal points each semester for the days students miss a meal. There are two types of students, the ones who run out of meal points before midterms (and have to go to the business office to put more points on their cards), and the ones who haven't spent any and just binge the last week before the points expire.
Undergraduates have to pay for their education. The first step is the FAFSA (Federal financial aid application). Everyone has to fill this out every year based on files income taxes. Based on income and savings, the FAFSA qualifies students for federal grants and loans. I'm not a financial aid expert so I can't talk in great detail about this, but most middle class families qualify for these federal programs - it's not just for the poorest families. Schools also have additional money they can give to students based on financial need, academic merit, or athletic merit. Any left over balance can be covered with private loans.
Undergraduates can also get jobs. The most common is Federal Work Study - where the student is hired by the school to work for a particular number of hours as part of their financial aid package. Common jobs include working in the dining hall (dishes); working in the library (front desk clerk, or shelving), or in various offices doing filing or other unskilled office work. There are many campus jobs that aren't Federal Work Study. Peer tutors are trained and skilled. And offices on campus often hire students above and beyond the work study. Campus job hours tend to be limited to 10-15 hours a week. The advantage though is since the student is working of the college, the employer prioritizes education and understands the student lifestyle. Off-campus jobs are just that and individual employers are more or less understanding of the necessary commitment to college.
Working full-time means going to school part time (only 1-2 classes a semester instead of 3-4). There aren't enough hours in the day to be both a full-time student and be full-time employee without everything suffering (including grades).
Graduate Life:
Grad students - Students pursuing graduate degrees Master's or PhD's or other kinds of post-bachelor degrees. In most programs, a Master’s is between 1 year (accelerated program) to 3 years, but research based Master’s can take 4 years. Master's degrees come in 2 types - the non-thesis masters and the thesis masters. In my experience, the Master's is more coursework-based than the PhD, and a thesis-based master's degree will have less coursework than a non-thesis masters since more time is devoted to original research instead. Engineering, Education and Library master's degrees tend to be 1-2 years coursework based. Science and math are more likely to be thesis based and take 3-4 years.
A PhD typically takes between 4 and 7 years from the bachelors, depending on the discipline and how well the research goes. A Master's degree is not always required before achieving a PhD, nor does it have to be acquired at the same school/program where the PhD is achieved. For many PhD programs, it's possible to get get the Master’s along the way to the PhD. If someone starts a PhD program with an existing Master's degree, often it makes completion of the PhD. faster, in just 3 or 4 years. Most PhD students do not take classes after the first couple of years of their program. Instead, they focus exclusively on their research.
Graduate Coursework - Grad students take between 1 to 4 classes a semester. Courses tend to be more 'seminar style' and less lecture based. They often will meet only once or twice a week and will often be taught with the professor's own textbook (or textbook draft) since graduate classes tend to be in the professor's area of expertise and are meant to be an advanced study of a topic. Final papers or projects are more likely than exams, and exams tend to be take-homes when they happen (and be challenging).
Thesis - the masters or doctorate thesis is a long paper of independent research done by the graduate student. The master's thesis tends to be shorter and less involved than the dissertation (PhD thesis). The dissertation is a multi-chapter, hundred or more page research paper. It is made up of a literature review (summary of all of the existing published research on the topic) and then multiple chapters of individual research. In the sciences it is typically about 3 chapters of what will be published (or publishable) papers. Humanities just write a lot and end up with the equivalent of a nonfiction book on a topic. The dissertation is unmitigated hell. It is all consuming. It is never done, but eventually the student reaches the point where they call it done enough to defend it, usually when the funding is due to run out. Then the candidate edits it more before final submission.
In some graduate programs, it is possible to get a PhD without first getting a master's degree. However in those cases, it is usually possible to get a master's degree en route to the PhD. after reaching the midpoint of their program. In fields like economics and mathematics, the midpoint is a series of written and oral exams called the Qualifying exams (Quals for short). These exams are the culmination of the coursework, and are designed to show that the candidate has the foundation to pursue the PhD. If they fail, there is generally one opportunity to retake them, and if the exam is failed again, the student is out of the program. Period. The other option is a proposal defense . The student writes a literature review and write a proposal for the PhD research project. Then they have a (typically 3 hour) oral defense to the thesis committee of the proposed research and all of the relevant background knowledge they should have.
The proposal defense or qualifying exams typically mark the end of coursework. After that a PhD student is 'ABD' , meaning " All But the Dissertation ." They keep doing their research and writing their dissertation until their dissertation defense, which determines if they earn the PhD or not. A PhD student, and research-based Master's student, will have a thesis adviser who controls their entire life. The thesis adviser is called a Primary Investigator (PI) if the research is grant-funded. The thesis adviser is in charge of the student's progress. The student also has a thesis committee made up of 3-5 faculty (including the adviser), one of whom might be an 'outside reader' - as in someone from another college but who is important in their area of research. This dissertation defense involves a public presentation of the research, and then an approximately 3 hour oral defense of their thesis to their committee. The committee votes to pass or fail the dissertation--a good adviser will NEVER let their student go up for defense before they are ready. When the student passes, the committee begins to address them as 'doctor', but there are still final revisions on the thesis before it can be submitted to the school officially.
Grad student money is NOT good money, but it can be livable, particularly when the student doesn’t have to pay tuition, a common perk called tuition remission . The school basically waives the tuition they would be expected to pay. Tuition remissions are discipline and level dependent. PhD students are more likely to get them, while Master's students are more likely to have to pay their own tuition. Likewise science and math are more likely to have tuition remissions, but humanities - even PhD's - are more likely to pay.
Grad students often get stipends (like a salary but less money) in return for their work as TAs or RAs. A r esearch assistant (RA) does just that - works with a faculty member on the faculty member’s research projects, often related to or part of their own graduate research. A teaching assistant (TA) typically teaches or assists one class or one laboratory/recitation each semester. They are responsible for grading, and in advanced cases designing lessons or lectures. In some places TA and RA positions are competitive, and not everyone gets them (especially in the humanities and medical careers). If your character is hot shit, then they likely have one, but if they aren't, they may not. The TA and RA stipends are poverty wages, but being paid to get the degree is worth something.
Some schools also hire Grad students to live in/manage dorms for free housing. (In my case, I lived in a private rental that students from my department just rotated through as the new kid on the block took over a space after another had graduated. There were a few houses that had been rented to various students in my department for more than a decade. Rent was cheap because so many of us lived together.)
Faculty Life:
Titles in academia matter. A lot. After one earns the PhD, they become Dr. so-and-so. Those who have earned a doctorate can get snippy if someone calls them “Mr.” or “Ms.” instead of “Dr.”. "Professor" is preferred form of address over "teacher".
Your newly minted PhD character is most likely to start as a post-doc, but it is possible to be hired as an instructor or an assistant professor straight out of their grad program (or after a post-doc). The titles ‘Associate professor’ and ‘Professor’ are reserved for tenured faculty who are mid-career or later (typically mid30s or older). A newly minted PhD character will NOT get a job as “Associate professor” or “Professor”. In general, a teacher must have at least one degree higher than the students they are working with. So a Master's degree can teach Bachelor's degree (undergrad) students, but someone must have a PhD to teach graduate students.
Post-doc - A post-doctoral position (post-doc) is like a leveled-up TA or RA position. It is possible to get a Post-Doc in the same lab one completed the dissertation in, or in a related lab at the same school, but it’s more likely to do so at another school. Post-docs tend to be one or two year contracts, and it is entirely common to do between one and four post-docs before earning a faculty position. Post-docs can be teaching positions, where the post-doc teaches like a full-time faculty, or they can be research based, where the post-doc just keep doing research and help run the lab. The post-doc typically reports to a single faculty member who oversees them. For teaching, it is often the department chair, but it can be a faculty tasked with mentoring teaching. Often times teaching post-docs are given the title of 'visiting assistant professor' indicating the temporary nature of the post. For research, post-docs are overseen by the Primary Investigator (PI) of the grant they are doing research under. Research post-docs are often 'in charge' of the labs they are working in, overseeing undergraduate researchers and helping the graduate researchers. Sometimes post-docs are given titles like "Visiting Assistant Professor".
Adjunct Professor - a part-time faculty member, typically with zero benefits. Generally they teach 1-2 classes a semester at a school - but may work at 2-3 schools to earn enough money to subsist on and be 'full-time' employed. Most of the time, they are not under contract and must get hired every semester. Alas, this is very common, especially in the the humanities; tenure track and full time jobs are hard to find. Being temporary, these faculty do not have graduate students and research is extremely limited (since they are usually unfunded). Most of the time, any research they do is just writing up work they did before they began adjuncting. Notice, higher-level doctoral students and post-docs can also work as adjunct faculty in addition to their other position. In some places it's possible to adjunct with just a Master's degree.
Instructor - a full time faculty who is NOT tenure track. An instructor gets benefits, and is under contract for a year or more. Depending on the institution, they typically teach 3 classes a semester. It can be a permanent position, and focuses on teaching and not research in general. These faculty do not have their own graduate students, but may advise undergraduate research or oversee undergraduate labs. Instructor salaries are living wages but they won't make anyone rich. In some places instructors can have just a Master's degree.
Assistant Professor - this is a tenure-track position, and the first level 'faculty' position (which isn't to say instructors and adjunct aren't faculty, but this is the start of the permanent position at a school). These positions typically require a PhD. (Unless the degree is an MFA - Master's of Fine Arts, which is considered to be a terminal/final degree). Faculty typically teach 1-3 classes a semester, depending on their contract. Schools with a research focus and graduate students have lower teaching responsibilities (typically one course a semester). The rest of their time is dedicated to advising their graduate students and doing their own research. Schools without graduate programs focus less on research, and therefore faculty teach more each semester. They make more than instructors, but it's a low bar.
The goal of an Assistant Professor is to make tenure . Tenured faculty have a commitment from the college to keep them employed at the college. The faculty needs to make progress in teaching, scholarship and service (aka working on college committees) to earn tenure. Before getting tenure, a faculty can be fired easily, so they need to make sure students like them and/or their research is successful. A tenure bid happens 5-7 years from the date of hire. It involves putting together a complete portfolio of their academic lives, and is voted on by the department, then goes up all the way to the president and board of trustees. A faculty who fails to make tenure has a year to finish their contract, then they are no longer employed at that school. Decisions can be appealed, but generally if denied the faculty leaves and finds a new position at a different school.
Associate Professor - this is the tenure level title. The faculty is now considered permanent in the school. This is a BIG DEAL. It commonly happens 5-7 years after being hired as an Assistant Professor. These faculty have graduate students at research universities, but obviously don't at undergraduate-only colleges. Faculty who are at the Associate's level or higher can relax a bit more, since they are now protected to a much greater degree than the untenured faculty are. It's their job therefore to protect and mentor younger faculty. They make more money than assistant professors, and often are finally starting to be comfortable financially.
Full Professor - just called Professor - is the highest possible title and is granted in a similar process to the initial tenure bid at least 7 years after achieving the level of Associate Professor with high quality research and teaching and service. These faculty have graduate students at research universities, but obviously don't at undergraduate-only colleges. These are the leaders in their departments, colleges, and their field.
Professor Emeritus - this is the old retired faculty member who still has an office on campus and hangs out doing frankly whatever the fuck they want. It's an honorific title that includes most of the perks of being faculty without the annoyances. They no longer act as thesis advisers, but may be on a thesis committee.
The last term that matters is sabbatical - a faculty member often gets a one-semester or one-year sabbatical before tenure, and then every few years post-tenure to focus on research, go abroad, or explore other aspects of their lives. Sometimes faculty on sabbatical go to a different school or research location for the year. Sabbatical means that faculty takes a break from all of their teaching and service responsibilities at a school. For a grad student, if their thesis adviser goes on sabbatical… don't plan on getting fast comments on the draft or answers to questions.