We often hear students talk about wanting to go into education or becoming a teacher, but it isn’t as common to hear the word “professor” come out of their mouths. There isn’t a precise academic program for aspiring future professors at the undergraduate level, but it is a 10+ year plan from starting the first day of your freshman year of college to being qualified to be a full-time professor at a four-year college or university. In order to become a professor, you’ll need a bachelors and a graduate degree like a master’s at the very minimum. In order to be a full-time professor at a four-year college, you’ll need a doctorate degree too. And the more prestigious the school, the more they expect you to have on your resume.
Below we’ve listed our top ten colleges and universities for students who want to start their journey towards becoming a professor.
If you know where you want to be in 10 years but aren’t sure how to get there, send us an email. We help students set themselves on a trajectory towards life-long success.
Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts
Harvard is one of the best places in the world to learn — and the first step in learning how to teach is to learn how to learn. At Harvard, students can study almost anything among and from the best of the best, and undergraduates can access over $7 million in research funding. Attending Harvard also tees you up for applying to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where you could pursue a Master’s in Education with a concentration in Higher Education.
Barnard College New York, New York
Barnard College is the women’s college of Columbia, and both a part of the Ivy League university and a stand-alone college with its own history, culture, and even some academic options only open to Barnard students. Students at Barnard can pursue an Educational Studies major, and students from any one of the undergraduate colleges at Columbia can do a minor in Urban Teaching or the Educational Studies minor. The Barnard program is grounded in the idea that education is “an emancipatory human right,” and lines students up to go to Teacher’s College, the oldest and largest graduate school of education in the United States.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, Wisconsin
The University of Wisconsin in Madison offers amazing teaching-focused programs, including subject-specific education programs at the undergraduate level. Their programs are considered some of the best in the country for future educators, and the School of Education offers undergraduate majors in almost everything and anything you could want to teach. The entire program is driven by “The Wisconsin Idea” that students should go on to influence people’s live positively.
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
If you’re especially interested in the research and publishing side of becoming a professor, you can cut your teeth at the University of Pennsylvania, where students have access to enormous research resources. At Penn, you can pursue a major that excites you, and that is what you may want to teach at the collegiate level. If you want to stay in Philadelphia after finishing your undergrad, the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education is a deeply respected teaching college with lots of programs for aspiring professors.
University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) Los Angeles, California
UCLA has a graduate school of education, the School of Education and Information Studies, but they also have amazing undergraduate programs for aspiring educators. Students can major in Education and Social Transformation, and minors in Education Studies and Information Media Literacy. There are also further affiliated minors in partnership with other colleges at UCLA including the Science Education Minor and Visual and Performing Arts Education Minor.
New York University New York, New York
The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University (NYU) offers an amazing diversity of undergraduate programs in education. There is the Art + Education BFA, the Education Studies BA, and a Math Education minor, just to name a few. The school aims to train transformative leaders, and is home to over 7,000 students who form a bold, creative, and encouraging community in the heart of New York City.
Stanford University Stanford, California
Stanford is Stanford. It’s one of the best universities in the world, so we’d be remiss not to include it on this list. If you want to be able to teach at the highest level, your career will be jumpstarted if you learn at the highest level from the get-go. And Stanford is the highest level. While Stanford doesn’t have an undergraduate degree in education, but you can be lined up for the Graduate School of Education, which is one of the best schools of education in the world.
Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois
If you are interested in a close-knit program where you’ll have lots of opportunities for mentorship from your professors, you should consider the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern. The over 500 students in the program can pick from six different concentrations, including Human Development in Context, Social Policy, and Learning and Organizational Change.
Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee
Peabody College at Vanderbilt University offers majors in early childhood, elementary, and secondary education through the Department of Teaching and Learning. While this program focuses on education before the collegiate level, students learn what it’s like to be an educator, while getting a top-tier education and hands-on learning opportunities. The program also emphasizes opportunities for study abroad, and using technology in the classroom is emphasized.
Drexel University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Drexel wants to support students seeking to become professors so much that they even write about it on their website. They emphasize that future professors can major in anything, but it helps if what you study for your undergraduate degree is what you think you may want to eventually teach someday at that level. Students can major in Educational Studies through the School of Education, where they will experience cooperative learning, hands-on experiences, and subject-specific courses.
If you aspire to be a professor, where you go to college for your undergraduate degree can set you on a trajectory towards success in the future. Aim to go to the best school you can for what you want to teach in the future, as you’ll need to study it in graduate school and to even get a PhD eventually.
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