Best and Worst Paying Academic Jobs

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Baws

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Best Paying: MD Anderson, most of their faculty seem to be making $700K+ based off a quick google search
Worst Paying: Stanford, from the rumor mill, but I have heard they make low $200K to start with

Any other votes?

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Aside from those you mentioned, I have heard UNC, Miami pays low. Low ball country here folks!

some at UPMC make good money too
 
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Yeah MDACC, pays well for academics, but not 700K. Most start in the 320k range and slowly make it to 500K+ by the time they become a full professor.
 
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Yeah MDACC, pays well for academics, but not 700K. Most start in the 320k range and slowly make it to 500K+ by the time they become a full professor.
No need to guess with Anderson. Texas requires them to report. I once found a PDF that listed salaries for the 2017 or 2018 tax year, which I can't find right now, but there's always OpenPayrolls.

So, if you Google "site: openpayrolls.com bouthaina dabaja md anderson"

You get this page:


Which leads you to:


You can do this for anyone at Anderson.

I have heard the same thing about Stanford and $200k, I don't currently have any supporting evidence though.
 
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Yeah MDACC, pays well for academics, but not 700K. Most start in the 320k range and slowly make it to 500K+ by the time they become a full professor.
My buddy at MDACC said the same thing.

Academics can be a little tricky to figure out because fringe benefits and bonus can be substantial depending on structure. But I would say a starting base salary below $275-$300 should raise some eyebrows.
 
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No need to guess with Anderson. Texas requires them to report. I once found a PDF that listed salaries for the 2017 or 2018 tax year, which I can't find right now, but there's always OpenPayrolls.

So, if you Google "site: openpayrolls.com bouthaina dabaja md anderson"

You get this page:


Which leads you to:


You can do this for anyone at Anderson.

I have heard the same thing about Stanford and $200k, I don't currently have any supporting evidence though.
Again, depends on what we are talking about. My state requires it too and if you look me up you get $417 or something like that but my base pay is $350
 
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Again, depends on what we are talking about. My state requires it too and if you look me up you get $417 or something like that but my base pay is $350
Oh totally agree. For some reason, the way Anderson pays people and/or the way Texas requires them to report, these seem accurate. Based on what you can find on the internet, I think Anderson starts new faculty around $390k (which is a number consistent with what the verbal rumors I've heard say).
 
University of Michigan is quite low as well. Salaries are available publically. Who knows about fringe benefits, but I know for sure they start well below median for academics. I'm fairness, their on tx numbers are low, but they are expected to publish like crazy
 
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University of Michigan is quite low as well. Salaries are available publically. Who knows about fringe benefits, but I know for sure they start well below median for academics. I'm fairness, their on tx numbers are low, but they are expected to publish like crazy
A good friend of mine who has been in for academics for 10 years got offered a physician scientist position for $300 K at Michigan a couple years back. I would agree that is a tad low for a mid career person, even if PS. I don’t know what they pay their fully clinical faculty.
 
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A good friend of mine who has been in for academics for 10 years got offered a physician scientist position for $300 K at Michigan a couple years back. I would agree that is a tad low for a mid career person, even if PS. I don’t know what they pay their fully clinical faculty.
yeah 300K for someone who's almost a professor, if not already a professor is quite low. Here is a link where you can look up their salaries by name:
 
Best Paying: MD Anderson, most of their faculty seem to be making $700K+ based off a quick google search
Worst Paying: Stanford, from the rumor mill, but I have heard they make low $200K to start with

Any other votes?
Ok, so Stanford is an interesting place. On the one hand, I do know someone who was offered $180 for a physician scientist position. That is the worst academic salary I have ever seen. On the other hand, I have a good friend who trained there and stayed on and their initial base was well north of $300. I don't have a sense of how representative the ridiculous example I started off with is of their average new higher. In either case, they are at best average and if you are not familiar with the cost of living in and around Palo Alto, check out realtor.com and see just how far your money goes. As one example, here is a cute little 1900 sf ranch built in 1985 going for a cool 2.25M 3705 Park Blvd, Palo Alto, CA, 94306 | realtor.com®
 
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Every time a rad onc takes a full time job for $250K or less, somebody somewhere "higher up" is either getting a pay raise or forestalling a pay decrease.
 
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When the ASTRO president says just be happy you get A job, ANYWHERE. It is a race to the bottom. Could have done family medicine and made that kind of money!!!!
 
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Every time a rad onc takes a full time job for $250K or less, somebody somewhere "higher up" is either getting a pay raise or forestalling a pay decrease.

That is absolutely true. However, it's a seller's market and RadOnc networks exploit that
 
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That is absolutely true. However, it's a seller's market and RadOnc networks exploit that
Absolutely. They have new grads by the uglies. When you have at least a grand (or 2) in student loans due per month you can't afford to not have a job. They have many applicants for each spot and are more than happy to feed on desperation because at the end of the day ****ty pay is better than no pay. Its sad :(
 
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MD Anderson (Took 3 random docs at different levels):



Lauren Mayo = Assistant Professor = $557,184

Neelofur Ahmad = Associate Professor = $694,375.63

Eric A Storm = Professor = $753,290.08

(I don't know any of them personally)
wow, this is certainly a huge jump from a mere few years ago. I have a friend who started there at 320K ~ 7 years ago.
 
wow, this is certainly a huge jump from a mere few years ago. I have a friend who started there at 320K ~ 7 years ago.
When you charge 5x what your competitors can charge for the same service, I imagine there's some money floating around to actually pay the docs.
 
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Once the chinese masters of the proton center got their cheese, they paid themselves!!!! why so serious???!
 
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Michigan: 350k
Minnesota: 450k

New grad, academic satellite
 
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Michigan: 350k
Minnesota: 450k

New grad, academic satellite
Nice to see places that are not screwing the new grads. We hired a new grade for a satellite position in our midwest state and started them at $350 right out of residency. Where I trained started assistant professors at $230 which is bad. The bonus structure is very generous (as in around 30% of the base) but guess how much of that bonus they got last year with COVID? Hint, it rhymes with Nero and was about as much fun as he was. This is exactly why I try to avoid structures that put too much of your pay into the bonus.
 
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Most likely what MDA is reporting is total compensation (salary + benefits) not just take home salary.
 
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Most likely what MDA is reporting is total compensation (salary + benefits) not just take home salary.

I'd buy this...I feel what the radonc bills would be much much higher @Ray D. Ayshun ?

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UNC base salary is $230. I remember Larry Marks saying he keeps the base low so as to not offend other specialities since they're publicly viewable. They have a bonus structure and if I recall there is some amount "guaranteed" (I think? Or maybe "expected"?) but the net was <$300k. This was my experience at many academic places on the east coast (North & South): Starting base salary mid to upper $200s with bonus/incentives. I ended up signing at a place with guaranteed over $300k. Happy to report that amount is now over $400k. I think of these like NFL contracts. It's all about the guaranteed. Some of the bonus/incentive stuff either seemed tough to achieve (like >10k wRVUs) or had complex structure that I could barely wrap my head around and was glossed over during the negotiation process. I recall one place where bonus payout was some convoluted metric that combined both individual and practice RVUs and spanned over several years, not just one year. Hell no.
 
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