r/Adjuncts

I (35m) just got hired as an adjunct for a community college, and I am going to share my experience. In 2025 I earned my MBA and my M.Ed from two separate universities. I work in finance, and want to get experience teaching so I can leave my current industry and teach remotely for a university in my fifties. I’ve worked in my current position for 8 years, so I’m not exactly new anymore. I like my job, but absolutely hate it when a client dies or a household gets divorced. Death and divorce are ugly, and I currently have 12 households of clients getting divorced. People who inherit money through divorce/death are awful and have given me gray hair over the years. I applied to the open position for the adjunct position in March, I had a ZOOM interview with two faculty that was recorded in mid July and was offered the job on August 14th to teach this fall. When going through the new hire paperwork, I asked how many people interviewed, and they told me 20. I think the hard part with getting an adjunct job is that the college didn’t have a sense of urgency. The job is teaching 6-9 credit hours in the fall and spring with 6 in the summer.

Hi everyone!
I have been applying to become a part-time adjunct for sometime now… I’ve never been called in for an interview or a call back. I have my Master’s degree in teaching and I wanted to start teaching at the community college level. I am a full-time federal employee, but want to teach part-time. I do not know what I’m doing wrong. Any advice or assistance would be greatly appreciated. How does one get an adjunct position?

Just wanted an outlet for my excitement. I knew I might have a passion for this and then I had class and likely confirmed. Now I’ve been in education over 20 years so I know honeymoon periods end too. Either way, it was nice to feel some professional passion again.

I don’t know if I’m just being sensitive, but does anyone else feel weirdly irritated or even kind of exploited whenever an academic officials, etc. says “thank you for all that you do”? I know it’s supposed to be appreciative, but lately every time I hear that phrase I have this immediate negative reaction to it and I genuinely can’t tell if I’m becoming cynical or if other adjuncts feel the same way.

Hey everyone,

I'm an adjunct at an R1 University. I only have a Bachelor's degree in my field, but because I have strong work experience, I was able to teach adjunct. Teaching a "standard" load of courses, I make $30k a year. Of course, no benefits, etc.

I found out that a man in the same department -- who has the same degree as me -- has a long-term contract and makes well over $100k. With benefits. He is younger and has less experience.

Do I have a right to feel upset about this? Would you? Is there anything I can do?

This district is so different from the other districts. This is one of the most chaotic and punishing districts for the adjuncts. Its almost always zero communication and abrupt cuts. Anyone who has a positive experience?

I taught an asynchronous class spring semester and was told it would likely be a long term gig with potential for teaching in person. I had great evaluations from students but no contact from the professor i worked under I emailed thanking them for their time and expressed interest in doing it again with no answer. Two weeks ago I emailed again and asked if there would be another opportunity in the fall or spring with no answer. It looks like all of the sections of the class I taught have a professor listed. Should I call the professor, email again or let it be?

TLDR: I am a new adjunct instructor at a community college and I don’t know if I am cut out for this job. I’m living below the poverty line and I’m having extreme difficulty finding my footing in teaching. Besides my interaction with students, I don’t find this job enjoyable.

Sorry for the long rant, I needed a place to vent.

I’m about to start my second semester teaching at a community college, and I’m just not excited for it. Honestly I’m kinda dreading it but I don’t know if that’s coming from a place of nerves that will eventually go away, or I just genuinely don’t like this job.

I finished a teaching internship at my college last year and they offered me a position as a part time instructor and I was so excited. However, I was thrown into things without a lot of help. I taught an online class and another one in person to cover for another instructor that had to leave toward the beginning of Spring semester. I didn’t love the online class, but the in-person was great.

I’m going to be teaching two in-person classes this Fall and thankfully most of the materials are built into the course from previous instructors, but I still have to create some quizzes and assessments for both classes. I did not receive the most instruction on how to do this and although I did it before, I found it very stressful. I’ve pretty much struggled with all aspects of lesson planning and I do not enjoy it at all. I’m sure it’s not really anything to enjoy, of course, but I find it so hard to power through to get done.

And I hated not making money over the summer. I tried to make my remaining pay from Spring semester last, but due to unexpected changes in my personal life, most of it got spent very quickly on survival. Don’t get me wrong, I actually make good money per hour for an adjunct compared to other places, but I’m still living below the poverty line. I really don’t know if this is the job for me overall.

Does it get any better?

I’m about to complete my Master’s in Healthcare Admin and will be starting a Doctoral program in Healthcare Administration in Janurary. I currently have a great job in the healthcare field making nearly 200k but I’m also interested in giving back and eventually transitioning into academia, specifically a professor eventually.

I know that adjunct positions, especially at community colleges, can be highly competitive. I’ve been considering volunteering as an instructor at University of the People to gain teaching experience and have some formal teaching experience in my resume.

Professors, do you think this would be worthwhile? Would teaching there help me become a more competitive candidate for adjunct or faculty positions at other colleges or universities once I complete my doctorate?

The last few semesters I have been trying to stay away from ppts but for some algebra classes I feel it's easier to keep them and do worksheets and labs. I can teach the higher level classes without powerpoints to be honest. For a teaching evaluation of a Stat class, I thought I did well with active involvement by having a review game (I usually do do nows), taught partly from slides, then showed how to use R and went back to the review game as an exit ticket. I was told it would be better to streamline it but to be fair I had to teach a group of students I never met before. I've been teaching for years but I was curious if you mostly use powerpoints or you do variations like this too? I want to incorporate flipped classroom as well.

Hi all, I’m interested in becoming an adjunct in the field that I’m currently completely my masters in. It’s a business discipline with masters basically being the terminal ending, only 1-2 schools have phds for it and they’re only a concentration at that.

Im getting my masters degree at an Ivy League school. It’s a very specific field, but I also studied management at a top tier school for my bachelors.

I’m in my 20s and have just under 4 years working experience in the same industry. Would I be able to adjunct in somewhere like California? Not in it for the money, want to teach on the side (would teach at a CC or university!).

Thanks!

EDIT: thanks everyone! This was a clear message, I appreciate all your responses.

I have a BA and MA in communication, and was an adjunct for 3 years after earning my MA (back in 2008). I have worked in my field my entire career (journalism, then marketing), but over the last few years, I have been diving deeply into the history field - I just wrote my first historical fiction novel and have a successful history YouTube channel.

I'd love to teach history one day, but do you think I need an MA in History for that? I found a good program near me, but do you think my background and the fact I have a Master's would be enough to get my foot in the door? (I did minor in history for my undergrad, btw.)

I love learning and if it was free there would be no question, but I am still paying off student loans and really don't want to spend more if it's at all possible.

I have been a ft adjunct for ten years and I could've sworn when I first started that I had two or three weeks to get grades in. I know the admin needs them ASAP in order to process credentials but this year most of my classes end with the final exam on a Friday and the grades are due that next Monday. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me? Thanks in advance for commiserating with me and please keep the snark to a minimum (like "this is why you get paid so much money to do this, etc.)

My fellow adjuncts, I have been offered to take three courses A, B and C. Now I want to take up C and B but the program leader is insisting on A and B. I just feel that I won’t bring justice to it and plus a lot (a lot) of preparation will go in it. I did tell him my pref. my colleagues are suggesting to just take up A and B and maintain a good relation with the Uni.

I am an adjunct at a community college. I started working there four semesters ago. I teach art apprec. - I have a Masters with the required amount of hours needed in the area I teach and a BFA. I am currently working on a second Masters in a different subject area (the department head told me that was "stupid). I didn't join academia until later than most; I had a successful military career, went back to school and decided to try my hand at teaching; I was an instructor in the military and totally enjoyed what I did.

The problem I'm having is with the department chair; he asked me to apply to work there; I was a student there when I decided to go back to school and when he found out I was working on my Masters told me he was looking for an adjunct so once I graduated to apply - I did and he hired me. However, ever since he hired me, he's tried to find other "gigs" to send me away from the main campus of the college - One was to go to a campus further away to teach once a week - there was already another person from the department there teaching the same class, but for whatever reason, he wanted me to go there instead. This semester it's dual enrollment classes - Two dual enrollment classes in addition to the one on campus class. Our main building was renovated; all of us were looking forward to getting back into our building - then with less than two weeks to the start of the semester, I was told I would not be moving with everyone else - I'm still in the crappy classroom away from everyone else except the theater department.

I kind of mentioned some of my concerns to the department admin person when I was at the campus making copies of my syllabus and of course, this is when I found out she will run to the chair and tell him everything; didn't think she was this way but....so, I'm sitting in my husband's doctors office and the department chair starts blowing up my phone with "if you don't want to teach I can find someone else" - He didn't stop until I told him where I was; I'm not on contract and I'm kind of pissed; I've never missed a day of work; last semester I went to teach two weeks after having my shoulder repaired. I'm at a loss how to handle this guy - I like teaching, I like working with the kids; I do the best I can; I try to help the young people as much as I can. I just don't know how to handle this guy.

I just got my student evaluations, and I’m having a surprisingly hard time with one of them.

I’m an adjunct instructor, and the overwhelming majority of the feedback was extremely positive and complimentary. There were some genuinely kind comments that I’m really grateful for.

But there was one review that basically said I provided too many resources and sent too many emails. Some of the criticism was actually pretty actionable—I can see that I may have over-communicated or given students more material than they needed, and I’m going to think about how I can streamline that.

What I’m struggling with is that some of the comments were also just… unkind. And despite having a whole pile of positive feedback, this is the one review I keep replaying in my head.

I know, intellectually, that one negative evaluation doesn’t negate all the positive ones. And I don’t want to dismiss criticism just because it’s uncomfortable. I want to be able to separate the useful feedback from the hurtful delivery and actually learn from it.

For those of you who teach—especially adjuncts—how do you process this?

Hi Everyone

Long time adjunct here. Sorry for the very specific question here. Does anyone know what Widener University pays adjuncts per class or what the highest paying schools are in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area are? I do know that Rowan pays quite well - $6,900 for a three credit class.

I’ve been doing these adjuncting gigs for more than a decade, and this is starting to freak me out a little… I used to be a huge people pleaser with students. I would over-explain everything, soften every response, give people endless benefit of the doubt, and spend way too much time making sure nobody thought I was being unfair. Lately, I can feel that changing. Oh god.. A student submits something late, then sends me this obviously AI-written email explaining why the late penalty should be waived. He’s sick that exact date of the deadline (duh). Another argues over a deduction because the directions were supposedly ambiguous, even though the required item just wasn’t submitted (a sample screenshot is provided in the assignment directions).

And instead of writing the long, patient responses I used to write, I’m increasingly just responding with things like:
“I’m sorry, but no.”
“The grade will remain unchanged.”
“Are you able to provide me with a documentation you have been sick for the whole week?”
Sometimes my first thought is literally, “Good luck with that.”

That is what scares me.
I know boundaries are healthy, and I know I don’t have to negotiate every grade or policy decision. But I also don’t want to wake up one day and realize I’ve become that professor who is impossible to talk to and assumes every student is trying to pull something. But I can’t help it???! Like duh??? Maybe I’m just tired or I dunno.
Maybe this is just what happens after doing this for long enough, but I genuinely don’t know where the line is between becoming more experienced and becoming completely jaded.
Anyone else feel themselves changing like this after years of teaching? Pls tell me it’s not just me