OT: - UConn assistant professor won $2.5 million on DraftKings | The Boneyard

OT: UConn assistant professor won $2.5 million on DraftKings

JohnFSilver said:
No chance I retire as a professor. Too good a job.
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CL82 said:
Friends who are professors would disagree.
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An assistant/associate/adjunct with no desire for tenure and about $1.3m in bank after taxes is in a much different position than someone scrapping their way towards full professorship.

Or so I would think.
 
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That’s incredible I play it every NFL weekend -so hard to win
 
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Chin Diesel said:
An assistant/associate/adjunct with no desire for tenure and about $1.3m in bank after taxes is in a much different position than someone scrapping their way towards full professorship.

Or so I would think.
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FWIW associate professors (like this guy) has tenure. Assistant --> Associate in this part of the world means you got tenure.

This guy has tenure and makes 180k a year. He already isn't doing bad for himself. Obviously still a good reason to be stoked about 2.5 million $.
 
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husky429 said:
FWIW associate professors (like this guy) has tenure. Assistant --> Associate in this part of the world means you got tenure.

This guy has tenure and makes 180k a year. He already isn't doing bad for himself. Obviously still a good reason to be stoked about 2.5 million $.
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Sort of, and it depends on the university. Some have the progression:

Assistant professor --> associate professor (without tenure) --> associate professor (with tenure) --> full professor

I doubt someone in the 2nd or even 3rd group is making 180K, but I could be wrong.
 
$2,5000,000 winnings is less than you think. He will probably clear a million, two hundred and fifty thousand. Buy a good home in a good neighborhood. Do NOT pay off the mortgage. 10% down payment. 40/50 grand on a 400/5000 grand house gets a nice place near UConn. Give 900 grand to a private equity firm to grow that money and try to leave it alone for years. That gives him 250 grand to play with. Buy a nice car. Upgrade your wardrope. Travel to some place you always wanted to go. Pick a charity and make a donation. Keep a healthy amount in CDs. Look for safe business opportunities or smalll passion projects.

That's just a rough idea. Sit down with a three of different private equity firms. Talk to a big one like Fidelity. A couple of smaller private firms. Let them compete. Bring a list of what you want to do. See what they purpose. Don't listen to your uncle. Don't do it alone.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
Sort of, and it depends on the university. Some have the progression:

Assistant professor --> associate professor (without tenure) --> associate professor (with tenure) --> full professor

I doubt someone in the 2nd or even 3rd group is making 180K, but I could be wrong.
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180k is his actual salary. Publically available info.

Isn't associate =/= tenured usually a European thing? I don't know of any other than MIT maybe in the US. I'm also not an expert though by any means
 
Wooooo! I might start using that. This guy is the man. So happy for him. I've been a gambler for about 17 years now and have some pretty big scores, but nothing that size. I can't imagine the feeling. He also doesn't seem like the complete degenerate type, so he will likely be smart with the windfall.
 
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CL82 said:
Friends who are professors would disagree.
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Really? Not a good job? That is a dream job for me. You are a teacher of higher education. I can’t think of a better job out there.
 
JohnFSilver said:
Really? Not a good job? That is a dream job for me. You are a teacher of higher education. I can’t think of a better job out there.
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Its an okay job, im at our lovely UConn as we speak doing a doctorate, most of the professors will tell you its lonely, youre interacting with a bunch of 20-30 year olds all day whose purpose is to get out and start their lives, youre constantly writing grants, having pointless meetings, writing papers, you are now part of the university political system and your constant politicking for resources. Its publish or perish until you get tenure which might never come, and by the point you get tenure you've been a PhD for 6 years, a post doc for 3-9 years, a low level prpfessor for 7-10 years. Now on to the teaching, you have to teach but you don't actually want to teach, that's not why you're here, youre here to churn out your research and and produce PhD students, teaching is just a requirement so the university gives you lab space. If you just want to be a teaching professor you might as well just teach high school because at least you might get a shot at a pension. Basically academia is pretty screwy, the ones that are professors are just over worked beat down people who are constantly fighting for everything with everyone
 
JohnFSilver said:
Really? Not a good job? That is a dream job for me. You are a teacher of higher education. I can’t think of a better job out there.
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That was my thought as well, however, friend of mine who actually do it say that it isn’t what you think it is.
 
GoDAWGS said:
Its an okay job, im at our lovely UConn as we speak doing a doctorate, most of the professors will tell you its lonely, youre interacting with a bunch of 20-30 year olds all day whose purpose is to get out and start their lives, youre constantly writing grants, having pointless meetings, writing papers, you are now part of the university political system and your constant politicking for resources. Its publish or perish until you get tenure which might never come, and by the point you get tenure you've been a PhD for 6 years, a post doc for 3-9 years, a low level prpfessor for 7-10 years. Now on to the teaching, you have to teach but you don't actually want to teach, that's not why you're here, youre here to churn out your research and and produce PhD students, teaching is just a requirement so the university gives you lab space. If you just want to be a teaching professor you might as well just teach high school because at least you might get a shot at a pension. Basically academia is pretty screwy, the ones that are professors are just over worked beat down people who are constantly fighting for everything with everyone
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I find this bubble think amusing. In many industries, once you reach the relative top rungs, you have to worry about getting clipped because you are now, too old, too expensive, or too out of touch with current technologies. Obtaining lifetime job security and not being subjected to the profit requirements of a capitalist system, while holding a lot of control over your day to day is the grass is greener sentiment being offered by Mr. Silver.

If you are lower on the academic food chain, that is what you are working towards, while earning a top 5% salary as this guy is. Whatever the rigors of academic career advancement are, they are a one-way ratchet compared to the private sector. "Publish or perish" is no less worse than meeting quarterly quotas and research is much more in your hands than macroeconomic conditions.

There are no free lunches.
 
JohnFSilver said:
Really? Not a good job? That is a dream job for me. You are a teacher of higher education. I can’t think of a better job out there.
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The job responsibilities got hollowed out. The best part is interaction w/ students which is 10-15 hours of every week. Research / writing too which is maybe another 10-15 hours. When I started, time devoted to these parts of the job were 2x as much as now. Still a good job, but 2/3rds of it is dispiriting like so many other jobs (by dispiriting I mean work addressing -- through administrative, committee, assessment work-- all the ways the school is failing students). Honestly, the universities of 20 years ago were vastly different creatures than what we have today.
 
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SubbaBub said:
I find this bubble think amusing. In many industries, once you reach the relative top rungs, you have to worry about getting clipped because you are now, too old, too expensive, or too out of touch with current technologies. Obtaining lifetime job security and not being subjected to the profit requirements of a capitalist system, while holding a lot of control over your day to day is the grass is greener sentiment being offered by Mr. Silver.

If you are lower on the academic food chain, that is what you are working towards, while earning a top 5% salary as this guy is. Whatever the rigors of academic career advancement are, they are a one-way ratchet compared to the private sector. "Publish or perish" is no less worse than meeting quarterly quotas and research is much more in your hands than macroeconomic conditions.

There are no free lunches.
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This. The corporate world is “produce or perish”. We’re all politicking for resources. Companies accepted tax breaks and many responded with layoffs, no 401k matching and no raises. It’s not like that everywhere but the idea of tenure/job security is very attractive to anyone in the second half of their career cycle.
 
SubbaBub said:
I find this bubble think amusing. In many industries, once you reach the relative top rungs, you have to worry about getting clipped because you are now, too old, too expensive, or too out of touch with current technologies. Obtaining lifetime job security and not being subjected to the profit requirements of a capitalist system, while holding a lot of control over your day to day is the grass is greener sentiment being offered by Mr. Silver.

If you are lower on the academic food chain, that is what you are working towards, while earning a top 5% salary as this guy is. Whatever the rigors of academic career advancement are, they are a one-way ratchet compared to the private sector. "Publish or perish" is no less worse than meeting quarterly quotas and research is much more in your hands than macroeconomic conditions.

There are no free lunches.
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But you're talking about a very old university model. It's not the way it was before. 75%+ of the faculty were tenure-track 20 years ago. Now it's under 20% and most faculty are contingent. 3 year contracts. And even tenured faculty are getting fired.

In the future, professors will be the type of people who were warned not to go into the profession but did it anyway because they were stubborn and head strong and could handle the anxiety of not earning until they were 30+ while racking up debt, or for the most of them, earning contingent non-tenure contracts. Good for them.
 
husky429 said:
180k is his actual salary. Publically available info.

Isn't associate =/= tenured usually a European thing? I don't know of any other than MIT maybe in the US. I'm also not an expert though by any means
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Plus, plus, plus on the benefits side. Heathcare, free tuition for kids, retirement, 401(b) with matches, patent royalty sharing, ability to work outside the university and consult ... its a pretty nice gig.
 
BlueDogs said:
Plus, plus, plus on the benefits side. Heathcare, free tuition for kids, retirement, 401(b) with matches, patent royalty sharing, ability to work outside the university and consult ... its a pretty nice gig.
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UConn professors get free tuition for kids? That's very good. And unusual at most universities.
 
upstater said:
UConn professors get free tuition for kids? That's very good. And unusual at most universities.
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Yes. They actually have a network with other schools for reciprocity so if a professor’s kid wants to go somewhere else, they can go for free. It’s not every school by any means.
 
BlueDogs said:
Yes. They actually have a network with other schools for reciprocity so if a professor’s kid wants to go somewhere else, they can go for free. It’s not every school by any means.
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I see. I thought you meant free tuition at UConn. The alliances are not as useful as many suppose because of limited spots. I have a professor friend with a stellar student who was admitted to top colleges inside the alliance, but she didn't get the tuition break. She ended up a substantial scholarship at a top university outside the alliance. By few spots, I mean a handful per school--like 10.
 
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