| That's certainly true, but it isn't every week a student has something for me to read. What professors at research universities do: 1. Mentor PhD students (and often also MS and BS students) 2. Write papers and edit student papers 3. Write grant proposals 4. Deal with a lot of administrative issues 5. University service committees - some are on multiple some are on none (admissions, COVID response, undergraduate program, graduate program, etc.) 6. Review papers from others 7. Teach one or more courses 8. Develop new courses (takes 1-2 days to make a good lecture) 9. Update lecture materials (I spend probably 2 hours per lecture for courses I've already taught) 10. Meetings 11. Conference/Workshop organization 12. MANY miscellaneous duties 13. Budget management 14. Prepare talks 15. Serving on MS/PhD proposal/defense committees for students not in your lab 16. Staying on top of the scientific literature 17. Making homework assignments (some can delegate to TAs) 18. Grading (some can delegate) 19. Write letters of recommendation (I write around 10-15 per year) Of course you can get this load down by learning to say "No" in some cases. But a professor during their first couple years when they start the job can easily expect to put in 60-80 hours per week. It gets a lot easier after that. |