$10,000/k for a Bachelor's equates to about $15 per a class period. At a class size of 30 that is $450 per class in revenue for the school. A professor spends 2 hours a week doing prep, 2 hours a week in office hours, 2 hours grading and 2 hours in class. Lets say overhead is 40%. That is equivalent to ~$30 dollars an hour to teach a class at 8 hours a week. Teach four classes and you are at ~40 hours a week. That puts you at about $50K a year after taxes. Most professors teach 1 or 2 classes a semester to leave time for grad students and research. --- are my assumptions way off here? 2 classes would mean $25k a year -- poverty line for family of 4.