How will adjuncting after an MA look to PhD admissions committees?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader queries:

I have a student who is applying for a PhD programs in philosophy, and in case none of this year's applications work out, they are wondering if it would look "bad" on future applications if they adjunct in the meantime (they have a MA which lets them do so). I'm not sure of the answer!

Hmmm...I'm not sure. On the one hand, I personally think adjuncting is great teaching experience and shows one's dedication to becoming an instructor and member of the profession. On the other hand, I don't know how much PhD program admissions committees value that. I expect that some may, but some may not (e.g., at PhD programs where research is a primary priority).

What do readers think? It would be great to hear from people in the know!

Comments

[3rd year PhD student]

As a 3rd year PhD student who taught for a few years at a community college with my MA before enrolling in a PhD program, I think it's worth doing. Not because admissions committees care. Teaching experience is not the kind of thing that will ever make or break an application to a PhD program. But it's worth doing because you get paid (meager sums, sure), you build up teaching experience and can hit the ground running earlier once you're asked to teach later, and perhaps the biggest reason is that nothing forces you to learn something more deeply than having to explain it. I read a specific article once or twice prior to teaching, but then once I taught it, I saw it in a whole new light. It's where I got the idea that eventually became the dissertation I'm working on. I count my "gap years" teaching with my MA before pursuing PhD life as highly valuable.

[LeiterOK Admit Veteran]

I don't think we'd care much about this one way or another. I can't see how it would hurt (frankly I doubt I would even notice).

I doubt it would help much - (1) lots of M.A. students have experience teaching during their program, so it's not that special; (2) we assume we can provide you all the teaching training you will need, to become a good teacher (3) even though we send most of our students to teaching-heavy jobs, (oddly, perhaps-) we tend to emphasize people's potential as philosophical thinkers in admissions (figuring, I suppose, that we can train them as teachers) ...

It could potentially be of some value later, on the job market, particularly if you wind up in a program where you don't teach must as instructor-of-record; you will be able to say that you have *some* such experience, which is, for the purposes of some jobs, *much* better than none.

[Trevor Hedberg]

It definitely wouldn't look bad to have some adjunct teaching experience in this situation, but it is also unlikely to make much of a difference in how someone's application is evaluated. The bigger benefit, as others have suggested, would come in the form of more teaching experience prior to going on the job market (assuming one does go for an academic career).