fedge wrote:
Praetorian - This is an opinion held by many (most) people I've come across in academia. (Including my mother and sister who are both profs) What's wrong with wanting to be an amazing teacher working in a faculty position that focuses more on teaching than research? We have all had amazing teachers in our lives that have played an important part in our intellectual and personal development. If we hadn't, none of us would be here discussing graduate study.
For me, I love both research and teaching. I'll be just as happy teaching 2 classes a semester and having major research responsibilities as I will teaching 4 classes a semester with less research requirements. And for someone that has a desire to be an effective teacher, a 25-50 student class size is much more appealing than 100+
I think the main thing is that there is only one PhD training focus: research. Teaching is learned somewhere along the way via TA-ing. The days of the lecturer are almost gone, instead professors are faced with tremendous pressure to publish, or ultimately perish. In order to secure a position from where you can teach comfortably, you have to be able to conduct research to obtain that position, no matter what school you go to. You could also become a gypsy scholar, but faced with tremendous instability, I don't think you'll have the impact you want on students.
It doesn't hurt that of all the professors I've listened to, the most lively ones are those that are able to talk about their own research. Let's face it, lecturing from the book gets old, and boring, very fast. If you're extremely lucky, the research itself will be a pleasure. I had a Medieval History professor who's "research" consisted of touring castles in Europe every summer and writing about their architectural details. Each semester she would have a new batch of slides to entertain the class with. Had another for whom research was constructing ballistas and trebuchets...
Alas, as aspiring business PhDs, we have to find what fascinates us within the business realm.
EDIT: Small colleges do have small classes... except they also tend to be very selective about their staff. If you're not careful, you could end up in some state or city college and lecturing to 200+ in a lecture hall. Going to a bigger, more famous university, you might actually be able to get smaller classes.