How To Become A College President: What It Is and Career Path

What is a college president and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a college president. For example, did you know that they make an average of $90.52 an hour? That's $188,282 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 15,500 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreCollege PresidentUS Average

Salary

9.9

Avg. Salary $188,282

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

8.1

Growth Rate 7%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.70%

Asian 4.40%

Black or African American 11.13%

Hispanic or Latino 14.47%

Unknown 4.01%

White 65.29%

Gender

female 47.63%

male 52.37%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress Level

8.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.0

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.8

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a college president

Explore college president education requirements

Most common college president degrees

Bachelor's

64.2 %

Associate

15.1 %

Master's

8.8 %

Start to develop specific college president skills

Skills	Percentages
Colleges	27.86%
Student Services	20.59%
Strategic Plan	6.80%
Alumni	5.31%
Student Body	4.94%

Complete relevant college president training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New college presidents learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a college president based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real college president resumes.

Research college president duties and responsibilities

Set vision and strategy, oversee project conception, development and implementation and recruit and manage leadership team.
Coordinate extensive community and alumni outreach
Maintain relationships with alumni and donors through daily correspondence.
Key responsibilities include full operational oversight, business development strategy and implementation, and campus compliance with reporting and accreditation requirements.

Get college president experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a college president. The most common roles before becoming a college president include internship, volunteer team lead and president.

Prepare your college president resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your college president resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a college president resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable College President Resume templates

Build a professional College President resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your College President resume.

Apply for college president jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a college president job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do college presidents rate their job?