shef

I gave only a quick read, and I'm completely unfamiliar with Scrabble... but: why not use a Markov chain? I would start looking at the two step case, using only the most probable letter. In this case you have to remember a 26x26 matrix, if this doesn't work you can extend it to the top-n letters.

The armies of research fellows and postdocs are useful if you do actual research, something that you just can't do with "online tools".

Also, my guess is that academic jobs don't influence the earning premiums that much... the pay is quite low, unless you really reach the top