I’ve been trying to find out what it all means, like there’s Bachelor’s degree, Doctorate, Bachelor of Design and Master of Education. But what do they mean? Is a bachelor’s degree the lowest degree you can get and master’s is the highest or do different courses have different names for their degrees?
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An Associate’s Degree is a 2-year degree, and it’s the least intensive and usually is preparation for a specific career. A Bachelor’s degree is a 4-year degree, and there are two kinds: Bachelor of Arts (which focuses more on humanities) or Bachelor of Science (which focuses more one math, science, or technical things). If someone uses the name of a subject after “Bachelor’s of”, they are saying that they received a bachelor’s degree and they are telling you the subject they studied.
A master’s degree is an additional 2 years of study after having gotten a bachelor’s degree; it may require a thesis (a written document summarizing your study in the field). A Ph. D. (also known as a “Doctorate” or “Doctor of Philosophy”) is an additional 4 or more years of study, and it always has a thesis and publication requirement along with some original research. A college that offers master’s or Ph. D degrees is called a “university”.
When I was in school, mid-way through the doctoral program, we were given a week-long series of exams (each 3 hours, 2 per day for 4 days) called “comprehensive examinations” in our field of study. If you did not pass, you could not continue in the doctoral program but could apply your for your master’s degree. When I took it, only 2 of the 12 of us that took it passed. To graduate with a Ph. D. we had to write a thesis covering our research, and undergo a “thesis defense”, where members of the faculty would grill you for several hours on your research and anything else they felt someone in the field should know; then they would dismiss the candidate and discuss whether they would get their Ph. D.
Interesting fact all of the degrees except the Ph. D. are granted for a specific subject, like “Education”, or “Computer Science”. A Ph. D. more often than not combines areas of study but is also very focused on an absurdly specific subject, so your Ph. D. is not given in subject – instead it is “Conferred by the faculty of” some department and your thesis is technically the thing you got your degree in.
Also, the term “doctor” originally referred to a person certified to teach theology. Later, doctors of philosophy degrees would be given out for the highest level of education in other disciplines… It would be hundreds of years later before “medicine” became an empirical science and “medical doctor” (MD) degrees would be awarded. That’s when physicians became “doctors”.
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