College Degree

A degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study.

In the United States, most standard academic programs are based on the four-year bachelor's degree (most often bachelor of arts, B.A., or bachelor of science, B.S.), a two-year master's degree (most often master of arts, M.A., or master of science, M.S.; both of these programs might be three years in length) and a further year or so of course work, plus teaching experience and the writing of a dissertation for the doctorate (most often doctor of philosophy, Ph.D.) for a total of about nine years from starting the bachelor's degree (which is usually begun around age 18) to the awarding of the doctorate. This timetable is flexible, however, as, for instance, students in accelerated programs can sometimes earn a bachelor's in three years, or on the other hand a particular dissertation project might take four years to complete.

Some schools offer an associate's degree for two full years of study, often in pre-professional areas. This may sometimes be used as credit toward completion of the four-year bachelor's degree.

In the United States, there is also another class of degrees called "First Professional degree." These degree programs are designed for professional practice in various fields rather than academic scholarship. Most professional degree programs require a prior bachelor's degree for admission (a notable exception being the PharmD program), and so represent at least about five total years of study and as many as seven or eight.

Some fields such as fine art or architecture have chosen to name their first professional degree after the bachelor's a "master's degree" (e.g., M.F.A.) while the professional degree in medicine is known as "doctor" (e.g., M.D.); the legal profession has renamed its degree from Bachelor (L.L.B.) to Doctor (J.D.). Despite being named "masters" some masters degree programs may require about the same amount of time to complete as "professional doctorate" programs in other fields so the naming is somewhat arbitrary. For example, despite being a "masters" level degree, the first professional degree in architecture may require 3 to 3.5 years to complete. There is currently some debate in the architectural community to rename the degree to a "doctorate" in the manner that was done for the law degree decades ago.[[1]] It is important to recognize that first-professional degrees in these fields, which are normally earned after the bachelor's, are not normally research degrees. [2]

Types of academic degree: United Kingdom

The standard British degree is the bachelors degree with honours (e.g. BA (hons)). This usually takes three years full time study. British Bachelors degrees are usually categorised by one of five grades.

The first, and highest, is first class honours, notified as (1.1). There is then Second class honours, division one, denoted as (2:1). This is followed by second class honours, division two or lower second (2:2). Third class honours follow, shown as (3.3). Students who do not achieve the standard for the award of honours may be given a pass degree.

The Graduateship (post-nominal GCGI) awarded by the City & Guilds of London Institute is mapped to a British Honours degree

Some students study an integrated Masters, which is still a first degree. This takes four years of study and is usually designated by the subject, such as MEng for engineering. Grades are as above.

Examples of degrees

Some examples of specific degrees follow each general term. For more information, see the article about the general term.

• Associate's degrees (U.S.): AA (Associate of Arts), ABS (Associate of Baccalaureate Studies), AS (Associate of Science), AAS (Associate of Applied Science), AFA (Associate of Fine Arts), AES (Associate of Engineering Science), AGS (Associate in General Studies), AAT (Associate of Arts in Teaching), AOS (Associate of Occupational Sciences)

• Foundation degrees (U.K.): Fd A., Fd Mus., Fd Ed., Fd Eng., Fd Mus., Fd Sc., FdTech

• Bachelor's degrees: BAcy, BArch, AB or BA, BSc or SB or BS, BSc(Agr) or BSA, BBus, BSBA, BCom or BComm, BDes, BFA, BEc, BEd, BAI (Dubl.) or BEng or BE, BD, BDes, BHE, BIS, BJ, LLA, BPharm, BPE, BHK, BCL, LL.B., MB ChB or MB BS or BM BS or MB BChir or MB BCh BAO, Vet.M.B., BN, BMus, B.Math, BPhil BTech, BBA, BAdm, MA (Hons), BDS, BSW

• Master's degrees: MA, MS or MSc, MCM, MA (Oxon/Cantab/Dubl), M.St., MLitt, MAcy or MSA, MArch, MEd or EdM, DEA or DESS,^[1] Lic. Arts, MS, MALD, MApol, MEc,MPhil, MRes,MRUP, MFA, MLS, MTh, MTS, M.Div., MBA, MHA, MIA, MPA, MPAS, MPD, MPIA, MJ, MSW, MPAff, MLIS, MMedSc, LL.M., MN, MPS,MPH, MPM, MPP, MPT, MRE, MTheol, LLM, MEng, MAS, MSci, MBio, MChem, MPharm, MPhys, MMath, MMus, MESci, MGeol, MRUP, MTCM, MSSc, BCL^[2] (Oxon), ThM and MAT

• Licentiate degrees: LDS, JCL, STL, SSL, LSS, LRSM

• Specialist degrees: Ed.S., SSP

• Engineer's degrees: Ch.E., B.E., C.E., C.E., E.E., E.A.A., E.C.S., Env.E., I.E., Mat.E., Mech.E., Nav.E., Nucl.E., Ocean E., Sys.E.

• Doctoral degrees: Au.D., J.C.D., Ph.D., P.Th.D., EdD, DProf, EngD, DTech, DNursSci, DBA, DPA, DGov, D.D., M.D., DDS, DSc, DLitt, DA, DMA, DMD, DPS, D.Min., DMus, DFA, DCL, DCL, LL.D., LH.D., ThD, S.T.D., J.U.D., S.S.D., PharmD,^[3] DrPH, DPM, DPT, DPhil, DOM, OMD, PsyD, DSocSci, DSW, ND, D.C., DO, OD, DVM, VMD, J.D. and DHSc.

• Professor degrees: S.T.P.

Abbreviations for degrees can place the level either before or after the faculty or discipline, depending on the institution. For example, DSc and ScD both stand for the (higher) doctorate in science. Various other abbreviations also vary between institutions, for instance BS and BSc both stand for 'Bachelor of Science'.

There are various conventions for indicating degrees and diplomas after one's name. In some cultures it is usual to give only the highest degree. In others, it is usual to give the full sequence, in some cases giving abbreviations also for the discipline, the institution, and (where it applies) the level of honours. In another variation, a 'rule of subsumption' often shortens the list and may obscure the chronology evident from a full listing. Thus 'MSc BA' means that the degrees conferred were - in chronological order - BSc, BA, MSc. The subsumption rule reflects the principle that a person of a given high status does not separately belong to the lower status.

For member institutions of the Association of Commonwealth Universities , there is a standard list of abbreviations, but in practise many variations are used. Most notable is the use of the Latin abbreviations 'Oxon.' and 'Cantab.' for the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in spite of these having been superseded by (little used) English 'Oxf.' and 'Camb.' Other Latin abbreviations include Exon. for the University of Exeter, Dunelm. for Durham University, Ebor. for the University of York and Cantuar. for the University of Kent (formerly the "University of Kent at Canterbury"). Confusion results from the widespread use of 'SA' for the University of South Australia (instead of S.Aust.) because 'SA' was officially assigned to the University of South Africa. For universities of different commonwealth countries sharing the same name, such as York University in Canada and the University of York in the UK, a convention has been adopted where a country abbreviation is included with the letters and university name. In this example, 'York (Can.)' and 'York (UK)' is commonly used to denote degrees conferred by their respective universities.

The doubling of letters in LL.B., LL.M., LL.D. is because these degrees are in laws, not law. The doubled letter indicates the Latin plural legum as opposed to the singular legis. Abbreviations for the degrees in surgery Ch. B. and Ch. M. are from Latin chiruguriae and often indicate a university system patterned after Scottish models. The combination of M.B. with Ch. B. arose from a need to graduate the students at the time of year allocated to graduation rituals, but the legal inability to confer the M.B. before they had been properly approved by professional regulatory bodies. Thus the Ch. B. was conferred first, and the M.B. was conferred later, after registration, and without ceremony. In recent times the two have come to be conferred together and are widely (mis)understood to constitute a single degree.

Some degrees are awarded jure dignitatis. That is, a person who has demonstrated the appropriate qualities to be given a particular office may be awarded the degree by virtue of the office held. It is another kind of earned degree.