Types Of Degrees In University
There are 4 types of degrees in university: the associate’s degree, the bachelor’s, the master’s, and the doctorate. The associate’s degree is an educational program that offers you the most rudimentary training that you need within a certain field of expertise. Typical associate’s degrees are degrees in nursing or graphic designing, and generally degrees that can put you into the market immediately. In other words, the associate’s title is a form of vocational education. The programs in that level last two years and are mainly offered by community colleges and technical schools. After successful completion of such programs, the graduate can either look for work, or pursue a bachelor’s degree.
The bachelor’s degree belongs to that type of degrees in university that are more advanced; yet, despite the fact that such programs last for 4 years, the student is still educated on a general level. The bachelor’s title is further subdivided into two types of degrees in university: the BA (which stands for Bachelor of Arts), and the BS (which stands for Bachelor of Science). As the names suggest, the former refers to a liberal arts education, while the former refers to a science related title. A typical example of a bachelor’s is that in the field of psychology and a common BS title is that in physics. More than often the scope of these undergraduate degrees is so broad, that students with a bachelor’s degree are not yet very well-equipped so that they find a job in their field. This is especially the case with a Bachelor of Arts. A psychology graduate, for example has in fact many options: he can choose to continue his studies in psychology and become a psychotherapist, a psychiatrist, a researcher, or a professor of psychology; or he can choose to continue his studies in another field, like business and marketing, and work in human resources or develop aggressive marketing techniques for a company. In any case, though, despite the wide range of possibilities available to a psychology graduate, he is not yet equipped with the full set of skills needed to work in any of those positions.
If you wish to have more career opportunities nowadays, you need to pursue even more advanced types of degrees in university, which means either a master’s or a doctorate degree. Again depending on the field of knowledge and the skills that you choose to master, your title will be classified either as a Master of Arts (which is a master’s from the liberal arts department) or as a Master of Science (which is a master’s from the science department). Master’s degrees take no more than 2 years to complete; after that you can either choose to work or move on to the doctorate level.
The PhD (or Doctor of Philosophy) is the highest of all types of degrees in university, and even though you have been studying for 5 to 6 years before you are accepted in a doctorate program, it will take you another 3 to 4 years to complete it. Despite being the most difficult of all types of degrees in university, it is also the most respected. If you actually manage to become a doctor of philosophy, for example in psychology, you will be considered an expert in your field, and you will have the option to work either as a psychologist or as a professor teaching other psychology students in pursue of the respective available types of degrees in university.
