I don’t think that’s usual. My B.A. lists my major
At my university, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, the main difference between a BA and a BS (at least in the College of Arts and Sciences; I have no idea how the other Colleges work) is that a BA candidate is required to take two years (or four semesters) of a foreign language. Social science BS candidates tend to follow one of two tracks:
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They’re secondary-education majors who want to teach a social science, and who then take education courses in lieu of a minor and thus graduate with a bachelor of science in education;
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They want to go into research, and pursue a BS to get the additional math and research courses.
To confuse matters more, some majors, including my own major of communications/journalism, do not offer a BS option at all. I have to get a BA to graduate in that field. Others do not offer a BA option.
In the hard sciences, a BA is generally less rigorous and requires fewer math courses than a BS.
This is one of those YMMV questions. Depends on the program and the university.
Robin
Rice University is similar to many other schools mentioned in this thread. The School of Engineering gave B.S. degrees, and when one got really picky about it the major field was part of the degree’s proper name - such as Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
The Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences schools gave B.A.'s. There, if one penetrated the formality deeply enough, one found that the major field was not a part of the degree’s name; a physics major would receive simply a Bachelor of Arts.
The Architecture and Music schools had their own bizarre degrees which I never fully figured out. I believe architecture majors got plain vanilla B.A.'s after four (or often five) years, could then go out and do some kind of year-long internship-like thing, and come back for another year to receive a Bachelor of Architecture. I think.
I think music majors received Bachelor of Music degrees, but I’m not 100% certain about that.
Back in 1971 at the University of Oregon I had the choice of a B.A. or a B.S. in my major, political science. I was inclined to the latter until a poll of friends revealed the conventional wisdom was that, if given a choice, one should take the B.A. “because it would show you had your foreign language requirement.”
I followed the cw, and, as far as I can tell, it has not made the tiniest bit of difference. It was disappointing in a way. I have since then had a modest number of jobs and am on my third career field. I have worked for companies employing as few as eight and as many as 25,000 people and, to the best of my knowledge, not one of those employers has even checked on whether I had a valid diploma or not – much less requested a transcript or any other formal evidence.
In retrospect, my folks and I could have saved a bunch of money, and I could have gotten a head start on earning some serious dough.
We had a similar division of classes at KU. I got a BGS (bachelor of general studies) rather than a BA in film because it allowed 23 more hours of electives within the department and had no foreign language requirement. To get a BA, you had to severely limit the amount of classes you were taking in your own major.
It was explained to me by two different advisors that the BA was for people seeking higher degrees and the BGS was for those looking to work in the field without pursuing a higher degree. (generalizations, of course).
Thanks everyone! Your posts were very enlightening (especially to a guy who’s not yet in college, let alone a degree-holder). Now I can confidently apply to U of C knowing that they aren’t all nutcases (or at least no more crazy than any other school).