# Someone explain college degrees to me **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 23, 2005, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-college-degrees-to-me/336969 "2005-12-23T14:24:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ka-BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Ka-BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ka-BOOM)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-college-degrees-to-me/336969/41 "2005-12-24T15:18:10Z")
> [@Ferret Herder](#): > > I also wanted to clarify that an Associate’s degree is not necessary to get; rather, it’s typically the degree you get if you go to a two-year/community college, and you can go on to another institution to get a Bachelor’s. I don’t think most four-year colleges/universities grant Associate’s degrees at all. I just received my Associate’s degree from a community college. The nice thing about getting an Associate’s is that many (but not all) four year institutions will give a blanket acceptance of all general education classes to transfer students who have one. This is very useful as there is none of the “picking and choosing” of transfer credits that takes place with students who transfer without the Associate’s. ---
**Author:** ![eponymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@eponymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eponymous)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-college-degrees-to-me/336969/42 "2005-12-24T15:25:05Z")
> [@Ferret Herder](#): > > I don’t think most four-year colleges/universities grant Associate’s degrees at all. That’s true; however, there are a few colleges in the US that do offer both Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees. [Rio Grande University](http://www.rio.edu/) ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-college-degrees-to-me/336969/43 "2005-12-24T17:37:39Z")
I just thought of another degree, which is not widely known but does exist: the Certificate. At Purdue, a Certificate requires no prior college degrees, and usually 15 credit hours (5 classes)–but at quite a high level, sometimes graduate. I don’t understand quite why they were created, because people without previous college experience would have a hard time with the coursework, but they do stand in as a sort of “minor” on lots of people’s graduate degrees. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-college-degrees-to-me/336969/44 "2005-12-24T17:50:55Z")
The University of California also offers Certificates, usually as proof of advanced training in a subject. I have several: one in Creative Writing and one in Gifted and Talented Education. I am currently working on a third in Advanced Placement. There are a lot of jobs that use those as mileposts for advancement. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-college-degrees-to-me/336969/45 "2005-12-24T17:54:48Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > I just thought of another degree, which is not widely known but does exist: the Certificate. . I’m not sure I’d call a certificate a degree, though it may look almost as good on a resume. As a matter of fact, I’m planning on starting a 32-unit cert course in computer science in the near future. I’d rather it were an actual degree, but it does offer the content I’m looking for and the name of the school looks good on anybody’s resume. Graduate degrees in CS are usually only for those who already have a BS in it, unless they want to spend a year or more doing catch-up work, while the cert program I’m looking at offers much of the undergraduate material of a BS in CS. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-college-degrees-to-me/336969/46 "2005-12-24T20:09:38Z")
JDs, MDs, DVMs, etc. are among the so-called “professional doctorates”, or “first prodessional degrees”, that are a different sort of thing than the PhD, the “academic” doctorate. The title of the latter is “doctor of philosophy” because once upon a time all the higher ed subjects were considered “philosophy” (=“Love of Wisdom”). Generally speaking, “doctor”, from the same root as “docere”, means one who has and is qualified to impart knowledge in a field at the highest level. The elevation of the Professional School degrees to “doctor” may have a lot to do with seeking to have the faculty in the universities’ professional schools rank equally with the faculty in the schools of Arts & Sciences. This however has not avoided in any way a certain segregationism between the PhD vs. the professional doctorates. The main distinguishing characteristic of a PhD in whatever the subject, as mentioned earlier, is extensive original research and a grueling evaluation to the effect that you can contribute to the creation and spread of new knowledge in the field. Derision does tend to unfairly fall on some degrees because they suffer devaluation at the hands of bureaucracies and the market – for instance, school boards start requiring an Ed.D. for people to be promotable beyond X pay level or post, regardless as to whether you’re an educator or administrator, leads to higher demand for universities to offer Ed.D. programs, and many people getting the Ed.D. for “ticket-punching” purposes, and the degree’s academic prestige is eroded through no fault of those who really wanted to become experts at educational policy and theory. Business Administration for the longest time resisted the Professional Doctorate route, sticking to the MBA as “terminal degree”, perhaps in great because of reservations in the business world as to “ivory tower” attitudes among people with “doctor” stuck to their names. The market, however, has for a while now been eroding the value of the MBA, except when achieved at an “elite” school. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-college-degrees-to-me/336969.md?page=2)