The United States offers master's and doctoral degrees: both degrees include research and courses. The difference between postgraduate education and undergraduate education is that postgraduate education provides more in-depth training and more professional and intensive teaching. Compared with undergraduate study, the learning process of graduate students depends more on themselves.
Postgraduate courses assume that students have sufficient basic knowledge preparation in their fields of study. According to different subjects, some courses are quite formal, mainly taught by teachers, while others are relatively less formal, emphasizing discussion and communication between teachers and students. The seminar involves a small group of students, which is less than the number of students in the course. Students may be asked to give lectures and participate in discussions. Class participation, research papers and exams are all important.
Degree requirements are based on "credits" (sometimes called "units" or "hours"). Generally speaking, you will get three or four credits for taking a course, and the number of credits is generally reflected in the time spent in class and other assignments involved. If the university implements the traditional two-semester system, a student generally accumulates 24 credits in one academic year.
I. Master's degree
Master's degree provides students with extra education or training in this major, which far exceeds the level of undergraduate study. There are master's degrees in many different fields, but they are generally divided into academic and professional categories.
1, Master of Science:
Degrees awarded by traditional arts and humanities are usually Master of Arts and Master of Science. Master of science degrees are also awarded in technical fields, such as engineering and agriculture. Original research, research methods and field investigation are the focus of these disciplines. These subjects usually require 30 to 60 credits. If they are full-time students, they should be able to complete them in one or two academic years. These learning projects can directly lead to doctoral study.
Many master's programs offer a choice between theses and non-theses. The degree obtained by these two methods is the same, but the course requirements are slightly different. Students who don't write papers usually choose more courses instead of researching and writing papers. After all courses are completed, take a comprehensive written test. Those graduate students who need to write papers are generally comprehensive oral exams, including both courses and papers.
2. Professional master's degree:
The purpose of vocational master is to lead students who have obtained the first degree to a specific career. Vocational masters are mostly "terminal" masters, which means that the study programs of these masters do not lead to doctoral programs. Such professional master's degrees often have specific descriptive names, such as Master of Business Administration (M.B.A), Master of Social Work (M.S.W), Master of Education (M.Ed) or Master of Literature (M.F.A). Other professional master's degrees include journalism, international relations, architecture and urban planning. Vocational masters point more to the direct application of knowledge than to original research. Compared with academic degree programs, vocational degrees are more structured, and each student often needs to study similar or identical learning programs. According to different schools and fields of study, the study time varies from one year to three years.
Vocational degree courses usually require 36 to 48 credits (equivalent to 1 to 2 years of full-time study), and usually do not provide the option of writing papers. These degree programs do not always require students to have a bachelor's degree in a specific field, but they may suggest that students study to a certain extent in advance or take a certain number of courses in their own field.
Important differences:
One of the main differences between various master's degree programs is whether these programs are designed for students who intend to continue their doctoral studies. Those master's degree programs that specifically indicate that doctors are not invited are called terminal master's degree programs. Most professional masters belong to this category. If you decide to pursue further studies and pursue a doctorate after a period of time, the credits you studied in the terminal master's degree program may or may not be transferred or applied to the new degree program.
Some departments of some schools only admit students who wish to pursue doctoral degrees, but these departments also award terminal master's degrees to students who have completed a certain number of courses but have not continued to pursue doctoral degrees. One of the requirements for other departments to admit doctoral students is that the applicant has a master's degree.
Because the policies of different schools are different, the policies of different departments in each school are different. You'd better contact the specific graduate departments directly to understand the structure and admission rules of their master's and doctoral candidates.
Second, a doctorate.
The purpose of doctoral degree is to train scholars engaged in research, and in many cases, to train professors for universities. Obtaining a doctorate shows that a student is a well-trained researcher in a specific field.
At the level of doctor's degree, doctor's degree (doctor of philosophy) is the most frequently awarded degree in various disciplines. Other doctoral degrees are mainly in vocational fields, such as education (doctor of education) and business administration (doctor of business administration). The doctoral degree program involves advanced courses, seminar courses and doctoral thesis writing. The doctoral thesis expounds the students' original research and is completed under the guidance of the tutor.
Usually, after completing all courses within three to five years, students will be given a comprehensive examination when both students and tutors think that they are ready. The purpose of this kind of examination is to examine whether a student has the ability to use the knowledge gained from courses and independent study in a unique and creative way. Students must have a comprehensive understanding of their chosen research field. The successful passing of this exam marks the end of students' courses and the beginning of concentrated research.
To get a doctorate, students must complete an important original research, write a doctoral thesis describing this research, and successfully answer it in front of a group of professors who specialize in this field. This process may take another two to three years, so depending on the research field, it may take five to eight years to get a doctorate after obtaining an undergraduate degree.
In the United States, you can find various non-traditional doctoral programs; Compared with traditional doctoral programs, these programs may have very different requirements. Students who intend to apply must find out what conditions are needed for the study program they intend to enter and the conditions for obtaining a degree. There are generally relevant information in the catalogues and websites of various universities, and students can also obtain this information directly from relevant departments.
Professional classification
First, generally speaking, majors can be divided into two categories:
1, Arts and Science Program:
natural science
social science
the humanities
2, professional planning professional:
Business, law, medicine, engineering, education, etc.
Two, from the specific professional categories, can be divided into the following eleven categories:
Business, law, medicine, engineering, education, science, libraries and libraries. Information research, social science and philosophy. Humanities, health, public affairs, fine arts
I hope it helps you ~