Major, Masters, Honours, PHD..... huh? (1 Viewer)

[BackCountrySnow]

Can someone give me an indepth expaination of these words.
Please.
I have some idea about what they are but I'm not all that sure.
Im certain there are others that are a bit vaig on these terms so I decided to ask in a thread.

Thanks in advanced.

 

[Triangulum]

Major = more or less your specialisation within the broad field covered by your degree. In most degrees you'll have to pick one or two majors. A major involves doing a minimum number of units within that study area.
Master's = a postgraduate degree (as opposed to a bachelor's, which is an undergraduate degree). Typically covers more advanced material and/or involves a major research project. You can't generally do it until you've done a bachelor's degree in the same area.
Honours = generally an extra year added onto a bachelor's degree in which you specialise in just one topic, which you'll need to have majored in during the main part of your degree. It typically involves a major piece of research. You get 'Hons' in brackets after the degree abbreviation, so a B Arts with honours would be BA (Hons).
PhD = a doctorate. (Short for "doctor of philosophy", but doctorates are known as PhDs in all disciplines, not just philosophy.) Involves 3+ years of original research leading to an 80,000-100,000 word thesis. You would typically need either a first-class honours degree or a research master's to proceed to a PhD. Once you get one, you can use the title 'Doctor'. It is more or less the gateway to an academic career.

 

[RogueAcademic]

The hierachy goes from:

Bachelor degree --> Honours --> Masters by Coursework --> Masters by Research --> PhD

The masters degree can be done as coursework only or research only, or a combination of both.

 

[darkliight]

PhD = a doctorate. (Short for "doctor of philosophy", but doctorates are known as PhDs in all disciplines, not just philosophy.) Involves 3+ years of original research leading to an 80,000-100,000 word thesis. You would typically need either a first-class honours degree or a research master's to proceed to a PhD. Once you get one, you can use the title 'Doctor'. It is more or less the gateway to an academic career.

Not all doctorates are PhDs, though it is the most common. It's also fairly common to undertake background research long before getting stuck into anything original. Also, word limits are kind of arbitrary. Your thesis will be as long as it needs to be to get your research accross - for instance, a maths phd thesis will have no-where near that many words.

 

[BackCountrySnow]

Master's = a postgraduate degree (as opposed to a bachelor's, which is an undergraduate degree). Typically covers more advanced material and/or involves a major research project. You can't generally do it until you've done a bachelor's degree in the same area.
Honours = generally an extra year added onto a bachelor's degree in which you specialise in just one topic, which you'll need to have majored in during the main part of your degree. It typically involves a major piece of research. You get 'Hons' in brackets after the degree abbreviation, so a B Arts with honours would be BA (Hons).
/quote]

So do you need honours to get into masters??
Also, do you need a certain mark to get into masters a honours??

 

[darkliight]

No need for honours to get into a masters program, and a credit average will be good enough to get into honours (though some honours programs can be really competitive - psych is an example I think - so check).

A good mark in honours will get you into a phd program, so you can skip the masters if the phd was what you had in mind.

 

[RogueAcademic]

No need for honours to get into a masters program, and a credit average will be good enough to get into honours (though some honours programs can be really competitive - psych is an example I think - so check).

A good mark in honours will get you into a phd program, so you can skip the masters if the phd was what you had in mind.

For a masters by research, if you don't have an honours degree, you'd have to complete the equivalent of an honours year called a 'masters preliminary' before getting into the masters degree.

 

[darkliight]

Hmm, I know someone who just got into a masters without having honours, though it was coursework and research. Maybe the prelim stuff was built into it though, but it was still only 1.5 years ..

 

[RogueAcademic]

Hmm, I know someone who just got into a masters without having honours, though it was coursework and research. Maybe the prelim stuff was built into it though, but it was still only 1.5 years ..

Which uni and in which area?

 

[ur_inner_child]

Masters requirements differ with each uni and with each type of masters.

You don't necessarily need an honours to get a masters.

Heck, you don't even need a bachelor to get a masters. Some want several years of relevant work experience.

You should consult the faculty/uni about the masters degree you wish to inquire about. Usually it will tell you entry requirements online anyway though.

However I feel RogueAcademic is right about research ones. Again, you should consult the faculty.

 

[darkliight]

Which uni and in which area?

Something medical related and UQ. It was last year so I'm a bit hazzy on the details, and I only really asked what was involved, not what the reqs were - though the person applying didn't do honours.

It was a masters that didn't have an undergrad equiv (like B.IT -> M.IT) if that matters, had a research component, and it was 1.5 years.

 

[RogueAcademic]

Something medical related and UQ. It was last year so I'm a bit hazzy on the details, and I only really asked what was involved, not what the reqs were - though the person applying didn't do honours.

It was a masters that didn't have an undergrad equiv (like B.IT -> M.IT) if that matters, had a research component, and it was 1.5 years.

If medical science-related, I suspect that maybe there may have been one minor research subject for the purposes of grade assessment but it wouldn't involve submission of a masters-level research thesis.

But if your friend has an MBBS as an undergraduate degree, that's a different story altogether.

 

[RogueAcademic]

__________________
Aim: B Eco & B applied finance@Mq.

If you're looking for go into econ or applied finance, you generally wouldn't need to do a PhD. A PhD in your area is really only relevant if you want to be a university academic/researcher or if you're going into govt policy area.

For now, complete your bachelor degrees (maybe with honours if you've got it in you, it would help show you've got the commitment and the smarts) and get into the workforce first. You'll know when it's the right time to do a masters degree like an MBA depending on what stage of your career you're in.

 

[lala2]

That made me wonder, if anyone knows at USYD:

Junior credit point = 1st year only or does second year count?
Senior credit point = 3rd year upwards only or does second year count?

I've been doing a bit of reading on the Arts faculty handbook and it says you need to get x amount of senior credit points to be considered a major, hence the question.

 

[Triangulum]

Junior = 1st year [eg. ECOS1XXX, PHIL1XXX, PSYC1XXX]
Senior = 2nd year and onwards [eg. ECOS2XXX, PHIL3XXX, MATH4XXX]

That's how it works in the arts and ec/biz faculties, but in the science faculty 1xxx is junior, 2xxx is intermediate and 3xxx is senior.