fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2625 ]

[ SECRET POST #2625 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2625 ⌋

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(Loosely inspired by the above 'I Felt Evil Today' thread.)

I was talking with my father about various things, and we got to arguing about how long my degree was taking. I'm spending 3 years at community college instead of 2, meaning my B.A. will add up to five years, but I will graduate with two Associates Degrees in fields only marginally related to any of the majors of my B.A. (and I say 'any' because I'm technically double-majoring with a minor, but my additional studies and certifications will add up to a workload of three majors).

My father said that I was taking far too long with my degree, and I said that considering the extra degrees and majors, I'm doing pretty well for being only on the longer end of the average time it takes to get a B.S.

He objected to the 'average' part. For context, he comes from India, where apparently the norm is 3-4 years for a B.S. degree (and even less time is not unheard of). I explained to him that in the U.S., 4-5 years is generally the norm, and in California (where we live), 4-6 years is increasingly becoming the norm because the school system is so overcrowded that getting the classes required to graduate is difficult, and the fact that more and more students have to do things like jobs, internships, or well-calculated volunteer efforts just to stay afloat either in school or after it.

This...devolved between us, but it did get my curious. I've heard that in many other countries, 3-4 or even 3 years is normal, but based off what I've seen, much of that is because there are less classes required of students to graduate (my father was mystified as to why I was taking so much science classes when all my fields of study were social sciences/humanities - I was mystified that he never had to take any kind of language or literature class in the process of pursuing a mathematics degree).

How long does it take to earn various degrees or certifications in your country/area (apparently in the U.S. midwest, 3-4 years is still the norm?). And what kind of requirements do you have for that degree/certifications/etc.? Around here, along with a multitude of classes for your actual major/field of study, those classes often require lots of marginally-related prerequisites, and you also have to take a slew of other classes unrelated to your major ('general education requirements'). But apparently in most places it's strange to see Literature students in college math classes...?

Four years is considered "on time" in the university system I teach in although double majoring or additional associate's degrees would certainly add time. I don't think five years for a bachelor's is beyond the pale in any way.

As far as degree requirements go, most bachelor's degrees in America require that students take a core curriculum which is composed of basic classes in a variety of disciplines such as science, English, math, and history. So, all our literature majors have to take math and science classes. And all our aviation majors have to take lit classes.

3 years for a bachelor's degree - I was in a direct honours program, so 4 years for me.

In my time, my uni required all students to take 3 science modules, 1 arts module, and 1 business module - those were the general requirements across the board. Everything else is specific to your degree. I was a lit student, but I wound up taking a course in forensic science and one in astronomy, both of which really stuck with me =D I believe it's currently been modified to you having to take 5 of these general requirement classes, with at least 1 in each category: science, humanities, business, and liberal studies.

Each semester you're allowed to take 5-6 modules. Double majors are generally meant to graduate in the same amount of time as single majors (they're required to take fewer modules per major than a single major, but combined they do have a bigger workload); they can appeal to overload (i.e. take more than 6 courses in a sem) if they need to. Each module is worth 3-4 academic units, and you need a minimum number of AUs to graduate.

On the one hand, general education around only requires 2 science classes...but it also requires 2 English classes, 3 arts/humanities classes, 3 social science classes, and 1 foreign language class.

I grew up and currently live in the midwest US and went to college in the northeast. In those places, BA/BS programs are generally designed to take four years as a full-time student, but obviously there is some variation. Some people can finish early if their school granted them credits based on accomplishments in high school or if they packed in extra classes in the summer. Some students take longer for a variety of reasons. I wouldn't be surprised at someone taking five years if it meant finishing with a double major and associates degrees.

Grad school varies widely. I got my MA in only two years, but I went to a university that strives to push students through quickly on the MA. I know a lot of people who took far longer. (Personally, I think a lot of schools need to find ways to make the MA quicker. When I was looking for a new job a few months ago, I applied to some government jobs that considered an MA to be equivalent to two years of full-time work experience in your field. That means an MA is only worth two years in the eyes of at least some employers.) My dad earned an MA and PhD together and that took him six years total on top of his four-year BA, and that was considered kind of long by the standards then (the 70s) - people were expected to complete a PhD in four years after completing their BA/BS.

I've known a couple of people who went to grad school in the UK and I'm rather impressed by how short those programs can be, but also a little aghast at how this results in such ridiculously young PhDs!

I've always wondered about that in fanfic. Merlin fandom always had Merlin be very young with his Ph.D's in AU fics and I always just assumed it was handwaving his age to make it match up to canon ages, but apparently not?

3 years here for a BS with a double major.

Literature student in a maths class is rather rare. That said I graduated with a student who double majored in Japanese and Statistics so...

I'm on the east coast, and my experience is similar to yours. A degree is expected to take four years of study. However, there are too many students and too few professors to teach the required courses, so many people wind up spending an extra year as undergrads.

3-4 years for a normal, 4-5 for a normal with a double attached...then tack on another year if they do honors...

Wait, what does "a double attached" mean? And...honors is a separate thing or is it part of the degree itself?

Sorry, I mean like if you're doing a double degree, or a degree with an associates or diploma attached to the side. So instead of doing 2 separate degrees for say 3 years apiece, you do both of them at once in 4-5 years. Basically knocks a year or two off.

For us, honors is separate. Most people go straight into honors if they want to do research or a Masters or PhD but a honors is not necessary to get into a Masters (not sure about PhDs). I know some people automatically consider it part of a degree but it's not, it's a separate process you have to apply for that isn't necessary for some things?

I'm from the southern US, and for both me and my brother and sister it took 5 years. He had a double major, I a major+cognate, and she changed majors midway. We also all worked through school; I think if you're just taking classes you can take more per semester and do well, but I wasn't taking much more than the minimum because I had to work enough hours to pay for tuition--I also didn't take any summer courses. So that probably affects it.

We apply to either a Bachelor's Degree course, a Year Study in a field or in some cases a Master's Degree course, but usually you apply for a MA after getting your BA, which you can only apply to with a C or above average, but most of them it has to be a lot higher as there is a fight to get the spots.

Bachelors is 3 years (180Study Points)
Masters is 2 years (120 Study Points)
Ph.d is 2 years

MA's and Ph.d's usually take longer than 2 years to complete, but it is possible and that is the time that is the norm, you have to apply to spend more time on it, as we are only enrolled for the standard amount of time.

We get 7 years of Higher Education funded by the state so if you want to keep your student loans and scholarships you have to finish pretty in that time period.

A Bachelors Program usually looks something like this, you take 30 Study Points (SP) each semester, which is usually 2 or 3 subjects.

15-20SP is put aside for Examen Philosophicum and Examen Facultatum, two subjects which are mandatory to earn a Bachelor's Degree in Norway.

30SP or so are put aside for subjects that don't directly involve our degree, some Universities might also have a mandatory small (7,5SP) Humanities course for the Science people and Science for the Humanities, to show them that they have to work together and that both sides of the coin are important.

30 - 60 SP are usually intro courses or the basics

30 - 60 SP are for specialisation

30ish SP to write our BA

I think we might have less choice in what we do with our degrees than a lot of other countries, but we do pick some of our subjects either for a specialisation or out of interest, there is also no one stopping us from taking extra subjects if we want to and in some cases there are enough spots or we qualify.

What are Examen Philosophicum and Examen Facultatum? As in, what subjects/topics are you studying for them?

Snagging this from Making_Excuses as she hasn't answered you yet (though this is really late)

Examen Philosophicum (or ex.phil) is basically learning about philosophy, like about different philosophers and philosophical principles.

Examen Facultatum (or ex.fac) depends on your field of study. Like I am currently working on a bachelor's degree in history so my ex.fac was in history, archaeology and conservation studies. It had, at least with my field, also some philosophical elements, and in my seminars we discussed a lot about whether or not history is a science or not. We also talked about laws (and whether or not they existed in the field) and methods used when studying history. Making_Excuses would have a different experience from me here as she studies another subject.

Australia, generally 3 years' worth of full time coursework for a Bachelor, but sometimes 4 or 5 depending on the course. Add another year for an honours thesis.

In Canada (where I got my BSc and MA)?

Four years for a bachelors, two to four for a masters (anywhere between two and three is normal, the shortest I've ever heard of anyone doing it was a year and six months), three to eight (!!) for a phd. PhDs used to have no time limit, but they want to open more spaces for grad students, and eight is (more than) reasonable. Normal is 4-5.

In Japan (where I'm getting my PhD)?

Four for a bachelors, two for a masters, three for a phd (programs that lead directly to a phd right out of undergrad take five years, so there are no shortcuts), and rarely does anyone take longer than they're supposed to because it "looks bad" to future employers. There's precisely one student in my program of about 50 who's on year 6, and one who's on year 7, and they're both graduating this spring.

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[ SECRET POST #2625 ]

How long does it take to earn a degree in your area?

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