what is the difference between associates degree, bachelors degree, masters degree and a doctorate degree?

Question

I want to learn more about this degrees and wich is better. By the way whats the difference between a college and university?

Answer 1

You have the general order down. Associates is the lowest degree, with doctorate usually being the highest.

Associates takes 2 years.

Bachelors typically takes 4 years, but that varies. It's considered "higher" than an associates.

Both of the above are considered "undergrad" degrees.

Masters and doctorates are considered "grad" degrees. You get these after getting a bachelors. Depending on what it is, sometimes you can get into a doctorate program without first getting the masters.

Masters usually takes 1-2 years.

Doctorates vary wildly in how long they take. Think 3-6 on average. The only weird time would be to see a doctorate that only takes 1 year. That would be HIGHLY suspect.

In the US, you can use the word college and university interchangeably. If forced to distinguish them, colleges don't offer anything beyond a bachelors. Universities offer up to doctorates.

You'll noticed I qualified doctorates as being "usually" the highest in the US. That's not always the case. Just look at law. In the US, for law, you get your doctorate first (JD), then can get a masters (LLM - a 1 year masters program) after.

Answer 2

An associates is typically earned at a community college or a junoir college and takes about 2 years (it isn't worth a whole lot). A bachelors degree is done at a university or a college and takes about 4 years. A masters degree can be aquired after you complete your bachelors and is done in a specific discipline (i.e. education, english, history, math, etc etc etc). These take about 2 years. A doctorate degree comes after your masters and is the highest echelon of education (again done in a specific discipline). The bachelors, masters, and doctorate all go together (i.e. if you get a bachelors in math, you don't work on your masters in literature). In fact, you have to have a basis in a subject as an undergrad (bachelors) to move on to graduate study (masters/doctoral).
Typically the rule of thumb is that a college does not have graduate studies and a university does. This is not a hard and fast rule, in fact, many many many schools do not follow this.

Answer 3

You listed them in the correct order.

At college you do the associates degree
At university you do the bachelors, masters and doctorate.

Answer 4

the amount of credits you have in a specific Field, and the guy that described it in years is retarded, it has nothing to do with time, it's all about the number of credits you have in a Field to accomplish a goal, you must take certain classes to do this called prerequisites, hope this helps. Tech schools give associates not colleges, Jay

Answer 5

To clear up the confusion:

Associate's degree
- Normal duration of 1.5-2.5 years to complete (with 2 years being "average")
- Normally requires approximately 60 college credit hours to complete, some schools require more but hardly any require less
- It's important to understand that most colleges have three semesters in a year - fall semester, spring semester, and summer semester - with summer semester being OPTIONAL for a full-time student
- Full-time in college is considered at least 12 credit hours per semester, up to 18 (anything over 18 is considered an "overload"), with the average being about 15
- Since 15 credit hours per semester is ~average, and many students don't attend college in the summer semester, that leaves only 2 semesters a year that they attend - fall and spring
- 2 semesters TIMES 15 credit hours (average) per semester EQUALS 30 credit hours per year
- 30 credit hours per year TIMES 2 years EQUALS 60 credit hours, or your normal Associate's degree
- Associate's degrees are traditionally associated with junior, community, and technical colleges, BUT are also offered in some "regular" colleges and universities
- Associate's degrees may be terminal (the highest degree) for a specific field, and this USUALLY only happens for technical fields, such as HVAC, private investigation, weaving, firefighting, etc
- Community college "instructors" or "professors" usually hold at least a Master's degree in a related subject area EXCEPT when the subject area they teach is specific or technical or an associate's or bachelor's is the highest degree offered in their field
- An associate's degree may typically be counted towards the first 2 or so years of a bachelor's degree, or you can stop college with your associate's
- Most colleges allow the "transfer" of college credits to other accredited institutions, meaning if your community college DOES NOT offer bachelor's degrees then you can transfer your ~60 or so credits to a school that does and earn your bachelor's

Bachelor's degree
- Normal duration of 3-5 years to complete (with 4 years being "average")
- Normally requires 120 credit hours to complete, some schools require more but hardly any require less
- Similar with the associate's degree example, if you take summers off, and take 15 credit hours per semester, there are 2 semesters in a year so that's 30 credits per year
- 30 credits per year TIMES 4 years EQUALS 120 credit hours (your average bachelor's degree)
- The main difference in the two degrees is that you don't necessarily have to get your associate's first, you can "skip" straight to your bachelor's, but you can get your associate's first in most situations if you really want to.... (people don't really care about an associate's when you have a bachelor's degree)
- Another difference is that most junior, community, and many technical colleges don't offer above the associate's level... so a bachelor's degree is normally associated with a regular college/university
- Both associate's and bachelor's degrees are UNDERGRADUATE degrees, which means you take your general education requirements (english, math, science, social studies) along with the requirements for your "major" (and "minor" if you have one)
- Almost always at least a Master's is required to teach at the bachelor level
- Your degree can be called a B.S. (Bachelor of Science) or B.A. (Bachelor of Arts). Other "kinds" of bachelor's degrees exist but those are the main two
- Same with associates, it can be an A.S. or A.A., but associate's also have AAS (the extra 'A' stands for "applied"), which is an associate of applied science degree, and the same can be done for arts, and a few other "types" of associate's degrees exist but thats not important

Master's degree
- Requires a bachelor's first
- Normally takes 1-3 years to complete (on top of the time it took you to get your bachelor's)
- Normally 36-60 credit hours
- Difference is that 9 credit hours is considered full time in graduate school (a Master's and Doctorate are GRADUATE degrees) and over 12 is usually considered an overload
- There are no "general studies" requirements for graduate degrees, they are "career-specific," "professional," and "research" degrees (meaning you study in a specific area and become an "expert" in that area)
- Master's is usually (I said usually) the minimum degree needed to call oneself an "expert" in a particular field, or to qualify as an expert witness in a court case, or to teach in a college setting
- M.A. = Master of Arts, M.S. = Master of Science, there are others (eg, MPA master of public admin, MBA master of business admin and MSW master of social work) but those two types of Master's degrees are the most common as with the other degrees mentioned thus far

Doctorate degree
- You can get a Master's then a doctorate, or be accepted straight into a doctoral program
- Usually people get a Master's first, or sometimes Master's first is an option for the doctoral program
- There are exceptions (a J.D., Juris Doctorate or Doctor of Jurisprudence is a "law" degree and you don't get a Master's first, the J.D. is a "professional" doctorate so you get a bachelor's then in ~3 years of schooling earn your J.D.)
- Most common doctoral degrees (like the Ph.D.) vary widely from 2-5 years or so ABOVE the time it takes for you to get a Master's
- Again, there are exceptions (an M.D., or Medical Doctor is another "professional" doctoral exception that goes from premed (undergraduate level) straight into medical school (graduate level)
- All doctoral degrees come with the title "Doctor" (EVEN J.D. degrees, so your typical lawyer can call himself "doctor" when testifying on the stand to overinflate his or her credibility)
- The Ph.D. is the norm for anything but a professional doctorate, but AGAIN, there are quite a few types of doctoral degrees so I don't want to get yelled at.... there is the Th.D. Psy.D. Ed.D. and so on
- The Ph.D. is traditionally a major research degree that requires a dissertation whereas many professional doctorates don't (that's why most college professors hold the Ph.D., they are "researchers")
- Many professional doctorates may require internships or "clinicals" or "residencies" and Ph.D. may require these too (especially internships/clinicals)

Whew!

That was a lot of writing.

Hope that helps.

P.S., in the U.S. there is essentially no difference between a college and university. (Besides the name)

In other countries, a college is typically a "lower" school whereas a university is a "higher" academic institution (e.g., a college only offers 2-yr or maybe 4-yr degrees and a university offers master's and doctorate's as well)