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Graduate
education in the United States will
almost
certainly be different from the system offered
in your country.
Graduate
Degrees
The
two graduate degrees offered in the United
States
are the master’s degree and the doctoral degree;
both involve a combination of research
and coursework.
Graduate education differs
from undergraduate education in that it offers a
greater
depth of training, with increased specialization
and
intensity of instruction. Study and learning are more
self-directed
at the graduate level than at the undergraduate
level.
Depending
on
the subject, courses may be quite formal, consisting
primarily
of lecture presentations by faculty members, or
they
may be relatively informal, placing emphasis on
discussion and
exchange of ideas among faculty and students.
Seminars
involve smaller groups of students than
lecture
courses, and students may be required to make
presentations
as well as participate in discussions. Class participation,
research papers, and examinations are all important.
Degree
requirements are stated in terms of “credits”
(sometimes
called “units” or “hours”), and each course
usually
earns three or four credits, generally reflecting
the
number of hours spent in the classroom and the
amount
of other work involved. A student will usually
accumulate
24 credits per academic year if the university
operates
on a traditional two-semester system.
Master
Degrees
The
master’s degree is designed to provide additional
education
or training in the student’s specialized branch
of
knowledge, well beyond the level of baccalaureate
study.
Master’s degrees are offered in many different
fields,
and there are two main types of programs:
Doctoral
Degrees
The
doctoral degree is designed to train research scholars
and,
in many cases, future college and university faculty
members.
Receipt of a doctoral degree certifies that
the
student has demonstrated capacity as a trained research
scholar in a specific discipline.
At
the doctoral level, the Ph.D. (doctor of philosophy)
is
the most common degree awarded in academic disciplines.
Other
doctoral degrees are awarded primarily in professional
fields, such as education (Ed.D. or doctor of
education)
and business administration (D.B.A. or doctor
of
business administration).
Doctoral programs involve
advanced coursework, seminars, and the writing
of
a dissertation that describes the student’s own
original research,
completed under the supervision of a faculty adviser.
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