U. of Wyoming 3 Year Degrees OK

Well, you usually complete about 120 semester hours for an American B.A. 40 upper division hours, mas o menos, are in your major. The remainding 20 upper division hours are "general education" selected to support your major, perhaps, but outside of it nevertheless. (I am speaking here of the usual Arts and Sciences B.A.) The 60 lower division s.h. are even more diverse.

Now, in a U.K. three year B.A. program in, say, History or English, the student "reads" literally NOTHING BUT History or English. There are few if any "general education" requirements.

The result is a much deeper, much narrower education.

 

continued

General education in the U.K. is supposed to happen at the secondary school level, not at the University.

It has been said that a U.K. B.A. is roughly equivalent to a U.S. M.A. in the same subject. I would qualify this to the extent that some U.S. M.A. programs require a research project or thesis, which the U.K. B.A. doesn't usually require.

On the other hand, a first class U.K. B.A. will apparently qualify the holder for direct admission into a research only D. Phil. program so the British must consider their B.A. coursework (with first class honours, anyway) to be graduate level work.

 

Hello dl_MBA,

I would hire an alleged “fake” degreed Indian housewife over your ostensibly racist attitude any day!

BTW, I am NOT from INDIA, I have a Bachelor's Degree, three Master's (one from an Ivy League School), and a PhD (and various certificates and I am board certified in my field). Although I can NOT thump my chest about the GMAT (I never took it), I can say that any feeble-minded fool (redundancy for emphasis) can get lucky on a test that he prepared for.

Let there be peACE in your heart and mind!

ACE

 

rajyc and dl_mba need to kiss and make up! Aceman, although I understand appreciate your position, I don’t think dl_mba was applying to any of your open positions.

We have better things to do than be upset and throw mud, especially in this common place of information sharing and education.

Indians are our friends. If someone presented you with an opportunity to grow I would hope you would act in a similar fashion. They want the same things we want. If one good thing can come from capitalism, I hope it is in the form of sharing some of our wealth. We really have a lot to be thankful for here in the states. Granted, most of the work (here) is created either by our own "soft" and fair-weather IT employees and or our own rich white men who want to cut costs to boost financials.

As for their credentials, it is unfortunate they would need to fabricate their resume; however I do not fault them for being creative and resourceful. I would have a serious problem with the contracting agency if the resources did not produce as promised. In the end the bad contractors would be let go, it’s all part of resource management.

-Steve

 

M-m-m-m-m! Chicken curry? Medium hot? Or maybe SHRIMP curry. (Close your ears, little fauss!)

 

Re: continued

A BA in the British (Irish) system occasionally requires a thesis (eg TCD), but more often it is optional.

A IIi BA(/BSc/BTh etc) will also qualify the holder for (direct) admission to a DPhil / PhD. In most instances, a candidate registers as an undifferentiated research student, and after a designated period of time, and if work is proceeding satisfactorally, then registers specifically for a PhD. A IIii graduate may often also register as an undifferentiated research student if the relevant coursework from the undergrad degree received a IIi grade.

P

 

How about Ivy League School curry?? or three masters curry ? !

 

Re: continued

Question on direct admission to the doc in the UK:

In the US system, direct admission to the doc means doing the same 90 semester hours (= 135 quarter hours = 45 qtr hrs + 60 sem hrs = 30 sem hrs + 90 qtr hrs) as the person who got their MA first and then the PhD.

In the UK system, does direct admission to the doc mean going directly to the DPhil thesis, or does it mean starting out with the MPhil dissertation with the assumption that one will hang around to do the DPhil thesis when that is finished?

 

Re: Re: continued

Does the British-system BA always require a thesis? Or is that dependent on whether one's British-system (incl. Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, etc. ) BA is the four-year honours BA or the three-year general BA? I think the thread was originally about a three-year BA from Indja being accepted by the University of Wyoming.

 

Re: Re: Re: continued

Originally was about the acceptance of three year deggrees as equivalent to a four years degree at the UW. It did not specified the Country.

 

Re: Re: continued

So, is it possible to obtain your PhD in three years for a total of six years of University education (BA +PHD)?

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: continued

That's right. I didn't bring up three year degrees in the context of any particular country. I was just surprised to see the acceptance of three year degrees especially when so many of the universities I researched for a Computer Science masters degree specifically reject three year degrees for the purpose of admissions. From what I gather from this thread, it would appear that the acceptance of three year bachelors to MBA programs isn't all that unusual.

 

Okay. I stand corrected. The original post was about 3-yr. BA's being accepted for admissions purposes at the UW MBA. Indian degrees were not mentioned until the second post.

Does anyone know the answer to my questions re:

(a) thesis requirements being applicable to only the 4-yr. honours BA or the 3-yr. general BA as well?

OR

(b) direct admission to the doc in the British system involving picking up an MPhil on the way or doing the DPhil thesis only?

 

Re: Re: continued

Basically it does mean going directly to the Doc thesis. In the UK system the only requirement for a PhD(/DPhil) is a thesis (usually 80,000-100,000 words). A student registers as an undifferentiated research student first. After a period of time (9 months - 1 year for a full time student, twice that for part time) a decision is made whether to proceed towards a PhD or an MPhil/MLitt. Usually the MLitt/MPhil thesis is shorter (40,000-60,000 words), and need not include research that makes an original contribution to the field. Often people will start out with a PhD as the goal, and end up with an MPhil/MLitt because they ran out of steam, couldn't find the material etc. Likewise, many people begin working on an MPhil/MLitt and end up getting a PhD.

P

 

Re: Re: Re: continued

Yes! Perhaps even in five years - I have heard of a PhD being done in 2 years by VERY hard working full time sudents - bit it means not having a life for 2 years, and a good source of funding!

P

 

Ted,

(a) The thesis is usually optional in the British / Irish system, afaik.

(b) I don't know of any case, under the British system, where a PhD candidate "picks up" an MPhil on the way - even if they did, it wouldn't matter - once one is a doctor of philosophy, one is no longer a master of philosophy.

Regards,

P

 

What is the function of a taught MA in the UK system? Is the taught MA ever a stepping stone to DPhil studies? Or does one skip the MA altogether and proceed either to the MPhil or even directly to the DPhil if one intends for the DPhil to be the ultimate goal?

 

Either! It is often used as a stepping stone for doctoral research - particularly is there was no significant research component in the BA. Likewise the MPhil can be used as a stepping stone to research at doctoral level (but this would be more unusual). It is quite common to proceed directly from BA to PhD, particularly where the student has a very strong interest in one area of undergraduate studies. A masters can be an opportunity to devlop an area without the commitment of producing a doctoral thesis. It is also a way of bringing an undergraduate student up to work at doctoral level.

As an aside, there are 2 types of MPhil - the primary type is a research only degree, similar to a short PhD (50,000-60,000 words). In some universities this degree is an MLitt (eg Trinity College, Dublin). In colleges that use the MLitt designation, the MPhil is usually a research degree with a taught component - similar to the (UK) MTh - the thesis would be approx 1/2 the length, and there would be a number of shorter research papers on areas that were taught by lecture.

P

 

Oxford offers FIVE master's degrees in law:

The MA(juris) which is the B.A. plus four years "on the books" (and really isn't an academic degree at all);

The B.C.L, which is a taught, one year master's degree for lawyers trained in the common law;

The Magister en droit, which is the B.C.L. equivalent for lawyers trained in the Civil Law;

the M.Phil which is a pure research master's degree requiring a year or so; and

the M.Litt. which is a pure research master's degree requireing two years or so and falling midway between the M.Phil. and the D. Phil in terms of thesis size and importance.

 

Actually, Oxford awards the MJur. The Maîtrise en droit, although a Master's level qualification, is actually an undergraduate qualification at Cambridge and UCL, and the MPhil is only available as a one year add-on to people who've done the BCL or MJur.

You missed out the MSt in Legal Studies and the MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice, for a grand total of seven.

Never let it be said that Oxford makes understanding the system easy.

Angela