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Master Degree

This is a postgraduate academic degree that requires one to three years of study after receiving the bachelor degree. The master degree is designed to provide additional education or training in the student’s specific branch of knowledge.

Many students earn a master’s degree for extend their passion for a certain field of study, for intellectual curiosity, for expert advice on a remarkable topic or to land a high paying job. Other students earn a master’s degree to earn later a doctorate degree or Ph.D.

The academic schedule for a Master degree is less rigid than the undergraduate; graduates students have more freedom at the moment of choose courses and planning their academic goals. But not all is easy, usually graduate programs require students to write good and original works (theses) on a chosen topic. There works can be complicated and prolonged.

Types of Master degree


There are two types of Master degree:

    Academic Master’s:

    Usually the most common master degrees are the Master of Arts (M.A.) and the Master of Sciences (M.S.) which are awarded in art, sciences and humanity disciplines. These programs require the completion from 30 to 60 credit hours and they may lead directly to the doctoral level.

    Students may also choose between thesis and non-thesis programs, the degree is the same in both cases the difference is in the academic requirements. For students in the non-thesis program, there is more coursework in place of writing the thesis and they have also to take a written complete examination.

    For students in the thesis program, they have to research and writing a thesis and a complete oral examination covering both coursework and their thesis.


    Professional Master’s:

    These programs do not lead to doctoral degrees as the academic master’s do, for this reason they are known as “terminal” master’s programs.

    Professional master’s degrees are more oriented to the direct application of knowledge than the original research; students have to take a similar program of study that lasts from one to three years. These programs require completion of from 36 to 48 units and commonly not offer a thesis option.

    Professional Master’s degrees are designated by specific descriptive titles like master of business administration (MBA), master of education (MEd), master of social work (MSW) meanwhile other subjects include architecture, urban planning, journalism, international relations, public policy (MPP) and public administration (MPA).


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