Coming from a country that was not "America" (which seems to dominate everything nowadays from the internet to lifestyles), everything was very confusing to me when I entered 12th grade and the pressure of starting to look for a college poured down upon me, so I live in an Arabic country and have been attending private schools all since, where a bilingual system remained of English and Arabic.
Ofcourse I didn't seem to care about all this in the younger classes because then you have to focus on your studies only as college seems to be way far off, but as you get closer to the higher classes, you need to open up sites on the internet of colleges, attend meetings with universities visiting your country, etc. and this is all very perplexing at first, well atleast to me for starters.
Some people might get a quick grasp of everything due to an elder sibling or a senior / college graduate friend, but one still needs to make out a lot of things without relying on someone else's help.
School to College is a big jump, and searching for a right college is way more stressful because you need to take matter into your own hands.
Here's a list of terms and glossary that I had found really difficult to understand when I started searching for colleges abroad, this might not be much helpful to residents for first world country residents since I bet they already have a fair idea what these things mean from the start, but for others I hope this article covers all that you need to know.
This is the status acquired by a student that has successfully completed their Bachelors Degree or Associates Degree and would now progress to a narrower field of study and specialisation into their course along with more research and coursework.
MSc / MS - Masters of Science
MA - Masters of Arts
MLS / MLIS / MSLS - Masters of Library Science
LLM - Masters of Law
MFA - Masters of Fine Arts
MEng - Masters of Engineering (not English)
The difference between MA and MFA is that, MA has a more liberal outlook and would allow you to intake subjects like Literature, History and General Studies while with MFA you'd have a fixed approach towards creativity and design. There is also the option (particularly in countries such as the US) to earn a master’s degree alongside your undergraduate studies. This is called “en route”, “in passing” or “in course” and is awarded following the successful completion of coursework and certain examinations.
Hope you got the gist of it. You can find many articles online on google to assist you with perceiving the various forms of educational systems and pre-college procedures.
Ofcourse I didn't seem to care about all this in the younger classes because then you have to focus on your studies only as college seems to be way far off, but as you get closer to the higher classes, you need to open up sites on the internet of colleges, attend meetings with universities visiting your country, etc. and this is all very perplexing at first, well atleast to me for starters.
Some people might get a quick grasp of everything due to an elder sibling or a senior / college graduate friend, but one still needs to make out a lot of things without relying on someone else's help.
School to College is a big jump, and searching for a right college is way more stressful because you need to take matter into your own hands.
Here's a list of terms and glossary that I had found really difficult to understand when I started searching for colleges abroad, this might not be much helpful to residents for first world country residents since I bet they already have a fair idea what these things mean from the start, but for others I hope this article covers all that you need to know.
The Sequencing of Educational levels
-School Sequence-
1. Nursery / Preschool
2. Kindergarten / Infant School / Preschool / Daycare
3. Primary School / Elementary School
4. Secondary School / High School
-College Sequence-
1. Undergraduate
This is directly the status acquired by students that had graduated school and are to start college, and this includes two kinds of degrees;
Associates
Associates takes about 2 years, and this is an alternative to the norm degree that falls in line after school which is Bachelors, the reason why this degree is chosen over bachelors is due to: lower tuition fees, fewer years of study so faster job placement and less competitive academic requirements. Credits from an Associates degree can also be transferred to a Bachelors degree in case of a change of mind later on only by some universities. There are four types of associate degrees: AA, AS, AAA and AAS.
AA - Associates of Arts
AS - Associates of Science
AAA - Associates of APPLIED Arts
AAS - Associates of Science
The main difference is that the “applied” courses are more focused on preparing students for a specific career, focus on practical job-related skills, whereas the AA and AS are targeted more at students who want to go on to a bachelor’s degree, with a focus on preparation for higher levels of academic study.
Bachelors
Bachelors usually takes 3-4 years based on the course you are taking, it is the FIRST degree to be acquired by a college entree that is going on a traditional educational path, and it involves various types of bachelors like BSc, BA, BEng, Bcom and BTech and more.
BSc - Bachelor of Science
BA - Bachelor of Arts
BEng- Bachelor of English
Bcom - Bachelor of Commerce
BTech - Bachelor of Technology
LLB - Bachelor of Law
There can be an overlap between two bachelors based on the course, e.g Psychology, Accounting and Business, in which case there's an option of choosing either type of certificate, and some universities offer a merged certificate of both, but in that case the student needs to fulfil both the conditions of the certificates. BSc often focuses on a tighter approach, focusing on the candidate's analysing skills and ability to focus on a detailed subject content, whereas BA has a broader area of learning due to assessing skills like communication and writing, however both are of the same importance.
2. Postgraduate
This is the status acquired by a student that has successfully completed their Bachelors Degree or Associates Degree and would now progress to a narrower field of study and specialisation into their course along with more research and coursework.
Masters
Masters falls directly after Bachelors degree and it takes 2 full years COUNTING Bachelors in, otherwise it's a total of 6 years from the time one starts college. A Masters Degree is a very valuable degree as it is the final formal degree that is recognized by many vocational fields to be the highest form of qualification available and also has the connotation of a successfully completed college alumni, but it's ofcourse not the concluding degree as you can see. Like Bachelors, Masters also has many branches.MSc / MS - Masters of Science
MA - Masters of Arts
MLS / MLIS / MSLS - Masters of Library Science
LLM - Masters of Law
MFA - Masters of Fine Arts
MEng - Masters of Engineering (not English)
The difference between MA and MFA is that, MA has a more liberal outlook and would allow you to intake subjects like Literature, History and General Studies while with MFA you'd have a fixed approach towards creativity and design. There is also the option (particularly in countries such as the US) to earn a master’s degree alongside your undergraduate studies. This is called “en route”, “in passing” or “in course” and is awarded following the successful completion of coursework and certain examinations.
PhD
PhD is the last qualification that can be attained by a college student, and it involves the production of a thesis that offers a compelling contribution in a specific domain. Its expanded form would be Doctor of Philosophy.
Hope you got the gist of it. You can find many articles online on google to assist you with perceiving the various forms of educational systems and pre-college procedures.
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