There different types of degrees so we’re going to be talking about associate degrees bachelor’s degrees master’s degrees doctoral degrees and professional degrees we’re going to be talking about the differences in all of them how long they take and everything is important that has to do with these types of degrees this is something that confuses a lot of people let talk about it be gone you’re going to know everything you need to know about the distinctions between these different types of degrees.
- Associate degree
- Bachelor degree
- Doctorate degree
- Professional Degree
ASSOCIATE DEGREE
first, the one we’re going to talk about on this list is the easiest one to get it doesn’t take as much time that’s going to be the associate’s degree these degrees typically take around two years you can attend a community college or a university to receive one this is your first degree that you can get very bare bones it takes around 60 credit hours for you to receive it.
for the most part, most of your associate’s degree is going to be comprised of general education or pre-requisite classes these are going to be your basic intro level like 101 type classes English 101 math101 psychology 101, etc., and then depending on what major you pick there is going to be a small number of classes that are going to be devoted to that major and to be honest with you many people end up skipping the.
associate’s degree altogether if they’re going for a bachelor’s however if you’re somebody who doesn’t want to go to four years of school or you know you want to go to a community college you don’t want to go to the more expensive state schools or public or private schools.
there are some very good associate-level degrees some very solid associate-level degrees that are going to land you jobs and they only take around two years now sometimes associate degrees are going to get thrown in and kind of bunched in with different certifications they can take around two to three years as well and there are a lot of really good associate level degrees that take around two years or so in the health field as well as technology.
Bachelor Degree
going to be a bachelor degree which is generally going to take around four years and it’s going to be around 120 credit hours now in my opinion there are many bachelor majors where it really shouldn’t take four years in order to get them done and they can be done in like two to three years and then there’s some where it’s pretty tough and it’s going to be hard to even get it done in four years it might even take you five but colleges kind of just make every single major fit into that cookie cutter for your mold because in my opinion they’re kind of stuck in the past and they haven’t really caught up with the times but I’ve talked about this in other videos but there are ways for you to reduce the amount of time that it takes to get a bachelor degree sometimes you can cut it in half so you can get a bachelor degree in two years instead of four graduating two years early not only is going to save you money time but it’s also going to save you opportunity cost because you can start working two years earlier than everybody else now when it comes to your return on investment for how much you have to spend in order to get a degree versus how much it’s going to return to you out of all these different types of degrees the bachelor degree does seem to be you know on average the one that gives you the best and why is.
MASTER DEGREE
The next one on the list which is going to be a master’s degree is going to cost quite a bit more but it’s not going to make you all that much more when it comes to your future projected salary and that’s because one of the things that’s great about getting these undergraduate level degrees which would be the associate’s degree and the bachelor degree is you only have to take out undergraduate loans and undergraduate loans are much more favorable in many different ways than the grad plus loans you have to take out to go to grad school so there’s a lot to this but for one thing the interest rates undergraduate loans are going to be somewhere around three to five percent usually whereas the interest rates on grad plus loans are around seven percent so the next one on the list is going to a master’s degree this is the one that you would go into after you’ve already gotten a bachelor’s this is going to be another extra 40 to 60 credit hours right so you already took your 120 credit hours to get you bachelor’s degree to get your bachelor’s degree and then the master’s is going to be another 40 to 60. so you could end up taking 180 credit hours total now in my opinion master level degrees can sometimes be worth it when you look at it from a financial perspective.
PHD DEGREE
The next one is a PhD which is going to be a doctorate of philosophy now this isn’t the same type of doctor that you go to see when you’re getting a medical checkup this is different this is more of an academic doctorate and a simple way of describing this is you know you get your associate’s degree and you know a little bit about a subject right you know a decent amount about it you get your bachelor’s degree and you’re pretty well versed in a subject you know a lot about it you get your master’s degree and you’re like an expert like you are a master in that subject no put intended if you get a PhD you know so much about a certain subject that you can move the entire field forward and discover completely new things so you have such a high-level understanding of the subject that instead of having to read the books you can write the books yourself now PhD they say takes around 90 credit hours D DEGREE.
Professional Degree
The next is professional degrees now professional degrees are usually master’s or doctorate-level degrees but do not get them confused with PhDs professional degrees are not the same thing right so you might get your medical doctorate but that is not a PhD that is not a doctorate of philosophy medical doctors don’t have to create a dissertation and then defend it for instance so it’s completely different generally speaking professional degrees are the highest paying type of degree on average they’re so going to generally take less time to complete than a PhD.
so for instance. like Pharm, that’s a professional degree that can take sometimes six to eight years instead of the PhD which a lot of the time is going to take 10 to 12 years and that includes all of the undergraduate study as well as the post-grad study so some examples of professional degree would be a JD, which is what you would get to be come a lawyer another one would be an MPA or master of Public Administration another one would be an MSW or master social work and one thing you’ll notice about nearly all of these professional degrees is they directly into a specific career right so you get this degree and you know exactly what career you’re going for if you get a medical doctorate you’re going to become a medical doctor.