College Tour Degree Designations

Colleges grant degrees.

These degrees indicate the level of mastery a student has achieved in a particular subject. Degrees usually granted by a college include; BA or Bachelor of Arts, BS or Bachelor of Science, BFA or Bachelor of Fine Arts, MA or Master of Arts, MS or Master of Science, MFA or Master of Fine Arts. Community colleges grant degrees known as AA or Associates of Arts.

Colleges also grant credentials and certificates. A credential indicates having completed a course of study, such as teaching. A certificate is granted after completing a course in a skill or set of skills such as word processing or bookeeping.

Doctorates.
There is one additional classification of degrees. These are called Doctorates and the scholastic designation is PhD. While people with a BA are rarely called “Bachelors” and those of us with Masters are almost never called Master, people with PhDs really like being called, “Doctor.”