I don’t know much about college…HELP

amother

Wed, Sep 27 2006, 10:43 pm

Okay, I’m going anonymous because this is extremely embarrassing. I graduated a Chassidic high school and never even got the High school diploma because the school did not teach us the government’s required stuff and we weren’t tested.

I often admire people that go to college and get themselves this great education but I’m stumped. I need some smart-head here to explain the basic to me please.

First of all, why the BA , the Masters… all those weird titles? What do you gain besides for a title?

Is a BA related to a specific field or does it just mean ‘in general, I’m more educated”? is it a crash coarse of everything? Or is it industry related?

Once I have these questions answered, I will have a ton more.

I still need to know what kind of jobs expect what kind of titles, to motivate me to learn some more…

anon

Wed, Sep 27 2006, 11:01 pm

A BA usually means "Overall, I'm more educated", whereas a Masters is specific training for a specific profession. These days you generally need a masters to have any professional title, and you need your BA before you can go for your Masters. It used to be that you can become an accountant with just a BA, but I think they're changing the requirements, and with that too you will also need a Masters.

If you don't have a high school diploma, you will probably need to first get an associates degree which I believe takes about two years.

A BA generally takes around 4 years.

Masters is another 2-3 years.

However, there are some Jewish ways to get a degree which are much faster. There's something called something like the Raizel Roit?? Program where girls get certified fairly quickly. If you can't afford to be in school for another 8 years full time, then you may want to ask about some of these jewish type programs.

I hope this helped.

amother

Wed, Sep 27 2006, 11:10 pm

This sounds outrageous. You mean tot tell me that an accountant in some fancy Manhattan office has to get a degree which take like years to get? What happened to good old brains? Why would anyone want to work that many years for a degree which is just a general title? In that time you can almost be a doctor, no? There’s got to be another reason for this.

amother

Wed, Sep 27 2006, 11:23 pm

Well, there's brains, but there's also skill. An accountant needs to be smart, but no matter how intelligent you are, you can't learn the "nuts" and "bolts" of many of those kinds of jobs without being taught. Then it's the smart ones who are able to do really well with that knowledge and excel...

amother

Wed, Sep 27 2006, 11:29 pm

Okay, what’s a major? I guess after you get a BA, you pick a ‘major’ (a profession) to get a masters for? Or am I totally off? Now, what would a doctor have to go through – how many levels?

Mitzvahmom

Wed, Sep 27 2006, 11:30 pm

some jobs hire on experience...but majority if you want good pay, requires a degree.

Even in college u can get credit for life experience.

Example - due to alot of computer experience and training (I.e. myself learning) I was able to test out of taking a computer course.

amother

Wed, Sep 27 2006, 11:35 pm

What if I have a computer-related profession and I’m doing really well? I have a lot of computer-related knowledge, but I cannot prove it unless they test me!

I want to take the time to thank all you for the explanations, I’m so befuddled.

nicole81

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 12:03 am

a major is your concentration for the B.A., e.g psychology, chemistry, english, etc. about 20-50% of your college credits are completed in courses from your major. the rest of your credits consist of college wide requirements and electives.

to become a doctor, you must first get your B.A. (in any major.) but there are certain science, math, and psych classes that medical schools require you to take prior to admissions. then you have to take a standardized exam called the MCAT and if you're lucky enough to get accepted, it generally takes 4 years full time to get your M.D. or D.O. (doctor of osteopathy.)

After that you get the degree then you go into residency and train for another 3-7 years in your chosen specialty (ie pediatrics, surgery, etc.)

After your reseidency is done you may even chose to undergo additional training in a subspecialty.

The time is takes depends on what kind of doctor you want to be.

anon

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 12:11 am

Just to answer your previous question:

A doctor goes through 4 years of college for a BA. Then another 4 years of medical school which is probably more grueling than any other type of school. Then they have to do 2-4 years of residency, which is where they work in the specialty of their choice (e.g., pediatrician, obgyn, radiologist, internist, etc). While doing their residency, they do get paid (but not a good salary) and they have to work crazy long hours. After that it's almost over, but I think there's one more year of something else, but I don't know much about it.

So as you can see, getting some other degree of bachelors and masters is not nearly as hard as becoming a doctor. I think dental school is the second hardest.

LIke I said before, if you're not interested in all these long long years of school, then you should ask people about the quickie frum degrees. They're not SO quick, but definitely much quicker than doing it the regular way.

Nomad

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 12:30 am

yup - dh is doing 5 years of residency and will end up doing 1-2 more years after that - so 6-7 years of training even after med school is done.

Last edited by Nomad on Thu, Sep 28 2006, 12:31 am; edited 1 time in total

Pickle Lady

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 12:30 am

OK lets break it down.

BA stands for bachlers of arts- this is a degree that is mostly is in the field of humanties or art like photography to social work and things like that.

BS stands for bachlers of science this degree usually has people who major in medicine and engineering type things.

majors are just like what they seem to be a persons major discpline in one area while they study.

Each degree has required classes.

Most US college degree try to be well rounded besides focusing on a major like for example I studied civil engineering. I took around 50 classes for over 4 years. They were mainly math and engineering courses but I had to take some history, language PE courses for it to be a well rounded degree. That was what my univeristy required.

From a title a person can tell that they have a certain education behind them. Its like smicha. when a man has smicha you know that they have a certain amount of training and education.

masters degree are more specialized in a field than a bachlers. Then there are doctorate programs that is even more education. Mostly the people who get doctorates are doing it because they want to teach.

Nomad

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 12:40 am

yup so after a bachelors one can go to a graduate school

the graduate school can train for a masters degree which lets one specialize in a specific area. Accountants, speech therapist, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physicians assistant, and social work are common fields that people get a master's degree for.

there is also graduate school that gives one a Ph.D (this is known as a doctoral program). People who get a Ph.D. are trained in one area more intensely than a masters level and usually to end up teaching or doing research in that area. Biologists, psychologists, chemists get Ph.Ds People can also get Ph.Ds in other subjects like english, art, history

so graduate school can give a degree ranging from a masters to a Ph.D. depending on the program and how intensely one studies a certain subject.

after a bachelors degree, people can also get a professional degree. The schools that train for that degree are also more intense like law, dental, or medical, which trains for a career to provide services in a certain field and gives a more advanced degree than a masters (MD, JD - for law..)

ceo

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 12:52 am

Pickle Lady, you have a degree in engineering? Whoa! Impressive.

To the original amother, do you have a specific occupation/course of study that you are interested in? If so, let us know, maybe people here can give you specific information about programs you can do, etc. Nowadays, there are a lot of online degree programs- Raizel Wright is a frum one. A girl I know is doing a Master's in special Ed from a place called Grand Canyon University or something- also online.

Also, if you don' t have a HS diploma, you can do a G.E.D., and then a Bachelors.

amother

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 9:21 am

Original amother. I love to learn new things and I just think it’s time I do it officially, in a structured setting instead of scouring the world for new information. I am fascinated with the human body so I guess learning stuff medically would be interesting. I don’t care much about the human mind, so I’ll skip the pysch stuff in a blink. I am learning so much here, and I’m drinking it up – thanks to all of you! I just can’t believe that an accountant and a doctor have so many years behind them, that why would someone choose to be an accountant if the only thing (from what I understand now) separating them is just majoring for something else? I still don’t get it.

rainbow baby

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 9:29 am

amother wrote:

I don’t care much about the human mind, so I’ll skip the pysch stuff in a blink.

Sorry to tell you this but if you want to do anything in the medical field you need this "pysch stuff." If you are treating someone physically then you also have to take care of their "pysch stuff." That is the attitude of drs in the 1960's - 1980's. Being in the mediacal field you treat people as a whole not just part of them. I did midwifery and yes we spent a long time on the "psych stuff." I spent time on "psych" wards. You know something it made me a better midwife, so please do not disregard this "psych stuff" it is very very important. If you want me top explain more then please ask. I hope I explained myself.

amother

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 9:32 am

Okay, no I didn’t explain that well. I mean, I have no interested in psychology or any related subjects as a career / profession. Of course, I’m very interested and I want to know everything I need to know but I don’t want to be stuck for the rest of my life deciphering human behavior based on Freud and stuff like that. I’d rather fix physical and tangible issues. Heck, right now if I can legally take a throat culture from my kid, I’d be elated.