I was going to write about the travails of grad school (where I’ve been for the last couple years and what has been sucking up my writing motivation). But I realized that for the majority of the time I’ve had this blog, I would not have the necessary clarity of terminology to understand what I’m about to write. So as a public service to my past self, and others who may find it useful, I want to take a moment to map out higher education from high school forward.
High School Graduation
About 90% of US adults get past here
The figures vary depending on a number of factors, but depending on the state and measuring method, somewhere between 85%-95% of US adults have a high school diploma or equivalent by age 25.
This is the closest thing the US has to a common basis, probably because it’s the last stage where the government has a legal obligation to not only fund education, but to reach out to you and make sure you can access it, despite whatever disability or financial hardship may exist. Yet despite this heady promise, this is also where experiences start to diverge, depending on individual factors and what sort of resources are available in one’s school district. Some students graduate high school with AP credits, language credits, or other distinctions which, at some universities and in some states, can count towards higher degree requirements. Some schools or some extracurriculars offer preferential pathways into certain kinds of universities, and this is without touching on private, charter, or “prep” schools.
I don’t want to reinforce the myth that a person’s (child’s) future is irreparably predetermined by age fourteen. This was very much a myth that I was told. It was a prestigious mould that I could not make myself fit, and the dissonance caused me a lot of distress until I realized fairly recently I had proven it false. Still, in trying to understand why some people get further than others in their studies, this is a useful piece of the puzzle.
Enrolling in College
About 65% of US Adults get here
A little less than two thirds of US students will go from high school to some kind of higher education. At this stage there are three broad categories: community colleges, four-year traditional colleges, and trade schools.
A side note on chronology, here: when I say “two year degree” or “four year college” these are broad generalizations used by school administrators. While some programs do have a built in pace, many are flexible, and many students, myself included, took a non-traditional schedule, mixing part-time, full-time, intersession credits, and other pathways.
Community Colleges
Community colleges are small, often state funded operations that are supposed to provide an entry point to higher education and exist as a community resource. They may not have all the dorms or common spaces of a 4-year school, and tend to have cheaper faculty earlier in their careers who do less, if any, research. Most focus on two-year Associate’s Degrees (more on these momentarily), but they can also provide vocational certificates or oversee jobs training programs that overlap with trade schools.
Alternatively, they can serve as a “backdoor” for 4-year bachelor’s programs. This is becoming more common in state university systems, where some states like Florida give free community college tuition to local high school graduates, and then allow students to apply those classes to the requirements of a four year degree as a transfer student at a state university.
Four-Year “Traditional” Colleges
This is what most people think of when they think of college. Dorm life, sports teams, fraternities, campus quads, and all the accoutrements. These schools have international students, hire faculty who do research, and offer a broader range of more advanced and theoretical coursework, as well as opportunities to get involved in research, faculty projects, and the kinds of extracurriculars that have an impact on careers. Of course, this picture isn’t universally accurate. Many institutions under this category call themselves universities to distinguish themselves from community colleges- though the jargon is a bit fuzzy and debated.
What defines this pathway as distinct from others is that it typically involves committing full time for a number of years to a course of study. The breadth and depth of that course of study varies. In general, however, the expectation is that students who come in from high school without substantial credits either from high school or community college courses will devote four years of full time study, at least a portion of which will be in general skills like writing, foreign languages, mathematics, and the like. Most degrees also require a portion of study outside of one’s chosen field, in the interest of producing worldly, well-rounded graduates with robust critical thinking skills.
Trade Schools
Trade schools are closer to the community college end of the spectrum, but whereas community colleges often focus on broad foundational knowledge (which can, but doesn’t have to be, transferred into a traditional college program), trade school offerings focus on specific vocational training. Trade schools today conduct a lot of the training that once upon a time might have been handled by apprenticeships or entry level on the job training, as well as preparing students for niche careers in areas like healthcare or engineering, where technicians need specialized skills and certification to do a specific task.
College Graduation
About 45% of US adults graduate with an Associate’s Degree
About 35% of US adults graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree
Notice the sudden drop-off from enrollment to graduation? This is a known problem in US higher education, and is especially problematic for first generation, low income, and non traditional students, whose entire families may be committing resources or taking out loans to try and make a better life through the promise of education. In fact, the majority of student debt holders don’t have a degree to show for it.
Associate’s Degrees were alluded to earlier. In general they are two year degrees. Prospects vary. In fields where technical certification is required, like nursing, engineering, and some human services jobs, an Associate’s Degree with the corresponding certificate can be enough to secure a solid job. On the other hand, a generalist associate’s tends to be widely applicable to a variety of skills, but not very specifically geared towards being competitive in any one job. In the age of widespread college degrees, it is primarily useful for going into a Bachelor’s Degree program.
Bachelor’s Degrees are what most people likely think of as a college degree. Again, there are multiple categories here, but the two main categories are Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. Both are four-year degrees, though the latter tends to be a bit more specialized and focused, while the former is more of a generalist degree. The name has nothing to do with the subject; you can have a BA in Mathematics or a BS in Music.
Majors, minors, and concentrations vary by school, but very broadly, your major (or majors, if you’re precocious) is what your degree is in. Minors or concentrations can either be specialized areas within that, or an additional bonus outside of your major.
Graduate School and Beyond
I put Bachelors’ graduation as a clean break partly because the cohort shrinks a lot after that, but also because the order of operations gets fuzzier still. While it is entirely possible to progress linearly from one degree to the next from high school onto one’s thirties, plenty of others only come back to grad school after some time in the real world. More confusing still, different pathways have different numbers of steps and degrees involved.
Broadly, though, anything before this is “undergraduate” and anything after this is “graduate” level.
Master’s Degree
About 13% of US adults get this far
Master’s Degrees are becoming more common, partly as white collar “knowledge work” becomes increasingly specialized, or cynically, as more jobs require a Bachelor’s to even get through the door and rich nerds want to be keep an advantage. Most programs are between one and three years, and some universities allow for accelerated programs for some of the more common generalist degrees in conjunction with a Bachelor’s Degree in the same subject.
Professional Doctorate
About 3% of US adults get this far
This category mostly exists because of law and medical schools, though it’s becoming more of a popular niche in spots like education and nursing. What makes these degrees distinct from a research degree is their inextricable relationship to professional practice. A Juris Doctor (JD) prepares a student to take the bar exam and practice law. A Medicinae Doctor (MD) prepares a student to take medical licensure exams, begin medical residency training (itself a multi-headed beast, which varies by specialty), and practice medicine.
Both of these degrees also have competitive admissions with strong prerequisite undergraduate coursework standardized tests as a big part, and generate a major “pre-“ component. Students with the resources may devote gap years solely to preparing for admission. It is rare, bordering on impossible, to get into one of these programs except as a primary goal of professional focus. You would have a devil of a time persuading a med school admissions office to let you in because you think their degree would look good on a finance resume, for instance.
The PhD
About 2% of US adults get here
The PhD, short for Philosophiae Doctor, is generally recognized as the “ultimate” academic degree. It isn’t always the last degree someone completes; some people will go back and complete a master’s degree, or a professional doctorate in a related field that is relevant to their career. But generally, the PhD is what defines a person’s career field. A bachelor’s degree is required to apply for virtually all PhD programs, and many if not most require, or at least strongly prefer, a master’s degree or significant full time research experience.
Program structure, requirements, and timelines vary depending on school and field, but a very rough generalization is somewhere between four and seven years. Of this, usually some portion is spent on coursework, some as a trainee working with established faculty conducting research and teaching, and some spent conducting original research. PhDs generally produce a Thesis or Dissertation, which is supposed to be a student’s original work and contribution to the sum of human knowledge.
The amount of work that is done by PhD students which contributes to the larger work of a university (producing, analyzing, and conveying knowledge) means that they blur the line between student and worker. At larger universities, many introductory courses are taught or graded by PhD students, whose labor makes it possible for senior faculty to teach larger classes while maintaining their own research projects. Because of this, PhD students are typically paid, and in some cases are unionized and receive benefits comparable to career employees.
Post-Doctoral Students
The PhD is the highest rank of degree- as evidenced by the fact that it entails the funniest hat and most extra accoutrements of any degree at graduation. But it is possible to do more school after a PhD. Some master’s degrees are specifically designed for people who have a PhD but want to round out their expertise, particularly in something like law, medical research, or education. Because these programs tend to be singular in nature, it is very difficult to generalize about what they entail, other than that they do not outrank the PhD.
Then there is the Pandora’s box of “postdoctoral fellowships”. Not to be confused with medical fellowships, or doctoral fellowships. Postdoc fellowships are like a degree for tax and immigration purposes, and they tend to be for a limited time (think akin to a master’s degree), but in every other way, they act like an entry or apprentice level research job. Some give you a certificate for completion, and entitle you to a lifetime of emails from the alumni association, while others simply become a resume item.
There’s also no end to certificates, workshops, and gigs of questionable tax status. For as small a percentage of the population that has a PhD, there are very few jobs that require one, and almost all jobs where one is useful fall under the broad umbrella of “professional smart person”, whether that means research, teaching, or advising. Meaning that there can be quite some competitiveness about standing out with a PhD, and there is a growing niche industry that preys on that competitiveness.
As noted previously, some people go back after PhD and do another degree in something related to their field. For example, someone with a PhD in sociology who aspires to teach about social policy might do a Master’s in Public Policy to round out their policy credentials.
Me, Now
At time of writing, I have just graduated with a master’s degree. This degree took me two years, and comprised a cohort of a few hundred students in my subject at my large name brand university. This came after a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, a generalist undergrad degree. While no one else got my specific generalist degree the year I graduated, my state school department represented a greater proportion of the university’s students than my current department at name brand school. My degree was designed as a four-year full time program, but I started as a part time student and eventually added summer courses to finish in five years.
My masters degree was two years full time, plus a required summer internship. I will be starting a PhD in the same subject, come autumn. My contract is unionized, meaning I will make a modest salary with health and other benefits. My cohort in my subject is four students. I have my eye on a couple different options after I graduate between postgrad research fellowships and masters degrees aimed at PhD holders, but my field is changing quickly enough at the moment that I am not committing to anything at this stage.