BA vs. BS?

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Parasitic

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2002
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The difference is minor, more like just for the B.S. degree holders to "feel good" about themselves.
At UC Berkeley, ALL majors out of the School of Letters and Science aware a B.A. degree; now this includes math, two to three different programs of biology, the world famous physics department, etc; now the business school gives their undergraduate business students a B.S. degree, and the College of Chemistry and College of Engineering give B.S. degrees to chemists and engineers.

Now aside from a few majors that do have a liberal arts counterpart in L&S, like chemistry, computer science, operations research, or some different engineering majors like engineering math, engineering physics, IEOR, etc, this is how it basically boils down: if you wanna be a mathematician or physicist then you ony have a BA degree.

The B.A. in chemistry is a bit more "watered down" and has a larger liberal arts component, intended for people whose career goal is not in research or academics. The B.A. in computer science has not electrical engineering courses associated to it. And there are the "engineering" science degrees that intend to train the students as engineers rather than scientists (i.e., a student in B.S. Engineering Physics ideally would join other engineers in fields like applied physics or aerospace engineering, while a student in B.A. Physics would go to graduate school for a Ph.D. in physics and write a thesis on some topic in quantum electrodynamics, etc).

Edit: I guess the point is to check with your university first to see if a B.S. in mathematics is even offered; if not then pretty much you're in this same situation as what I listed. There's a good chance that a B.S. in mathematics will probably also fall into the engineering departments and has a lot more applied aspects to it, so if you like geometry, algebra and topology all kinds of weird stuff then you might not enjoy it as much.
 

WildHorse

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2003
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Originally posted by: LS20
whether it is a bs or a ba does not mean much in the real world
QFT

Bachelor's degree doesn't mean much.

Just get your degree, get employed someplace that has tuition reimbursement, and work on your Master's.
 

ed0ggyd0gg

Member
Aug 30, 2006
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scott, what do you mean by tuition reimbursement? I actually do have quite a bit in a loans and paying them off will be #1 when I graduate.

I figured that if I made around 3000 a month (hopefully math can pull that), I can spend a grand on living and drop the rest on loans. Should be out of debt in 2-3 years, unless this tuition reimbursement somehow makes this easier.
 

LS20

Banned
Jan 22, 2002
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he means employers paying for an employee to get an advanced degree...usually with some catch such as must stay employed for atleast 1 year after receiving degree or else money will be surrendered, etc
 

ed0ggyd0gg

Member
Aug 30, 2006
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There's no, "come work for us and we'll pay your student loans", is there? :)

I know some law firms will do that to help attract those top notch guys straight out of law school, but I think I'm reaching out for a job requiring no more than a Bachelor's.

As for the main topic, does BS imply that you want to go into research/academics, or does it just give you an easier route to getting there? Would BA be classified as a general, do all type of major, regardless of subject?
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
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You don't grab a BS, you earn one. I would get the BS instead of the BA. The BS will make you more proficient in your field. Who knows what the BA will make you, because you didn't say what classes it would require of you in the OP. At my college the differences between a BS and BA were that the BS required more technical classes, and the BA required 4 semesters of a foreign language. Given those choices, I chose the BS. I can learn to hablo espanol better if I ever need to.
 

WildHorse

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2003
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Originally posted by: ed0ggyd0gg
scott, what do you mean by tuition reimbursement? I actually do have quite a bit in a loans and paying them off will be #1 when I graduate.

I figured that if I made around 3000 a month (hopefully math can pull that), I can spend a grand on living and drop the rest on loans. Should be out of debt in 2-3 years, unless this tuition reimbursement somehow makes this easier.

There's no, "come work for us and we'll pay your student loans", is there?

Better companies, or at least big ones, often, wisely, have a strong internal culture promoting continuous education.

They pay your way through school.

Nobody's going to pick up your loans after the fact & extinguish them for you. You have to be on staff first.

When I was privileged to do that, I was in a firm that had a lot of people attending or recently graduated from a nearby top school, and I was fortunate to pass the qualifications and be accepted into the grad school's program. That was a very high day! The company had reimbursement for tuition and parking and all other student fees, oddly excepting books. I had to buy all my own books. Ouch.

That sort of thing is common among companies, at least the big ones.

So I was thinking you could seek some similar set up.
 

randumb

Platinum Member
Mar 27, 2003
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The distinction is arbitrary at some universities. For example, at Harvard, Applied Mathematics is a BS and Mathematics is a BA (what I'll be getting) based on department (DEAS and FAS respectively).
 

Wreckem

Diamond Member
Sep 23, 2006
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Originally posted by: krunchykrome
I don't think a BA isavailable for accounting. Doesn't really make sense to me anyways. I got a BS in accounting.

A BA is wacky IMO.

Theres a BBA in Accounting(more general biz classes), which is a watered down version of a BS in Accounting(more accounting classes).
 

kami333

Diamond Member
Dec 12, 2001
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A lot of times it just depends on what the school offers, I have a BA in biology since my college didn't offer any BS. My ex had a BS from a different college but our courseload was basically identical.

A BA/BS is not going to make all that much difference in science/techincal fields and you'll probably end up getting a masters at some point.

When I was looking for jobs, I applied to those that required BS and got interviews.