OKAY, finals/end of semester came fast and furious. Sorry about the long hiatus from blogging, but the College Blog wouldn't be a real excuse for not finishing my English paper for example :]
Anyway, really quick, I just want to introduce you to the Bachelor degree, because you are going to hear these different names a lot. Since I am planning on majoring in history, here is the history of just why it is called a "Bachelor" degree:
The Bachelor degree is also known as a Baccalaureate degree. The word Baccalaureate comes from baccalaria, which is Latin for "division of land". It literally meant that you were a laborer who works the land. As the society became more complex however, specialized jobs with specialized skills came into being, so the word began to reflect this change.
In the Medieval world, universities began popping up (though there were some in Ancient India), so the word began to mean a young squire or knight who had completed his studies of the trivium (rhetoric, grammar, and logic) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music). By the 1200s, the degree was referred to as a bacheler (which is the French spelling). In the 1600s, the word Baccalaureate emerged to mean "Student with first degree". In the 1700s, bacheler became bachelor. And here we are today, student with first degree, or undegrad.
The two most common kinds of Bachelor degrees are Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science.
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.): this is given most often to those majoring in things like history, English, political science, etc. after successfully completing four years in a mostly liberal arts* education. However, some schools offer B.A.s in such things as business administration and even sciences if the courseload has had a very liberal arts emphasis on it.
Bachelor of Science (B.S.): this unfortunately named degree is given most often to those majoring in things like computer science, mathematics, engineering, etc.
These two degrees are given in three to fve years, based on your personal courseload and major.
If you have any further questions/comments toward the degree process, let me know!
As a good Uni student, here is a list of my sources. As a bad Uni student, I did use Wikipedia (FORGIVE ME MR. RAYBURN!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_degree#Canada_and_United_States
http://www.answers.com/topic/bachelor-s-degree
http://www.elearnportal.com/student-center/why-is-it-called-a-bachelors-degree
-Celinda :]
*Liberal arts will be addressed in a later blog
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