Do most in the US start their PhD from a Bachelors degree?
I had a masters degree prior to starting my PhD. It is also possible to start a PhD with a Bachelors, however you wouldn't likely be awarded a masters degree if you failed to complete
>1) Master's degrees are frequently unfunded. PhDs in STEM are fully funded basically as a rule.
PhDs in the humanities and social sciences are also often, or usually, fully funded as well; my sense has always been that for pretty much any academic-career-path field in the US, not being funded for a PhD is essentially an indication that the university doesn't actually want you there. Meanwhile, I think many simply don't offer Master's programs at all.
One aspect of this is that in the US, PhD students can make up a significant part of the teaching staff at the university, with class structures that are heavily built around having large lectures by a professor and PhD students who do quite a bit of the more one-on-one instruction. So departments with many general education requirement classes, like History, can actually end up having a significant amount of funding for PhD students.
Some will continue after a master's. Still, they will usually need to change universities (or at least go through the full selection process again), so if you're interested in a Ph.D., you should apply for that rather than a master's.
For that reason, most master's programs in the US are professional degrees, not research ones.
Also, almost no university advertises or promises a terminal master's degree. It is a very subjective process as well.
At many schools in the US there is an honors program that is separate from Latin honors.
Such programs generally require you to complete x honors classes. Honors classes are either regular classes with additional components or they’re just harder.
For example when I took honors biology long ago, we had an additional lab section where grad students lectured us on their research, and we had extra assignments.
So I graduated with “Honors” based on completing the honors program, and also cum laude based on my GPA.
Oh yeah, but that’s still different than an extra year. More like high school advanced placement programs. It’s the same material, but at a more rigorous level.
Their system is closer to combined bachelors and master’s program.
Honours are grading-related (in Scotland at least) as well. After three years study if you pass but not very well you'll be able to graduate with, say, a "BSc". If you have good enough grades you can do a fourth year and shoot for a "BSc (Hons)". The qualification you get after the fourth year depends on your average grades, either:
- honours of the first class (aka a "first")
- honours of the second class (two levels: upper and middle, aka a "2:1" or a "2:2")
- honours of the third class (aka a "third")
- fail, in which case you get an "ordinary" degree
So when this person is reporting that you needed "first class honours" to go directly to a PHd, they're saying you needed to sit that final fourth year and finish with an average grade of (I think) an "A"
Yes exactly that. I managed first class honours and the only benefit is that I'd be able to start a PHD without finishing a masters.
We had a fourth year as our engineering degree was part of an internal agreement such that it would be globally recognized. The states requires four years so we had to match that. However, if I'd studied in the USA I think I'd have had more than two elective papers over the four years.
Do most in the US start their PhD from a Bachelors degree?
I had a masters degree prior to starting my PhD. It is also possible to start a PhD with a Bachelors, however you wouldn't likely be awarded a masters degree if you failed to complete