difference between a B.A. in science and a B.S. in science?

[cathmom]

I was looking at a college that seems like a good fit for one of my dc. All it offers is B.A. degrees, and she will most likely major in a science area. Does it matter if she had a B.A. in Biology vs. a B.S.?

[Photo Ninja]

I don't know. My dd's major is a BA at some universities and a BS at others, but it is not a science major like Biology. The only difference we could determine is that the BS degree requires more science courses than the BA.

 

Will your dd be getting a Masters degree? If so, you could look at universities offering that degree and see what they require for entrance in their masters program. See if they prefer a BS or a BA.

[Gwen in VA]

It depends on the college. Some offer a B.S. degree, some offer a B.A. degree, and some offer both, with the B.S. option requiring more science classes. (My dd attends a college where both are available for science majors, and the B.S. requires more and harder classes, but many schools only offer one degree.)

 

A B.A. in a scientific field is not necessarily less rigorous -- it depends on the college. Some very strong colleges only offer a B.A.

 

1) Look at the individual program. What courses are required for the major? Compare it to other schools.

 

2) Are advanced upper-level classes available? (Things like advanced inorganic chemistry, advanced biochemistry, advanced physical chemistry...to name the chemistry classes I'm hearing a lot about at the moment.) If the advanced senior-level classes are not available or are only taught sporadically, the program may not be really strong.

 

3) Ask the biology (or chemistry) department about grad school and med school acceptance rates. And if few enough students go to grad school or med school that the acceptance rate would be meaningless, ask about what grad schools and med schools students have been accepted at recently. Rankings of grad schools are available online, and if no students have recently gotten accepted to any of the "name" schools in the field, you might want to look elsewhere. ("Name schools" for graduate work in specific fields are very different from the prestige undergraduate institutions, so do the research.)

 

4) Ask about research opportunities. Even at small LAC's, research opportunities for interested students should be available. If interested students cannot participate in research opportunities, you may want to look elsewhere.

Edited December 7, 2010 by Gwen in VA

[cathmom]

Thanks, Gwen. Now I know what to look for!

[Laura in CA]

A B.A. in a scientific field is not necessarily less rigorous -- it depends on the college. Some very strong colleges only offer a B.A.

 

:iagree: Good points (in your whole post), Gwen.

 

My husband still finds it amusing that his astrophysics master's degree from Princeton (in Latin, to boot!) is an M.A., not an M.S., but apparently Princeton offers only M.A.s -- so as Gwen says, it isn't as if he chose the "easier" option.

 

~Laura

 

ETA: I found this info at Princeton's site, and it not only confirms that Princeton gives only B.A.s (which they call A.B.s) except for engineering B.S. degrees, but also has interesting information about classical language requirements :-)

 

 

 

About Princeton: A brief history of Princeton degrees

 

• In addition to the bachelor of arts degree, several other bachelor degrees have been offered at the University over the years, according to "A Princeton Companion": bachelor of laws from 1847 to 1852; bachelor of science from 1873 to 1930; bachelor of letters from 1904 to 1918; and bachelor of science in engineering since 1921.

 

• The law degree was awarded to seven people who completed a law course started during the college's centennial.

 

• The offering of a bachelor of science degree coincided with the expansion of the college's science curriculum. Candidates for this degree were required at entrance to be proficient in Latin, but not Greek; both languages were required for the bachelor of arts. Some students pursued the bachelor of science degree to escape Greek rather than to pursue science.

 

• The bachelor of letters degree was intended to distinguish students who wanted to take a humanistic program without Greek from those who were pursuing science. The Litt. B. was eliminated when Greek was dropped as an entrance requirement for the A.B.

 

• In 2002, 886 students earned bachelor of arts degrees and 202 earned bachelor of science in engineering degrees.

Edited December 7, 2010 by Laura in CA
more info

[MominIN]

I have a B.A. in biology and the only difference at my school was that I took two years of a foreign language. The B.S. had no foreign language requirement.

[Bev in B'ville]

I received both my B.S. and my M.A. in psychology from the same school. The B.A. degree had a language requirement, but I was more interested in the sciences so I stayed with the B.S. I didn't have a choice for my master's degree, but a language requirement wasn't part of it at that point (and not for my doctorate either).

 

HTH.

 

Bev

[TravelingChris]

My husband is a PhD physicist who has a BA in Physics since that is what our college gave to all students, include science students. It hasn't hurt him at all. When he was starting his master's degree, it turned out that he had done more physics work in his college than the others did in theirs (including those with BS degrees) and so he was able to skip some of the lower level master's classes and get in more advanced work. When he went on to a PhD level, he was able to do more independent study since he had already done much of the other work while earning his masters.

[Nan in Mass]

At my college, the BA of science degrees had all the same requirements as the BS of science degrees but had other libral arts requirements on top of that.

[QueenCat]

At ds's school, almost all majors are offered as a BS, and most as a BA. He is an English major going for a BS. The ONLY difference is the foreign language requirements.

[AnitaMcC]

I was looking at a college that seems like a good fit for one of my dc. All it offers is B.A. degrees, and she will most likely major in a science area. Does it matter if she had a B.A. in Biology vs. a B.S.?

 

 

I have a B.S. in Psychology.

 

B.S. in Psychology required (choice of three groups, I picked group 3):

Elementary statistics, Business Calculus or Calc I, and two additional semesters of a sequenced lab science (I took Chem I and II, Physics I and II already so I was covered).

 

B.A. in Psychology required:

Basic statistics or higher and 2 yrs of college foreign language sequence or 4 yrs high school foreign language sequence.

Edited December 15, 2010 by AnitaMcC

[Gwen in VA]

Maybe my dd's college is unusual. At her school, the difference between a B.S. and a B.A. has nothing to do with foreign languages -- the distribution requirements do not depend on your major.

 

The B.S. requires two additional 300-level chemistry classes (like advanced phyusical chemistry or advanced inorganic or advanced organic). The B.S. also has some kind of additional lab requirement. All in all, the B.S. at her school is a more rigorous program.

 

But it all depends on the school.....

[asta]

At ds's school, almost all majors are offered as a BS, and most as a BA. He is an English major going for a BS. The ONLY difference is the foreign language requirements.

 

That is how it was at my uni: the BA degrees required a language, and the BS degrees did not.

 

 

a

[Janice H]

I have looked at required courses for a BA vs BS in biology at two schools--Hillsdale and Missouri S & T. The BS requires more math, chem and physics. The BAs in this sample size of two are geared toward future high school teachers. I think both schools had a BA language requirement, as others have mentioned. (Yes I know these are different types of schools; e.g, Hillsdale has to make room for the core curriculum.)

 

By the way M S & T requires 4 semesters of organic chemistry, a full calculus sequence, and more. I haven't seen anything as intense elsewhere.

[Lizzie in Ma]

I have a B.A. in biology and the only difference at my school was that I took two years of a foreign language. The B.S. had no foreign language requirement.

 

Weird, mine did. Guess every school has it's own requirements. :tongue_smilie: