Why Graduate School?
If you're considering graduate school, here are available credentials.
Are you considering a graduate degree?
- Do you desire greater freedom and flexibility in making choices about the shape and direction of your career?
- Are you interested in assuming more responsibility and independence in your workplace?
- Do you enjoy challenging yourself through exploring new ideas or tackling complex conceptual and research problems?
- Have you wished you could fully develop your specific interests and skills?
If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then graduate education can lead to a fulfilling, interesting and exciting life.
Graduate Certificate Programs
- Often designed to meet specific employment or career needs.
- Generally require two to three semesters to complete.
- Can be taken after completing a bachelor's degree, concurrently with a graduate program or even after completing a graduate degree.
Master's Degree Programs
- Focus on research, professional practice or both.
- Professional practice provides a specific set of skills needed to practice a particular profession and often involves an internship, fieldwork or a final project; typically takes at least two years and sometimes longer, depending on the program requirements.
Doctoral Degree Programs
- Professional degrees and research degrees.
- Most common professional degrees are the M.D. for medical practice and the J.D. for law. There are also some professionally-oriented doctoral degrees in fields such as physical therapy, audiology and nursing practice, which focus on field experiences in place of research.
- A research doctoral degree typically involves both coursework and a major research project. Usually four to seven years of full-time study is needed to complete a Ph.D. or other research doctorate, depending on the field of study. Many recipients of the Ph.D. pursue careers in research and teaching in a college or university setting, but the doctoral degree opens a wide variety of nonacademic careers.