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Small correction. At one point, you say, "Graduate Students (like me, as of this writing) have earned a B.A. and are working towards either an M.A. or a Ph.D."
by javert 16y ago
Small correction. At one point, you say, "Graduate Students (like me, as of this writing) have earned a B.A. and are working towards either an M.A. or a Ph.D." Of course, many graduate students have not earned a B.A., but rather, a B.S.
- jseliger 16y agoFixed: "have earned a B.A. or equivalent." I the mention B.S. earlier, too: "Congratulations: you’re now probably working toward your B.A. (bachelor of arts) or B.S. (bachelor of science), which will probably take four years." Thanks for the heads up.
- arethuza 16y agoYou do know that some places award MA degrees in four years as first degrees?
- jerf 16y agoDespite temptation, a beginner's introduction to a topic is not the place to list every permutation of the basic concepts that somebody, somewhere uses, but rather to simply explain the basic concepts. Trying to do both at once results in the student knowing less at the end than when they started; not only do they still not understand, now they're afraid of the topic!
- jpwagner 16y agoI'm so glad you pointed this out. I was getting extremely confused by the bias of the author toward Bachelors of Arts degrees over Bachelors of Science degrees. In fact some degrees were not mentioned at all in the article such as S.B. degrees. I was worried about the validity of his arguments and advice because of the lack of rigor in his research of what degrees undergraduates can earn. Again I applaud your efforts to clean up his act.
- jseliger 16y agoI was worried about the validity of his arguments and advice because of the lack of rigor in his research of what degrees undergraduates can earn. See this comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1730253 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1730253 : Despite temptation, a beginner's introduction to a topic is not the place to list every permutation of the basic concepts that somebody, somewhere uses, but rather to simply explain the basic concepts. Trying to do both at once results in the student knowing less at the end than when they started; not only do they still not understand, now they're afraid of the topic! In addition, see what I wrote under the section "Degrees:" Congratulations: you’re now probably working toward your B.A. (bachelor of arts) or B.S. (bachelor of science), which will probably take four years. If you earn that, you’ll have received your undergraduate degree. It's easier to write "B.A." in most circumstances than B.A. or B.S. or S.B. or B.F.A. or the various other ways of getting cross the same basic idea.
- jpwagner 16y agoI guess sarcasm is a big no-no around here (for various reasons.)
- javert 16y agoAFAIK, the two undergraduate degrees are B.A. and B.S. I just tried looking up S.B., and it appears to be just a different name for B.S.