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Re: MA vs MS



Just a note to clarify a side issue here. Matt Harding commented that a BS
means one has more vigorous science courses than those who earn a BA. With
the four-year liberal arts college that I am acquainted, that is not the
case. Requirements for the BS and the BA in the major are exactly the same.
The requirements at the college-wide level stipulate that a BA means a
person has had the equivalent of two years of a foreign language. The
college-wide requirement for the BS is simply two extra science and/or math
courses above the general education requirement. This is obviously met
simply by a student completing a physics major. So I recommend to my
students (and did so yesterday) that if they can, they should select the BA
since it can show future employers that they have a bit of a foreign
language background.

In the end, any employer will probably look at the transcript to see the
actual courses taken by a prospective employee, so it probably does not
really matter whether it is a BS or a BA.

Richard Bowman
Dept. of Physics
Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, VA, USA