• Question: What is the difference between a PhD, doctorate, bachelor's degree?? Hoping to achieve a PhD one day....

    Asked by samanthadevine to Sara, Kimberley, Julia, Drew, Amy on 20 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by jordant.
    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Yay Samantha!! Great ambition! A doctorate and a PhD are the same degree level. PhD actually stands for doctor of philosophy. Where `philosophy’ here is meant to be interpreted by its original Greek meaning, which is “love of wisdom”. So, I can go by Dr. Sara or by Sara Ph.D 😉 A PhD is a postgraduate degree you earn from university and is typically awarded to signify that you have accomplished a significant piece of independent scholarly work. Your scholarly work is usually written up as a much dreaded dissertation (aka thesis). They are a lot of work, but totally worth it! It is huge sense of accomplish to add knew knowledge to the human endeavor =)

      A bachelors is the degree you get in undergraduate education. It is required to gain admittance to a Ph.D program. So, you’ll have to first get your bachelors to go on to study for a PhD. Typically you cover coursework in a bachelors and go on to do original work/research for your PhD.

      Happy studying and best of luck to you!! That is really awesome!

    • Photo: Drew Rae

      Drew Rae answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Hi Samantha. There are other things that are called Doctorates that aren’t PhDs. For example, there is an EngD (Engineering Doctorate) which is after bachelors, but a mix of research and classroom learning. There are also “Professional doctorates” which are like taught Masters (after Bachelors but same style of learning) but with cooler names so that they can sell them easier. There are also Doctorates that are Higher than PhDs. “Doctor of Engineering” and “Doctor of Letters” are both in this category.

      A PhD is a lot of work, but it is usually the first important step in a research career. In many fields it actually decreases your earning potential though :-).

    • Photo: Julia Griffen

      Julia Griffen answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Just different levels of qualification…

      An undergraduate 1st degree 3-4 years usually is a bachelor’s or masters qualification
      You can then do various types of master degrees (postgraduate courses) to obtain Master qualifications typically 1 yr.
      You can then do a PhD… which is 3-4 years… Its a long way!

    • Photo: Kimberley Bryon

      Kimberley Bryon answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      I think that the others have explained the differences well!

    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Ok so this has been covered! Good ambition Samantha – if you have any more questions please let me know!! 🙂

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