Graduate School vs Undergraduate School
Graduate School and Undergraduate School are higher educational institutions. In the US, students who are studying to get a bachelor’s degree are called undergraduates. Four years of study in undergraduate schools leads to a degree either in arts (BA), science (B.S), fine arts (B.F.A) and so on. Graduate schools are those colleges that offer advanced courses that are to be done after completing undergraduate courses and these degrees are advanced degrees called master’s degrees. Only those who have done their undergraduate course are eligible to enroll in these advanced courses. Though there are many graduate schools, Universities in general award these degrees and such schools are affiliated with one of these Universities.
Thus as a rule, all colleges and Universities provide undergraduate degrees to students who are pursuing graduation and graduate degrees to those who want to go for higher studies. In layman’s terms, a graduate school can be thought of as a school that provides specialized education to those who wish to become professionals such as doctors, lawyers or MBA’s, while an undergraduate school offers no specialization and the degree that a student gets is of bachelor’s level only.
If you wish to get master’s degree in any field of study, you have to enroll in a graduate school, while you can study at an undergraduate school if you are interested in associate or bachelor’s degree. Four years of study is all that one requires getting an undergraduate degree, while you have to undergo another 2-3 years of study at a graduate school to be eligible for a master’s degree.
Undergraduate course is like a foundation upon which one has to build by perusing a master’s degree to become a professional in his chosen field of study. An undergraduate course provides knowledge in many fields and not just one area. Thus a student pursuing BA gets knowledge in many general subjects such as English, History, Humanities and social sciences. However, the same student, after completion of his undergraduate course enrolls for a graduate course in arts has to choose one particular subject to focus only in that subject.
There are undergraduate courses in nearly all graduate schools though there are some undergraduate schools that do not provide any course after completion of undergraduate course.
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